Canto Ten - Chapter 76

Śrī Śuka said: Now hear of another wondrous deed of Kṛṣṇa, O King, who sported in a human form: how the lord of Saubha was killed.

Śālva, a friend of Śiśupāla, had come to Rukmiṇī's wedding. There he and Jarāsandha and the others were defeated in battle by the Yadus.

In the hearing of all the kings, Śālva made this vow: 'I shall rid the earth of the Yādavas. Just behold my prowess!'

Having foolishly made this vow, the king worshiped the mighty Lord Paśupati, eating only a handful of dust once each day.

At the end of a year, Lord Umāpati, who is quickly pleased, appeared before Śālva, who had sought his shelter, and invited him to choose a boon.

Śālva requested a vehicle that could travel wherever he desired, that would terrify the Vṛṣṇis, and that could not be breached by gods, demons, humans, Gandharvas, serpents, or Rākṣasas.

Commanded by Giriśa to grant the boon, Maya, conqueror of enemy cities, constructed an iron city called Saubha and gave it to Śālva.

Having obtained that unassailable, darkness-shrouded vehicle, which could go wherever he wished, Śālva went to Dvāravatī, remembering his enmity with the Vṛṣṇis.

Śālva besieged the city with a vast army, O best of the Bharatas, and devastated all its parks and gardens.

Showers of weapons fell upon its turreted gates, palaces, lofty buildings and galleries, pleasure grounds, and foremost mansions.

Rocks, trees, thunderbolts, snakes, and torrents of hail rained down. A violent whirlwind arose, and dust covered every direction.

Thus fiercely tormented by Saubha, Kṛṣṇa's city found no peace, O King, just as the earth had once been troubled by Tripura.

Seeing his own people under attack, the glorious and heroic Pradyumna mounted his chariot and declared, 'Do not be afraid!'

Sātyaki, Cārudeṣṇa, Sāmba, Akrūra with his younger brothers, Hārdikya, Bhānuvinda, Gada, Śuka, and Sāraṇa joined him.

Other great archers and commanders of chariot divisions also marched out, armored and protected by chariots, elephants, cavalry, and infantry.

A tumultuous, hair-raising battle then began between Śālva's forces and the Yadus, like the ancient battle between the demons and the gods.

With divine weapons, Rukmiṇī's son destroyed in a moment the illusions of Saubha's lord, just as the hot-rayed sun dispels the darkness of night.

With twenty-five gold-shafted, iron-tipped arrows whose joints were finely curved, he pierced the commander of Śālva's army.

He struck Śālva with one hundred arrows, each of his soldiers with one arrow, each commander with ten, and each vehicle with three.

Seeing this astonishing and mighty feat of the great-souled Pradyumna, all the soldiers on both sides honored him.

Saubha would appear in many forms and then in one, would be seen and then disappear. Fashioned by Maya and filled with illusion, it became impossible for its enemies to discern.

At one moment on the ground, at another in the sky, now on a mountain peak and now in the water, Saubha whirled like a blazing firebrand, and its position could not be fixed.

Wherever Śālva appeared with Saubha and his soldiers, the leaders of the Sātvatas released arrows against him from every side.

Afflicted by arrows as searing as fire and the sun and as deadly as venomous serpents, Śālva became bewildered as his city and army were battered by the enemy.

Though severely tormented by volleys of weapons from Śālva's commanders, the Vṛṣṇi heroes did not abandon their respective positions, for they desired victory in both this world and the next.

Śālva's powerful minister Dyumān, whom Pradyumna had wounded earlier, approached him, struck him with his heavy mace, and roared.

When the mace shattered the chest of Pradyumna, subduer of enemies, his charioteer, Dāruka's son and a knower of duty, carried him away from the battlefield.

Regaining consciousness after a moment, Kṛṣṇa's son said to his charioteer, 'Charioteer, this is improper! You have taken me away from the battle.'

No one born in the Yadu dynasty has ever been heard to abandon a battle, except me, now disgraced by a cowardly charioteer.

When I meet my fathers, Rāma and Keśava, what shall I tell them if they ask me to give an honorable account of how I withdrew from battle?

My sisters-in-law will surely laugh and say to me, 'O hero, tell us, tell us! How did your enemies in battle come to proclaim your cowardice?'

The charioteer said: Long-lived lord, I acted as one who knows the law of battle. A charioteer must protect a warrior in distress, just as the warrior must protect his charioteer.

Knowing this, I carried you away from the battle because your enemy had attacked you and you lay unconscious, struck by his mace.