Chapter 55 - The Story of Pradyumna’s Birth

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

[Note: As SR and Bhāgavata Candrikā point out this chapter contains a chronological anamoly as it describes slaying of the demon Śambara by Pradyumna and his return to Dvārakā along with his wife Māyāvatī—incidents which took place long after Kṛṣṇa’s marriages with Jāmbavatī. Satyabhāmā and others which are described in the subsequent chapters.]

[Note: The following are the additional introductory verses in Padaratnāvalī’s Text: Padaratnāvalī’s Text—Chapter-68]

Śrī Śuka said:

0.1-2. Having propitiated Śiva, the God of gods, the bestower of blessings on the world and having pleased the god residing on mount Kailāsa, with his penance, Lord Hari got a son from Rukmiṇṭ called Pradyumna. The hero was endowed with excellent beauty, generosity and other virtues. He was the god of Love (Kāma) re-incarnated after being burnt (by god Śiva).

The King Parīkṣit said:

0.3. Be pleased to narrate to me what sort of son and of what name, Hari got after visualising god Śiva with the object of getting a son, and after securing the requisite boon.

Śrī Śuka narrated:

1. As to Kāma^[1], the god of Love, who was a portion of (the future) Lord Vāsudeva, was formerly burnt down through the wrath of god Śiva. Hence he (Kāma) resorted to him again for the restoration of his corporeal form.

2. That very god of Love was born of Rukmiṇī, the princess of Vidarbha, and (lit. from the semen of) Kṛṣṇa. He became celebrated as Pradyumna and was in no way inferior to his father (Kṛṣṇa) in any respects.

3. Knowing that the babe was his future enemy (slayer), the demon Śambara, the inveterate enemy of Kāma, who could assume any form at will, clandestinely kidnapped it even when it had not completed ten days (on the sixth-day)^[2] and throwing it into the sea, he went home.

4. A huge powerful fish swallowed that babe. But along with others, that fish was caught into a big net by fishermen.

5. The fishermen brought it as a present to Śambara. The cooks carried it to the kitchen and cut that wonderful fish with a knife.

6. Finding a babe in its abdomen, they offered it into the charge of Māyāvatī^[3]. As her mind was full of misgivings (about the child), the divine sage Nārada narrated to her all the details how it was born and how it was found in the bowels of that fish.

7. It is reported that she was Rati, the glorious wife of the god Kāma, waiting for the reincarnation of her consort whose body had been reduced to ashes.

8. She was entrusted with the charge of supervision (of the cooking of pulses and rice) in Śambara’s kitchen. Having come to know that the child was her spouse Kāmadeva himself, she developed affection to that child^[4].

9. Not long afterwards^[5] Pradyumna, the son of Kṛṣṇa, attained youth and caused confusion in the heart of women who had a look of him.

10. Considering him as her husband, Rati was ogling at him with bashful smiles and raised eyebrows aud approached with amorous purpose Pradyumna who with eyes longish like lotus-petals and knee-long arms was the most beautiful man in the world.

11. The respectable son of Kṛṣṇa (strongly) protested: “Oh mother! You seem to have a perverted mind. Abandoning the motherly relation, you behave like a lustful woman.”

Rati replied:

12. “Your honour is the son of Lord Kṛṣṇa taken away by the demon Śambara from (the lying-in-chamber in) your house. I am Rati, your (lawfully) married wife and you are (none else but) Kāma, the god of Love, my Lord.

13. This demon Śambara cast you into the sea when you were not even ten days old. A fish swallowed you up. It is from the bowels of the fish that your honour came out here, my lord.

14. This enemy of yours is irresistible and invincible as he is expert in hundred types of black magic (māyā). You, however, slay him by means of māyā powers like mohana (stupefaction) and others.

15. Being deprived of her child, your mother is wailing like a female osprey at the loss of her young one. Being overwhelmed with motherly affection for a child, she is anxious and miserable like a cow bereaved of her calf.”

16. Exhorting him thus, Rati, the past-master in deluding magical processes (māyāvatī), imparted to the noble- souled Pradyumna the knowledge of ‘Supreme Illusion’ (Mahāmāya), capable of destroying all sorts of spells and magical processes and illusions.

17. Approaching Śambara, he challenged him for a fight, provoking a quarrel by insulting him with unbearable taunts.

18. Reproached with sharp words of abuse, Śambara, like a serpent trodden under foot, rushed out with a mace in hand and eyes reddened with indignation.

19. Vehemently whirling his mace, he hurled it at the noble-souled Pradyumna and gave out a roar, terrible like the stroke of a thunderbolt.

20. The glorious lord Pradyumna struck back the oncoming mace with his own and flying in rage, he dashed his own mace at the enemy, Oh king.

21. Resorting to the illusory method of warfare of Daityas as taught by Maya, the Asura, taking up a position in the sky, discharged on Pradyumna, the son of Kṛṣṇa, a shower of missiles.

22. Being troubled with the down-pour of missiles Pradyumna, the powerful hero, the son of Rukmiṇī, employed his Great Lore consisting of pure sattva which was capable of counteracting and annihilating all Māyās (illusive processes, spells, etc.)

23. Thereupon, the daitya (Śambara) used hundreds of magical spells (māyās) used by Guhyakas, Gandharvas, Piśācas (goblins), Nāgas and Rākṣasas but the son of Kṛṣṇa simply blew them out (i.e. easily destroyed them).

24. Raising his sharp-edged sword, he forcibly severed from Śambara’s trunk his head with its copper-coloured beard (and moustaches) and adorned with a crown and earrings.

25. Showered over with heaps of flowers by the celestials who were eulogising him, Pradyumna was taken to his (home-) city (Dvārakā) through the sky by his spouse who was capable of coursing through the sky.

26. Like unto a cloud accompanied with lightening, he, with his consort, alighted from the sky into (Kṛṣṇa’s) excellent harem crowded with hundreds of beautiful women, Oh king.

27-28. Beholding him, of a complexion dark-blue like a cloud, wearing a yellow silken garment, of extra-orḍinarily long arms, reddish eyes, with an enchanting smile and charming countenance, with his lotus-face extremely graced with darkblue curly locks of hair, the ladies thought him to be Kṛṣṇa himself and out of bashfulness concealed themselves immediately wherever they could.

29. Coming to a conclusion from the distinguishing characteristics between the two (such as absence of Śrīvatsa that he was not Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the ladies approached him with great delight and wonderment as he was accompanied by a jewellike beautiful damsel.

30. Then among them Rukmiṇṭ, the sweet-tongued princess of Vidarbha, of bluish (corners of) eyes, recollected her lost son and milk of maternal affection oozed out of her breasts.

31. “Who can this be a jewel among men? Whose son is this lotus-eyed one? What mother has borne him in her womb? Who is this damsel obtained by him?

32. If my son who being stolen away from the maternity chamber and thus lost, be alive somewhere, he would be his compeer in age, similarity of features, etc.

33. How could this boy inherit so much resemblance to the Lord wielding the Śārṅga bow in form (features), limbs, gait, tone of voice, smiles and way of looking.

34. Or, he must really be the same child whom I bore in my womb. I have begun to feel more affection for him and my left arm is throbbing.”^[6]

35. While Rukmiṇī, the princess of Vidarbha, was thus reflecting (to ascertain whether Praḍyumna could be her son), Kṛṣṇa, of glorious renown, came there along with Devakī and Vasudeva.

36. Though Kṛsṇa knew the actual state of affairs, the Lord kept mum. It was Nārada who told all the story from his (Pradyumna’s) kidnapping by Śambara.

37. Listening to that extremely miraculous account (of Pradyumna’s life till then), the ladies of Kṛṣṇa’s harem joyfully congratulated him upon his return after many years, like one returning to life from the realm of death.

38. Devakī and Vasudeva, Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma, Rukmiṇī and other women of the harem embraced the young couple and were transported with joy.

39. Hearing that Pradyumna who was missing so long has arrived, the citizens of Dvārakā exclaimed; How wonderful! How happy it is that the boy who (being missing) was as good as dead, has returned to life.”

40. It is not wonderful that owing to his close resemblance to his father Kṛṣṇa, many times Pradyumna’s (step-) mothers mistook him for Kṛṣṇa and resorted to seclusion (the passion of love was awakened in them). The very thought of the god of Love provokes passion. What of other women when Pradyumna, the god of love, who was the reflection of exact semblance of the Lord, the abode of goddess Lakṣmī, presented himself within the range of their sight?

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

This refers to the incident when at the behest of god Indra, Kāma, disturbed god Śiva’s spiritual concentration, with a view to tempt him to marry Umā and get rid of the menace of the ḍemon Tāraka by procreating a son (the future Skanda). But contrary to expectations, Śiva flared up with anger at this disturbance and opened his Third eye—the fire out of which reduced Kāma to ashes (Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa Bāla 23.10-13). VT. and Bhāgavata Candrikā argue that Pradyumna, the Third emanation (Vyūha) of the Pāñcarātra school is indestructible. VT. finds a via media by assuming two sets of deities—the ordinary—Prākṛta set to which category Kāma, the servant of Indra who tried to disturb Siva and got consumed by fire, belonged. The other set, viz. the four manifestations (Vyūhas) of Nārāyaṇa of which Pradyumna forms the third, is not implied here. The word—tu in the text Kāmas tu signiñed this distinction between the two categories, and emphasizes that it was the Prākṛta kāma, the jīva of whom sought birth from Kṛṣṇa.

[2]:

ṣaṣṭhe'hni jātamātraṃ tu pradyumnaṃ sūtikāgṛhāt /
mamaiṣa hanteti mune hṛtavān kāla-śambaraḥ //
  —Viṣṇu Purāṇa 5.27.3.

[3]:

As explained below (VT) and in Viṣṇu Purāṇa 5.27.27ff, she was Rati, the wife of Kāma who was reduced to ashes by Śiva. Under the pseudonym Māyāvatī, she worked as the kitchen-in-charge of Śambara waiting for her re-union with her husband in his next birth.

[4]:

v.l.—noted in VT: ‘Due to her Māyā power, even Śambara could not know the child’.

[5]:

According to HV, Pradyumna’s growth was wonderfully accelerated with specific medicines, etc.

[6]:

This is regarded as an auspicious omen in regard to women, foreboding good tidings.