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MEHENDALE : Nemesis and some Mahābhārata episodes
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Aniruddha, were slain. The Yādavas were so far intoxricated and furious that while killing one another the father did not spare the son, nor the son the father. Like the animals who died in the Khāndava forest, or the heroes who were but. chered in the camp of the Pandavas, the Yādavas too were goaded to this fate by Time (kālaparyāyacoditāḥ 16. 4. 29).
No one from outside Dvārakā had come to carry out the killings. There was therefore no question of any one trying to flee (16.4.41 ).
"Only two Yadavas remained alive - Krsna and Balarāma. Balarāma met with his end when a Näga (cobra ) left his body and entered the occan. Krsna's life came to an end when a hunter, mistaking him to be a deer, struck him on the sole of his foot with an arrow.
The river Yamunā stood witness to the conflagration in the Khāndava, the ocean to the destruction of the Yadavas. Krsna had to helplessly suffer the sight of annihilation. It is highly ironical that Krsna, who was responsible for killing the animals of the Khāndava, was himself mistaken to be a deer and killed. His last wish to end his life while practising penance remained unfulfilled.
The Yadavas had to suffer yet another ignominy, As desired by Krsna, Arjuna left with the remaining Yadavas and the women-folk for Hastināpura. On way, they were attacked by the Abbīras. Arjuna could not protect those in his the charge. The Abhīras kidnapped the Yādava women, and what was worse, some women even lusted and willingly went with them (16.6. 17).
The Mahābhārata says that the Yādavas were destroyed due to the curse of a sage. It also is on record that Gāndhārī had cursed Krsna to that effect. But one gets the feeling that Kęsņa, very much like Arjuna, invited on himself the punishment as an act of retribution. The Yādavas are described as devadandanipiditäh (16, 2.5).
It this way, one supposes, that one ought to interpret the three harrowing episodes in the Mahābhārata.
Madhu Vidyā/420
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