HV 91.1
आलोलतुलसीमालम् आरूढविनतासुतम् । ज्योतिरिन्दीवरश्यामम् आविर् अस्तु ममाग्रतः । प्रत्येत्य द्वारकां विष्णुर् हते रुक्मिणि वीर्यवान् । अकरोद् यन् महाबाहुस् तन् मे वद महामुने ॥
ālola-tulasī-mālam ārūḍha-vinatā-sutam | jyotir-indīvara-śyāmam āvir astu mamāgrataḥ | pratyetya dvārakāṃ viṣṇur hate rukmiṇi vīryavān | akarod yan mahābāhus tan me vada mahāmune
With the swaying tulasī-garland, mounted on Vinatā's son (Garuḍa), dark as the bright blue-lotus — may he appear before me. When Rukmin had been killed, the mighty Viṣṇu returned to Dvārakā; what he did there, tell me, great sage.
The Living Words
*Ālola-tulasī-mālam*, 'with the swaying tulasī-garland'; *ārūḍha-vinatā-sutam*, 'mounted on Garuḍa'; *jyotir-indīvara-śyāmam*, 'dark as the bright blue-lotus'. *Āvir astu mamāgrataḥ*, 'let him appear before me.' The opening is a devotional invocation, not a narrative.
The Heart of It
The Harivaṃśa often begins a chapter with a stotra, and 91 begins with one of its loveliest. The image of the tulasī-garland swaying on the blue-dark chest of the mounted god is the kind of image the Varkari tradition later made its own. Jñāneśvar's Pāṇḍuraṅga stands on a brick; HV 91.1's Viṣṇu is mounted on Garuḍa; both are framed by the same tulasī-mālā. The chapter's opening does not describe what happened; it asks the god to appear first. The story follows the invocation.