HV 66.1
क्षिप्तं यदुवृषं दृष्ट्वा सर्वे ते यदुपुंगवाः । निपीड्य श्रवणान् हस्तैर् मेनिरे तं गतायुषम् ॥
kṣiptaṃ yadu-vṛṣaṃ dṛṣṭvā sarve te yadu-puṃgavāḥ | nipīḍya śravaṇān hastair menire taṃ gatāyuṣam
Seeing the Yadu bull flung aside, all the Yadu-chiefs — pressing their ears with their hands — thought him to be dying.
The Living Words
*Kṣiptaṃ yadu-vṛṣam*, 'the flung Yadu bull'. *Nipīḍya śravaṇān hastaiḥ*, 'pressing their ears with their hands' — a specific gesture of grief, the traditional response to hearing news one would rather not hear. *Menire taṃ gatāyuṣam*, 'they thought him dying'.
The Heart of It
The chapter's opening gesture is the ear-pressing. The Harivaṃśa's attention to the physical choreography of grief is careful: the Yadus do not weep publicly, they press their ears. The Varkari tradition's attention to the body's own expressions of sorrow — the hands covering the face, the forehead pressed to the ground — is continuous with this verse. Grief has an ethnography; the scripture records it.