॥ ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
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श्रीशुक उवाच
एकैकशस्ता: कृष्णस्य पुत्रान् दश दशाबला: । अजीजनन्ननवमान्पितु: सर्वात्मसम्पदा ॥
T: Sage Shuka narrated: Each of Sri Krishna's queens bore ten sons. They were all as handsome and capable as Sri Krishna himself.
Sage Shuka enumerates the names of all the sons of each of the eight principal queens, starting with Rukmini. Pradyumna was her first son.
Not understanding the full truth about their husband, there was a constant effort by each of Sri Krishna's wives to entice him and win him over for herself in competition with his other queens. They just could not, owing to the effect of Maha Maya, understand that with Sri Krishna, an Avatara of Maha Vishnu, such enticements had no effect at all. He was indeed on a mission and that was all his focus, although we have seen how he play-acted his role as a husband, father and so on.
Rukmini had a daughter too, Charumati who wed Kritavarma's son.
In Rukmi's daughter's Swayamvara, the scene of Rukmini-Sri Krishna's wedding was re-enacted. Rukmi's daughter Rukmavati wanted to marry Pradyumna but was stopped by Rukmi who hated Sri Krishna and his family. Pradyumna forcibly took her away, warding off attacks from rivals.
Pradyumna and Rukmavati begot a son, Aniruddha. Despite his great hate towards Sri Krishna, to keep up the goodwill with Rukmini and maintain political alliances, Rukmi arranged for one of his granddaughters to marry Aniruddha. Sage Shuka says that such a marriage in a common bloodline was not Dharmic but only socially convenient (जानन्नधर्मं तद् यौनं स्नेहपाशानुबन्धन:). So it was conducted.
However, this camaraderie was not meant to last.
At Aniruddha’s wedding, Balarama, Sri Krishna and other Yadavas went to Rukmi’s palace in the city of Bhojakata. After the ceremony, Rukmi was egged on by his crony kings to engage in gambling in a game of dice with Balarama and humiliate him. Indeed, Balarama was fond of gambling although he was not very good at it!
Round after round, Balarama won the wager but Rukmi loudly proclaimed himself the winner and ridiculed Balarama as a cowherd bumpkin. Balarama protested when he was cheated by Rukmi of a ten crore worth wager thus.
A voice then spoke from the sky, announcing that Balarama had, in fact, won. But Rukmi, encouraged by the wicked kings, offended Balarama by saying that while he was certainly expert at tending cows, he knew nothing of playing dice. Thus insulted, Balarama angrily struck Rukmi dead with his club. Balarama then chased the Kalinga king who had been grinning all along, seized him and knocked out all his teeth. Then he took on the other offensive kings. Their arms, thighs and heads wounded by Balarama’s blows and they fled in all directions, bleeding profusely.
निहते रुक्मिणि श्याले नाब्रवीत् साध्वसाधु वा । रक्मिणीबलयो राजन् स्नेहभङ्गभयाद्धरि: ॥
T: Sri Krishna simply looked on, without any expression. He wanted to take no sides as Rukmi was Rukmini's brother, and Balarama was in the right. He kept a politically correct silence.
The wedding party returned to Dwaraka with Aniruddha and his bride.
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