Daṃbha

Daṃbha was an asura of the dānava line. He was the son of Vipracitti, who is also called Vishṇucitta. Vipracitti was the son of Danu, one of the wives of Kaśyapa. Daṃbha was the father of Śaṅkhacūḍa.

Daṃbha was a devotee of Bhagavān Vishṇu. He was sad because he had no child. He did tapas (austerity) for a hundred thousand years at Pushkara, using the Kṛshṇa-mantra. Bhagavān Vishṇu appeared and gave him a vara (boon): a son of great power and heroism. This son was Śaṅkhacūḍa, who was born again as the gopāla (cowherd) Sudāmā, a companion of Kṛshṇa.

In the war of Śaṅkhacūḍa, Daṃbha fought against Bhagavān Vishṇu himself in the great battle at the river Candrabhāgā.

Lineage

Daṃbha’s line goes: Kaśyapa, then Danu, then Vipracitti (Vishṇucitta), then Daṃbha, then Śaṅkhacūḍa.

Bhagavān Śiva tells this lineage himself to the messenger (dūta) of Śaṅkhacūḍa in Chapter 35 of the Yuddha Khaṇḍa. He tells it as part of his call to Śaṅkhacūḍa to remember his true nature.

Place in the story of Śaṅkhacūḍa

In the account of Śaṅkhacūḍa, Daṃbha is the one through whom Sudāmā the gopāla came into the world as a dānava. Daṃbha did his tapas with devotion to Bhagavān Vishṇu, who would later fight against his son. Daṃbha asked for a son and received one. The son was an ātmā (soul) already set for a particular task in the cosmos.

Sources

• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapters 27 and 36
• Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra Saṃhitā, Yuddha Khaṇḍa, Chapter 35 (the lineage told by Bhagavān Śiva)