{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp143.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp143.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp143.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\nKrish\u0144a carries off Rukmin\u00ed: the princes who come to rescue her repulsed by Balar\u00e1ma. Rukmin overthrown, but spared by Krish\u0144a, founds Bhojakat\u0301a. Pradyumna born of Rukmin\u00ed.\nBH\u00cdSHMAKA was king of Vidarbha, residing at Kundina 1. He had a son named Rukmin, and a beautiful daughter termed Rukmin\u00ed. Krish\u0144a fell in love with the latter, and solicited her in marriage; but her brother who hated Krish\u0144a, would not assent to the espousals. At the suggestion of Jar\u00e1sandha, and with the concurrence of his son, the powerful sovereign Bh\u00edshmaka affianced Rukmin\u00ed to \u015ai\u015bup\u00e1la. In order to celebrate the nuptials, Jar\u00e1sandha and other princes, the friends of \u015ai\u015bup\u00e1la, assembled in the capital of Vidarbha; and Krish\u0144a, attended by Balabhadra and many other Y\u00e1davas, also went to Kundina to witness the wedding. When there, Hari contrived, on the eve of the nuptials, to carry off the princess 2, leaving R\u00e1ma and his kinsmen to sustain the weight of his enemies. Pau\u0144d\u0301raka, the illustrious Dantavakra, Viduratha, \u015ai\u015bup\u00e1la, Jar\u00e1sandha, \u015aalya, and other kings, indignant at the insult, exerted themselves to kill Krish\u0144a, but were repelled by Balar\u00e1ma and the Y\u00e1davas. Rukmin, vowing that he would never enter Kundina again until he had slain Ke\u015bava in fight, pursued and overtook him. In the combat that ensued, Krish\u0144a destroyed with his discus, as if in sport, the host of Rukmin, with all its horse, and elephants, and foot, and chariots, and overthrew him, and hurled him on the ground, and would have put him to death, but was withheld by the entreaties of Rukmin\u00ed. \"He is my only brother,\" she exclaimed, \"and must not be slain by\nthee: restrain your wrath, O divine lord, and give me my brother in charity.\" Thus addressed by her, Krish\u0144a, whom no acts affect, spared Rukm\u00edn 3; and he (in pursuance of his vow) founded the city Bhojakat\u0301a 4, and ever afterwards dwelt therein. After the defeat of Rukmin, Krish\u0144a married Rukmin\u00ed in due form, having first made her his own by the R\u00e1kshasa ritual 5. She bore him the gallant Pradyumna, a portion of the deity of love. The demon Sambara carried him off, but he slew the demon.\n573:1 Vidarbha is the country of Berar, and the name remains in the present city of Beder: the capital however, Kundinapur, is commonly identified with a place called Kundapur, about forty miles north-east of Amar\u00e1vat\u00ed (in Berar).\n573:2 When she had gone forth from the city to worship Ambik\u00e1: Bh\u00e1gavata. Indr\u00e1\u0144\u00ed, the wife of Indra: Hari Van\u015ba. Our text tells the circumstance more concisely than the others.\n574:3 After depriving him of his eyebrows and hair. In the Bh\u00e1gavata, Balar\u00e1ma also interferes in favour of Rukmin, and reproves Krish\u0144a for disfiguring him.\n574:4 Of course this was somewhere in the neighbourhood of Kundina or Vidarbha, and is usually supposed to be situated on the Narmad\u00e1.\n574:5 That is, by violence: thus Manu; \"The seizure of a maiden by force, whilst she weeps and calls for assistance, after her kinsmen and friends have been slain in battle, or wounded, and their houses broken open, is the marriage called R\u00e1kshasa.\" III. 33. According to the Bh\u00e1gavata, Rukmin\u00ed sends to invite Krish\u0144a to carry her off, and instructs him how to proceed.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Book V: Chapter XXVI","type":"page"}