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BURNING OF DVĀRAKĀ AND DEATH OF KRŞŅA 301 country and noble-minded Kubjavāraka became a mendicant there. The wives of Rāma, Krşņa, and others, who had not been initiated previously, recalling Nemi, observing a fast, perished. Sixty and seventy-two crores of families were consumed. Thus the city was burned in six months and then was covered by the ocean.
Fight with Acchadanta (107–121) And now, as Kļşņa was going along, when he had reached the city Hastikalpa 297 on the road, he told Haladhārin that he was suffering from hunger. Balabhadra said to him: “I shall go to this city for food for you. You stay here on your guard, brother. If anything unfavourable happens to me for any reason, I shall give a lion's-roar. Hearing that, you should hurry."
With these words Rāma entered the city. and, possessing a god-like form, was seen by the townspeople with wonder, “Who is he?” “Dvārakā has been burned and Sīrin here, having left it, has come,” this rumor spread among the people, on reflection. By means of a ring Rāma himself took many kinds of food from a confectioner and wine from a liquor-dealer by means of a bracelet.
When Bala went near the city-gate, after taking (the food and wine), the guards saw him and, astonished, went to the king. The king in this city was Acchadanta, son of Dhstarāștra, who had survived those killed by the Pāņdavas, partisans of Krşņa, in the past. The guards said: “ Like a robber he takes food and wine in your city by giving a valuable ring and bracelet. Now, equal to Sirin in form, he is going outside. Whether he is a robber or whether he is Bala, henceforth there is no fault on our part.”
Acchadanta went there with an army to kill Bala and had the gate's double-doors barred. Bala put down the food and drink, pulled up an elephant-post, gave a lion's roar, and began
297 107. Identified as Hāthab near Bhavnagar by LAI.
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