Part 17: Kanakamālā and Pradyumna

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Now, when Kanakamālā saw Pradyumna grown up, by whom all the arts had been studied, she became distracted from love. She thought: “There is no one like him among the Khecaras. I think there is no god like him. Why speak of mortals! Union of myself with him whom I reared is like the fruit of a tree that I grew. Otherwise, surely my birth is in vain.” Reflecting in this way, she said to Pradyumna in a gentle voice:

“There is a city, Nalapura, here in the north row. There is a king, Niṣadha, in the Gaurī-line. I am the daughter of this illustrious king, and there is a son, Naiṣadhi. The great magic art, Gaurī, was given to me by my father himself. Saṃvara married me, after giving me the magic art Prajṭapti. Devoted to me, Saṃvara does not wish any other maiden. The world is like straw to him from my power as I possess two magic arts. I, beloved in such a way, choose you. Enjoy me. Do not destroy my life from ignorance.”

Pradyumna said: “Heaven forbid! How can you say that? You are my mother; I am your son. That would be a sin of us both.” She said: “You are not my son; but Saṃvara found you on the road, abandoned by some one, as he came from Agnijvālapura. You were given to me to rear; you are the son of some one else. So enjoy pleasure with me as you like without fear.” Thinking, “I have fallen into a woman’s clutches,” he said, “How shall I save my life from Saṃvara and your sons?” She said: “Fortunate man, do not fear. Take both magic arts, Gaurī and Prajṭapti. Be an invincible king.” Determined in his heart, “I will not do this improper thing,” Kṛṣṇa’s son said, “Give me the magic arts. I shall do as you say.”

Distracted by love, she gave him the magic arts, Prajṭapti and Gaurī. Pradyumna subdued them quickly from the power of matured merit. Asked by her to dally, Kṛṣṇa’s son said: “Before you were only my mother from rearing rne. Now you are my teacher from giving me the magic arts, blameless lady. You must not even mention this wicked act to me.” With these words Pradyumna left her, went outside the city and, distressed in mind, stood on the edge of the tank Kālāmbukā.

Kanakamālā scratched herself with her nails and made an outcry. Her sons came, asking,” What’s this?” “I have been scratched at will by that wretch of a son of your father, grown up, evil-minded, like one giving food scratched by a cat.” Then they all went to the edge of Kālāmbukā in a rage and quickly attacked Pradyumna, saying, “Villain! Villain!” Pradyumna, who had great strength from the two magic arts, slew Saṃvara’s sons easily, like a lion sambars. Angry at the slaying of his sons, Saṃvara went to kill him and was defeated by Pradyumna by tricks produced by the magic arts. Pradyumna, remorseful, told Saṃvara the story of Kanakamālā in detail, beginning at the beginning. Saṃvara, remorseful, made a pūjā to him.

At that time Ṛṣi Nārada came into Pradyumna’s presence. Pradyumna honored him who was introduced by PraJṭapti and told him Kanakamālā’s story from the beginning. Then Nārada related the whole story which Jina Sīmandhara had told about Pradyumna and Rukmiṇī.

“In the past^[2] your mother made a bet with her co-wife, Bhāmā, with giving the hair at the first wedding of a son as a stake. Bhāmā’s son, Bhānuka, is going to marry now. So your mother will have to give her hair, lost by the bet. Rukmiṇī wifi surely die from the shame of giving her hair and grief at separation from you; though you, the son, are alive.” Then Pradyumna and Nārada got into an aerial car made by Prajṭapti and went very quickly to Dvārakā. Nārada said, “This is your father’s city Dvārakā which Dhanada himself created and filled with jewels and money.” Pradyumna said,” You should stay right here in the aerial car until I have performed some miracle in Dvārakā.” Nārada said, “Very well.” Kṛṣṇa’s son saw the wedding-procession of Satyabhāmā’s son which was halted there. He seized the girl who was to be married to him and put her down in Nārada’s presence. Nārada said to her, “Do not be afraid. That is Kṛṣṇa’s son.”

Assuming the guise of a man carrying a monkey, Pradyumna said to the forest-guards, “Give fruit, et cetera to my hungry monkey.” “This garden is reserved for Bhānuka’s wedding. So nothing can be ordered by you,” the guards said. Pradyumna seduced them with much money, entered the garden, and had it stripped of fruit, et cetera by the monkey.

Then he became a merchant with a thoroughbred horse and went to the grass-market; and there he asked the shopkeepers for grass for his horse. When they did not give, Pradyumna seduced them with money in the same way and made every place stripped of grass by his magic art. In the same way, he drank and made dry the places with sweet water. He rode the horse himself on the bridle-path. Bhānuka saw the horse and asked, “Whose is it?” Pradyumna said impatiently, “It is mine.” Bhānuka said urgently, “Give me the horse. I will pay you whatever price you ask, though it is a high one.” Pradyumna said to him:

“Take the horse after you have tried it. Otherwise, there might be a crime against the king on my part, though innocent.” Then Bhānuka mounted the horse to test it and was thrown to the ground by it playing the part of a high-spirited horse. Then, laughed at by the people, he mounted a goat^[3] and went to Vāsudeva’s house, making even the councilors laugh.

Pradyumna then became a Brāhman reciting the Veda with a low pleasing sound and entered Dvārikā and roamed all over it, at junctions of three streets, et cetera. He saw a hunchbacked slave-girl of Bhāmā and by his magic art quickly made her as straight as a reed on the road. She fell at his feet and said, “Where are you going?” and Pradyumna replied, “Where I can get food by a wish.” She said: “Come! I shall give you cakes, et cetera, whatever you like, prepared in Queen Bhāmā’s house for her son’s wedding.”

Pradyumna went with her to Bhāmā’s house. The slave-girl left him at the festooned door and went into Bhāmā’s presence. Bhāmā asked, “Who are you?” and the slave-girl replied, “I am the hunchback.” “Who made you straight?” The slave-girl toid the story of the Brāhman and Bhāmā said, “Where is the Brāhman now?” She said, “I left him now at the festooned door.” Instructed by Bhāmā,” Bring the mahātma here,” the slave-girl quickly brought the fictitious Brāhman there.

After he had bestowed a blessing and had been seated, Satyabhāmā said to him, “Brāhman, make me more beautiful than my co-wife, Rukmiṇī.” The false Brāhman said, “You appear very beautiful. I do not see any where such beauty of other women.” Satyabhāmā said: “Sir, this is a good thing that you say. Nevertheless, make me especially unequaled in beauty.” He said: “In that case, become completely devoid of beauty. A high degree of beauty will result, if there is a complete absence of beauty in the first place.” Asked, “What shall I do?” the Brāhman instructed her: “Shave your head and smear your whole body with lampblack. Dressed in old tattered clothes, go ahead of me that I may bestow a wealth of beauty and grace on you.” She did that, industriously.

The Brāhman said, “I am suffering from hunger. What can I do, if I am miserable?” Bhāmā gave the cooks orders to feed him and the Brāhman gave instructions in Bhāmā’s hearing, “You must mutter the charm, ‘Ruḍu, buḍu, ruḍu, buḍu,’ before family-goddesses, until I finish eating, innocent lady.” She kept on doing this; and the rogue of a Brāhman continued to eat and got all the best food by the power of his magic arts. He was finally told by the cooks, who were afraid of Bhāmā and who held water-vessels, “Get up!” The false Brāhman went away, saying,” I have not been satisfied today. I shall go where I will be satisfied.”

Then, he assumed the form of a young sādhu and went to Rukmiṇī’s house. Rukmiṇī saw him, a moon for the pleasure of her eyes, from a distance. Rukmiṇī went inside the house to get him a seat and he sat down on Kṛṣṇa’s lion-throne set in the cast. Queen Rukmiṇī returned with a scat, saw him seated like that and, wide-eyed with astonishment, said,” The gods do not allow any man to sit on this lion-throne except Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa’s offspring.” The false sādhu said,” Because of the power of my penance the gods do not have sufficient power to do anything.” She asked, “Whence and why have you come?” and he replied;

“For sixteen years I practiced penance without food. I did not drink even mother’s milk from birth. I have come here to break the fast. Give something suitable.” Rukmiṇī said; “Nowhere has a fast of sixteen years been heard of. A fast up to a year, beginning with a one-day fast, has been heard of, muni.” He said: “What is the use of this on your part? If you have anything and if you intend to give, then give it. If not, I shall go to Satyabhāmā’s house.” She said, “I have cooked nothing today from excitement.” He asked,” What is the reason for your excitement?”

She explained; “I have worshipped the family-deities for so long at the separation from my son, with the hope of a reunion. Now as I struck my neck with the intention of giving a head-oblation to the family-deities,^[4] a goddess said: ‘Daughter, do not show impatience. Whenever your mango blooms out of season, then your son will come.’ It has bloomed today, but my son does not come. So, sādhu, look at the horoscope. When will the reunion with my son take place?” He said, “The horoscope does not give results to the empty-handed.”

Rukmiṇī asked, “What shall I give you? Tell me.” He said, “Offer gruel to me emaciated from penance.” She occupied herself with a search for the materials for a gruel. Again the sādhu said to her: “I am extremely hungry. Make a gruel from any substance whatever and give me.” She began to make a gruel with the sweetmeats prepared earlier, but the lire did not burn from the power of his magic art. Seeing her distressed, he said, “If the gruel does not materialize, satisfy me with just the sweetmeats, as I am very hungry.”

She said: “Indeed, these sweetmeats of Kṛṣṇa’s are very indigestible for others, i will not cause the death of a sage by giving them to you, muni.” He asserted, “Nothing is hard for me to digest because of my penance.” She then gave him a single sweetmeat at a time, fearful. Smiling and astonished, she said to him as he ate very quickly the sweetmeats given one at a time, “You are very strong, sage.”

Now, men came and said to Bhāmā who was muttering the charm: “Mistress, some man has made the garden stripped of fruit, ct cetera. Some one has made the grass-shops empty of grass. Some one has made the wells waterless. Some one attacked your son Bhānu with a horse.” Hearing that, Bhāmā asked, “Where, pray, is the Brāhman, friends?” Her slave-girls described his conduct in detail.

Then depressed and angry, she sent slave-girls with baskets to Rukmiṇī to get her hair. They said to Rukmiṇī: “Give us your hair quickly. The mistress, Śrī Bhāmā, a proud lady, thus orders.” Hearing that, the false sādhu filled a basket with their hair and sent them to Bhāmā. Asked by Bhāmā, “What’s this?” they said, “Do you not know, mistress,

‘Like master, like servants.’” Then Bhāmā, excited, sent barbers to Rukmiṇī’s house. The sādhu shaved them and cut the skin on their heads. When she saw that the barbers had returned bald, Bhāmā went to Hari angrily and said: “You were the guarantor of Rukmiṇī’s hair. Let the wager of giving the hair be paid me now, Keśava. You yourself get up, summon Rukmiṇī, and make her bald.” Hari laughed and said, “You yourself are here shaved.” She said, “Enough of joking, et cetera. Have her hair given to me today.”

Rāma was sent by Kṛṣṇa to Rukmiṇī’s house and then Pradyumna created there a Kṛṣṇa-form by means of a magic art. Embarrassed, Rāma returned to the former place and, seeing Kṛṣṇa there too, said: “Why do you ridicule (me)? After sending me for the hair, you have gone there yourself and have come here. Your wife and I have been shamed inconsiderately by you at the same time.” Hari said, “I did not go there,” and took an oath to that effect. Saying, “There is certainly some deceit on your part,” Bhāmā went to her own house. Viṣṇu went to her house and tried to make her believe him.

Nārada said to Rukmiṇī, “This is your son Pradyumna.” Making visible his own form which resembled a god, Pradyumna fell at his mother’s feet, the sun to the darkness of her long pain. Rukmiṇī embraced him with both arms, her breasts oozing, and kissed him on the head many times, her eyes dripping tears of joy. Pradyumna said to her, “I must surely not be announced, until I have shown my father some miracle.” Rukmiṇī, distracted from joy, did not reply and he put her in a fictitious chariot and set out. Blowing his conch, terrifying the people, Pradyumna said: “I am abducting Rukmiṇī. Let Kṛṣṇa, if he is strong, protect her.” Janārdana, saying, “Who is this idiot who wishes to die?” pursued him with an army and twanged Śārṅga repeatedly. Pradyumna scattered his army and made Hari weaponless, like a tuskless elephant, at once by the power of magic arts. While Viṣṇu was depressed, his right arm twitched and he immediately told Bala.

Just then Nārada came and said: “Let your son accompanied by Rukmiṇī be acknowledged, Kṛṣṇa. Enough of talk about fighting.” Pradyumna bowed to Kṛṣṇa and Rāma touching their feet, and was embraced closely by them who kissed his head repeatedly. Janārdana seated Pradyumna, who was like a twin of youth, resembling a god in appearance, on his lap, astonishing the people, and, accompanied by Rukmiṇī, like Indra, he entered the city Dvārikā which had the appearance of having eye-brows made by the new festoons placed on the gate hurriedly.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The Joseph and Potiphar motif See Pārśva., p. 199.

[2]:

See above, p. 187.

[3]:

Eḍaka is given in Abhi. 4.342 as ‘sheep,’ but he was more likely to ride a goat. Cf. IV, n. 117.

[4]:

I.e., she was about to decapitate herself and make a ‘headoffering,’ literally.