Being thus instructed, the illustrious Akrúra readily undertook to visit Krishńa, and, ascending his stately chariot, he went forth from the city of Mathurá.

Footnotes

537:1 Dánapati: the epithet refers to Akrúra's possession of the Syamantaka gem (see p. 433); although, as here used by Kansa, it is an anachronism, the gem not becoming his until after Krishńa's maturity.

537:2 Dhanurmaha: the same phrase p. 538 occurs in the different authorities. In its ordinary acceptation it would imply any military festival. There is one of great celebrity, which, in the south of India, closes the Dasahará, or festival of Durgá, when military exercises are performed, and a field is ravaged, as typical of the opening of a campaign. Worship is paid to military implements. The proper day for this is the Vijaya daśamí, or tenth of the light half of Áświn, falling about the end of September or beginning of October. Trans. Bombay Soc. III. 73; also Amara Kosha, under the word ### (Lohábhisára). Both our text and that of the Bhágavata, however, intimate the celebration of the feast in question on the fourteenth day of the fortnight (in what month is not specified), and an occasional 'passage of arms,' therefore is all that is intended. The fourteenth day of the light lunation of any month is commonly held appropriate for a holiday, or religious rite. It will be seen in the sequel, that the leading feature of the ceremonial was intended to have been a trial of archery, spoiled by Krishńa's breaking the bow that was to have been used on the occasion.

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Hinduism

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