Note 6 — INDEX

The following is the legend of Kṛishṇa’s iron flail. Certain Yádava youths hoping to raise a laugh at the expense of Viśvámitra and other sages who had come to Dwáriká presented to them Sámba Kṛishṇa’s son dressed as a woman big with child. The lads asked the sages to foretell to what the woman would give birth. The sages replied: ‘The woman will give birth to an iron rod which will destroy the Yádava race.’ Obedient to the sage’s prophecy Sámba produced an iron rod. To avoid the ill effects of the prophecy king Ugrasena had the rod ground to powder and cast the powder into the sea. The powder grew into the grass called eraka Typha elephantina. It was this grass which Kṛishṇa plucked in his rage and which in his hands turned into an iron flail. This eraka grass grows freely near the mouth of the Hiraṇya river of Prabhás. ↑