Pradyumna and Śambara

Pradyumna was the son of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and Rukmiṇī. He was born as an avatāra of Kāmadeva, who had been burned to ashes by Bhagavān Śiva. When he was less than ten days old, the asura Śambara stole him and threw him into the ocean, because Śambara knew the child would be his death. A fish swallowed the baby. He was found in Śambara’s kitchen and raised by Māyāvatī, who was Rati, the eternal wife of Kāmadeva. When he grew up, Pradyumna killed Śambara and returned to Dvārakā with Māyāvatī.

Kāmadeva reborn as Pradyumna

Bhagavān Śiva’s anger had once reduced Kāmadeva to ashes. This happened when Kāmadeva tried to break Śiva’s meditation. His body was destroyed. His subtle self was a partial form of Vāsudeva, so it could take birth again only by taking shelter in Vāsudeva. It entered the power of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa and was born as Pradyumna, son of Śrī Kṛshṇa and Rukmiṇī. In every quality, such as beauty, grace and courage, Pradyumna was equal to his father.

Śambara steals the child

Śambara was an asura who knew a thousand māyās (powers of illusion). He could also see what lay ahead for himself. By this inner sight he learned that the newborn child in Kṛshṇa’s palace was Kāmadeva, who was fated to kill him. He did not wait. Before ten days had passed since the birth, he seized the baby, carried him to the ocean and threw him into the deep water.

A great fish swallowed the baby. Fishermen cast their nets and caught this great fish with others, and they gave it as a gift to Śambara’s household. The cooks carried it to the kitchen and cut it open. They found a living boy inside. They did not know what to do with him, so they brought him to Māyāvatī, a maidservant of Śambara who was known for her wisdom.

Māyāvatī is Rati in disguise

A doubt arose in Māyāvatī’s mind. At that moment Nārada arrived and told her the truth. The child was Pradyumna, born to Kṛshṇa from Rukmiṇī, and he was the avatāra of Kāmadeva. Māyāvatī was Rati, the eternal wife of Kāmadeva. She had waited through the long years since her husband was burned. She had lived on in Śambara’s house as a maidservant whose work was to prepare the food. Now her husband had come back in a new form.

She raised the child with great love. As Pradyumna grew into a young man, his beauty was so great that the other women of the house were confused. They looked at him as if he were Śrī Kṛshṇa himself. Māyāvatī served him with smiles, sideways glances and signs of love. Pradyumna did not know who she was. He spoke to her gently but firmly and asked why a mother would act like a lover.

She then told him his whole story: who he was, who she was, and how he had been taken from his birthplace and thrown into the sea. She taught him the mahāmāyā-vidyā. This is the highest knowledge. It destroys all lesser māyās, and it rests on sattva-guṇa (the quality of goodness).

The battle with Śambara

With the mahāmāyā-vidyā in hand, Pradyumna stood before Śambara and called him out to fight, with sharp and mocking words. Śambara came out like a trampled snake. He carried a mace and struck Pradyumna with it. Pradyumna threw the mace back with the same force. Then Śambara rose into the sky. He sent one wave after another of the māyās he knew, the māyās of the yakshas, gandharvas, piśācas, nāgas and rākshasas, hundreds of magic weapons and illusions. Pradyumna met each one and dissolved it with the mahāmāyā.

At last Pradyumna cut off Śambara’s head with a sharp sword. The head wore a crown and earrings, and the beard was red. The devas rained flowers from the sky.

Return to Dvārakā

Māyāvatī carried Pradyumna through the air. They came down into the inner courtyard of Rukmiṇī’s great antaḥpura (women’s palace), like a cloud flashing with lightning. The women of the antaḥpura saw a dark young man in yellow clothes, with lotus eyes and long arms. They took him for Kṛshṇa and scattered in charmed confusion. Rukmiṇī was drawn to him by a mother’s feeling. She looked at him and thought: “My own son, taken from the birth room, would be this age and would look exactly like this, if he is alive by fate.”

Kṛshṇa, Devakī, Vasudeva and Balarāma then arrived. Nārada told the whole story. The family embraced Pradyumna with great joy. The people of Dvārakā were glad, as if a dead man had come back to life. The women of Kṛshṇa’s household often took Pradyumna’s face for Kṛshṇa’s and understood their mistake only a moment later. The Bhāgavata says this is no surprise. When Kāmadeva himself stands there in a body, other women are bound to be confused.

The Vishṇu Purāṇa account

The Vishṇu Purāṇa tells this episode in its Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 27. It adds two points.

The eighth māyā

The Vishṇu Purāṇa says that Pradyumna defeated Śambara with the “eighth māyā“. This was the most powerful of the hundred māyā-vidyās that Māyāvatī had taught him. Śambara sent the māyās of the yakshas, gandharvas, piśācas, nāgas, rākshasas and others. Each one was dissolved by a matching counter-māyā. The eighth was the highest, and it could cancel all the others.

Nārada explains Māyāvatī to Rukmiṇī

After Pradyumna came back to Dvārakā with Māyāvatī, Rukmiṇī was deeply unsure what to think. She knew from his likeness to Kṛshṇa that Pradyumna was her son. But she did not know who the woman was who had raised him and who now came with him. The Vishṇu Purāṇa keeps Nārada’s words at this point. Nārada came to Dvārakā and told Rukmiṇī the whole story. Māyāvatī was Rati herself, the eternal śakti (power) of Kāmadeva, who had waited through the long years of Kāmadeva’s bodiless state for his rebirth. Pradyumna was Kāma born again. Māyāvatī, who was Rati, was his wife, now joined with him again in a body. With this, Rukmiṇī’s confusion ended. The woman who had raised her son was not a rival. She was Rati, the divine feminine power that cannot be separated from Kāmadeva, who in turn cannot be separated from the ānanda (bliss) of Kṛshṇa’s own energy.

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 55
• Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Pañcamāṃśa, Chapter 27