Śakaṭāsura

Śakaṭāsura was an asura who took the form of a cart (śakaṭa). He lay in wait close to where the infant Kṛṣṇa had been put down to sleep in Gokula. Kṛṣṇa was still a baby. He kicked out with his feet, and the cart overturned and broke. The asura was destroyed. This was Kṛṣṇa’s first killing of an asura. It is one of the early līlās (divine acts) that showed those present that the child Kṛṣṇa was no ordinary human.

The event at Gokula

Kṛṣṇa was born in Mathurā. He was carried across the Yamunā to Gokula. There the infant Kṛṣṇa was laid beneath a cart (śakaṭa), which gave him shade from the sun. Yaśodā was busy with other work nearby.

This was no ordinary cart. Śakaṭāsura had taken its form. The asura waited for his chance to crush the baby.

As Kṛṣṇa lay there, he kicked upward with his feet, as any baby does. The cart broke and fell over, and the asura was destroyed. The noise of the crash drew the gopas and gopīs (the cowherd men and women). They ran to the place. They found the cart in pieces and the baby lying unhurt, smiling.

Bhīṣma’s mention of the event

Bhīṣma names this līlā in his great stuti (hymn of praise) of Kṛṣṇa at the Rājasūya. He gives it as a sign of Kṛṣṇa’s divine nature.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parva, dākṣiṇātya pāṭha, Chapter 38 (Bhīṣma’s stuti of Kṛṣṇa)