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Harivamsa
61. Superhuman deeds of Krishna. He upsets a carriage and kills Putanā
VAISHAMPAYAYNA said:—Without showing himself properly the Lord spent a considerable time as a milk-man in the village of Nanda (1).
Of those two boys the eldest was named Sangkarshana and the youngest Krishna. They grew up there most happily (2).
Incarnating himself as Krishna the Lord Hari, assuming the dark-blue hue of the cloud, grew up there in the midst of milk-men like a cloud in the ocean (3).
One day while Krishna fell asleep under a carriage, Yashodā, fond of her sons, went to the river Yamunā leaving him there (4).
Thereupon to sport there like a child Krishna began to cry and throw up his arms. Then raising up his legs he overturned the carriage with one of them. And then crawling on his legs he began to cry for milk (5–6).
In the meantime, Yashodā, having finished her bath and her person wetted with the milk of her breast like a milch cow, when its calf is tied, came there with her mind stricken with fear (7).
She saw there the carriage over turned without any wind. And then crying aloud she speedily took up her child (8).
She could not truly make out how the carriage was overturned; and then filled with fear she said to her boy (9) “O my child, your father is highly wrathful. I do not know what he will say when he will come to know of your sleeping under the carriage and of its being overturned (10).
What is the use of my bathing? What business had I to go the river. On account of this foolish act of mine I saw you under the overturned carriage (11).”
Clad in a silken raiment Nanda had gone to the forest to tend his kine. When he returned to his own house in Vraja he saw the carriage upset. Its two wheels were raised up. The axles, the pitcher and the rod were all broken (12-13).
Seeing this he was greatly terrified and coming quickly with eyes full of tears he reapeatedly asked “Is my son all right”? (14).
When he saw his son sucking the breast of Yashodā he was relieved of his anxiety and asked how the carriage was upset without the fighting of the bulls (15).
Terrified and with a suppressed voice Yashodā replied: “O gentle one, I do not know who has upset this carriage. I had been to the river to wash my cloth. When I came back I saw it overturned” (16–17).
While they were thus talking, the boys, who were present there, said: “When we came here of our own accord we saw this boy upsetting the carriage with his feet”.
Hearing this the milkman Nanda was filled with great surprise (18–19).
Pleased and terrified he began to think how could this be. The other milkmen, having the ordinary intelligence of men, placed no confidence in the words of the boys (20).
Filled with wonder and having their eyes expanded accordingly they replaced the carriage and tied its wheels (21).
VAISHAMPAYNA said:—Once on a time in the mid-night, Kansa's nurse, the dreadful Putanā, creating the fear of life, went in the shape of a bird, capable of assuming forms at will, to village of milkmen, shaking her wings (22–23).
Entering, in the mid-night, into Vraja, roaring like a tiger, Putanā assumed the form of a woman. And having her breast pressed by milk she lay down under the wheel of the carriage. When all the inhabitants of Vraja fell asleep she began to give milk to Krishna (24–25).
Thereupon drinking up all her vital breaths together with her milk Krishna set up a terrible sound. She too, having her breast sundered, fell down earth (26).
At that sound, Nanda, other milk-men and Yashodā awoke. And they were all beside themselves with fear (27).
They saw there Putanā lying down on the ground, bereft of her consciousness and breast, as if she had been crushed down by a thunder-bolt (23).
Exclaiming “What is this ? Who has done it” all the milkmen headed by Nanda stood around her (29). They however could not, by any means, find out the cause. Exclaiming repeatedly “Wonder! Wonder!” they went to their own houses (30).
After the milkmen had gone away to their respective homes filled with wonder, Nanda respectfully said to Yashodā :—“O timed lady, I have been struck with great wonder and have not been able to trace out its cause. Whatever it may be, I am really afraid. Is there any danger for
my son” (31–42) ?
Yashodā, too, stricken with fear, replied:—“O reverend Sir, I was asleep with my son and was roused up by this terrible sound. So I do not know what took place before” (33).
Hearing the reply of Yashodā, Nanda, together with his friends, was filled with surprise and anticipated fear from Kansa (34).
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