Some time after this gathering Subhadrá came to Girnár to worship and Arjuna carried her off. Eventually Vasudeva and Baladeva consented and the runaways were married with due ceremony. The large fair still held in Mágh (February-March) in the west Girnár valley near the modern temple of Bhavanáth is perhaps a relic of this great Yádava fair.
The Yádava occupation of Dwáriká was not free from trouble. When Kṛishṇa was at Hastinápura on the occasion of the Rájasúya sacrifice performed by Yudhishṭhira, Śálva king of Mṛittikávatí in the country of Śaubha led an army against Dwáriká. He slew many of the Dwáriká garrison, plundered the city and withdrew unmolested. On his return Kṛishṇa learning of Śálva’s invasion led an army against Śálva. The chiefs met near the sea shore and in a pitched battle Śálva was defeated and killed.[5] Family feuds brought Yádava supremacy in Dwáriká to a disastrous end. The final family struggle is said to have happened in the thirty-sixth year after the war of the Mahábhárata, somewhere on the south coast of Káthiáváḍa near Prabhás or Somnáth Pátan the great place of Bráhmanical pilgrimage. On the occasion of an eclipse, in obedience to a proclamation issued by Kṛishṇa, the Yádavas and their families went from Dwáriká to Prabhás in state well furnished with dainties, animal food, and strong drink. One day on the sea shore the leading Yádava chiefs heated with wine began to dispute. They passed from words to blows. Kṛishṇa armed with an iron rod[6] struck every one he met, not even sparing his own sons. Many of the chiefs were killed. Baladeva fled to die in the forests and Kṛishṇa was slain by a hunter who mistook him for a deer. When he saw trouble was brewing Kṛishṇa had sent for Arjuna. Arjuna arrived to find Dwáriká desolate. Soon after Arjuna’s arrival Vasudeva died and Arjuna performed the funeral ceremonies of Vasudeva Baladeva and Kṛishṇa whose bodies he succeeded in recovering. When the funeral rites were completed Arjuna started for Indraprastha in Upper India with the few that were left of the Yádava families,
Chapter III.
Legends.
The Yádavas. chiefly women. On the way in his passage through the Panchanada[7] or Panjáb a body of Ábhíras attacked Arjuna with sticks and took several of Kṛishṇa’s wives and the widows of the Andhaka Yádava chiefs. After Arjuna left it the deserted Dwáriká was swallowed by the sea.[8]
[1] The Vishṇu Purána (Anśa iv. Chap. i. Verse 19 to Chap. ii. Verse 2) gives the longest account of the legend. The Bhágavata Purána (Skanda ix. Chap. iii. Verse 16–36) gives almost the same account. The Matsya Purána (Chap. xii. Verse 22–24) dismisses the story in two verses. See also Harivanśa, X. [↑]
[2] Compare Mahábh. II. 13, 594ff. Jarásandha’s sisters Asti and Prápti were married to Kansa. [↑]
[3] Harivanśa, XXXV.–CXII. [↑]
[4] Mahábhárata Ádiparva, chaps. 218–221. [↑]
[5] Mahábhárata Vanaparva, Chap. xiv.–xxii. Skanda x. Mṛittikávatí the capital of Śálva cannot be identified. The name of the country sounds like Śvabhra in Rudradáman’s Girnár inscription, which is apparently part of Charotar or South Ahmadabad. A trace of the old word perhaps remains in the river Sábhramati the modern Sábarmati. The fact that Śálva passed from Mṛittikávatí along the sea shore would seem to show that part of the seaboard south of the Mahi was included in Śálva’s territory. Dr. Bühler (Ind. Ant. VII. 263) described Pandit Bhagvánlál’s reading of Śvabhra as a bold conjecture. A further examination of the original convinced the Pandit that Śvabhra was the right reading. [↑]
[6] The following is the legend of Kṛishṇa’s iron flail. Certain Yádava youths hoping to raise a laugh at the expense of Viśvámitra and other sages who had come to Dwáriká presented to them Sámba Kṛishṇa’s son dressed as a woman big with child. The lads asked the sages to foretell to what the woman would give birth. The sages replied: ‘The woman will give birth to an iron rod which will destroy the Yádava race.’ Obedient to the sage’s prophecy Sámba produced an iron rod. To avoid the ill effects of the prophecy king Ugrasena had the rod ground to powder and cast the powder into the sea. The powder grew into the grass called eraka Typha elephantina. It was this grass which Kṛishṇa plucked in his rage and which in his hands turned into an iron flail. This eraka grass grows freely near the mouth of the Hiraṇya river of Prabhás. [↑]
[7] This suggests that as in early times the Great Ran was hard to cross the way from Káthiáváḍa to Indraprastha or Delhi was by Kachch and Sindh and from Sindh by Multán and the Lower Panjáb. According to the Bhágavata Purána Kṛishṇa took the same route when he first came from Indraprastha to Dwáriká. On the other hand these details may support the view that the head-quarters of the historic Kṛishṇa were in the Panjáb. [↑]