Āhuka
Āhuka was a leading chief among the Yādavas, one of the powerful leaders of their confederacy in the time of Kṛshṇa. He appears in the Vāsudeva-Nārada Saṃvāda (the talk between Kṛshṇa and Nārada) in the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata, Chapter 81. He is also named in the Mausala Parva, Chapter 1.
In the Śānti Parva, Āhuka and Akrūra are the two leading men of the Yādava confederacy. Their rivalry put Kṛshṇa in a painful position. Kṛshṇa had earlier given Āhuka wealth and authority. This gift had become so fixed in the family bonds of the Yādavas that it could not be taken back. Nārada compares it to a tree whose roots have gone too deep to be pulled out.
In the Vāsudeva-Nārada Saṃvāda
Kṛshṇa asks Nārada about the quarrel between Āhuka and Akrūra. Each man believes he has an exclusive claim on Kṛshṇa’s loyalty. The two have spoken ill of Kṛshṇa to each other. Akrūra holds that Kṛshṇa’s favour to Āhuka is a rejection of himself, and Āhuka has the same grievance in the opposite direction. Kṛshṇa tells Nārada that their slanders burn his heart like sparks from an araṇī (the fire-drill used to make fire).
Nārada answers directly. The trouble on Akrūra’s side is a kṛta āpad (a misfortune of Kṛshṇa’s own making), which comes from Kṛshṇa’s own earlier ties. The wealth and power Kṛshṇa has already given to Āhuka is different. It is kṛtamūla, deeply rooted, like a tree that cannot be pulled up. The bond of kinship (jñāti) with Āhuka has made it impossible to recover. Kṛshṇa cannot take back what he gave Āhuka. It would be like trying to swallow again what has already been swallowed.
Nārada says the only way is to act so that the result is good for one’s puṇya (merit), brings fame, lengthens life and favours one’s own side (svapaksha), and does not destroy either man. (Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva, Chapter 81)
In the Mausala Parva: the grinding of the mushala and the ban on liquor
In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Yudhishṭhira, the young men of the Vṛshṇis mocked the ṛshis Viśvāmitra, Kaṇva and Nārada. They dressed Sāmba as a pregnant woman. The angry ṛshis laid a śāpa (curse) that Sāmba would give birth to an iron mushala (pestle) that would destroy the Vṛshṇis and Andhakas.
Sāmba did give birth to the dreadful iron pestle, and the matter was reported to the king. It was on the counsel of Āhuka that the measures were taken. The mushala was ground to fine powder, and the king’s servants threw it into the sea.
On Āhuka’s word it was also announced all through Dvārakā that from that day no one of the Vṛshṇi and Andhaka clans might make or drink liquor. Anyone found doing so would be impaled together with his family. The order was made known through the decree of Balarāma. Out of fear of the king’s command, all the people kept to it.
Yet neither the destruction of the pestle nor the ban on drink could turn aside the ruin that Kāla and the brāhmaṇas’ śāpa had ordained. From the powder thrown into the sea the eraka grass grew, and through it the destruction of the Yādavas was finally carried out. (Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapter 1)
Sources
- Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Rājadharmānuśāsana Parva, Chapter 81
- Mahābhārata, Mausala Parva, Chapter 1