Śālva and the Saubha Vimāna

Śālva was a friend of Śiśupāla. At the wedding of Rukmiṇī he had been defeated by the Yādavas, and he swore to rid the earth of them. Through a year of hard tapas (austerity) he won the Saubha, a great flying city of iron, from Bhagavān Śiva. With it he attacked Dvārakā while Bhagavān Kṛshṇa was away. Pradyumna held the city, and Bhagavān Kṛshṇa returned and ended the war.

Śālva’s vow and the Saubha

At Rukmiṇī’s wedding the Yādavas had defeated Śālva together with Jarāsandha, Dantavaktra and others. Before all the assembled kings Śālva swore: “I will rid this earth of Yādavas. Watch my valour!”

He then did severe tapas for Bhagavān Śiva for one year. Each day he ate only a handful of ash.

Bhagavān Śiva, the husband of Pārvatī (Parvatīpati), is easily pleased. At the end of the year he appeared and offered Śālva a vara (a boon). Śālva asked: “Give me a flying city of iron. Let it go anywhere it likes. Let it terrify the Yādavas. Let it be impossible to defeat for devas, asuras, humans, gandharvas, nāgas and rākshasas.”

Bhagavān Śiva told Maya, the architect, to build it. Maya built the Saubha, a great iron fortress that flies, and gave it to Śālva.

Śālva remembered his old enmity with the Yādavas. He went to Dvārakā with his large army while Bhagavān Kṛshṇa was away at Indraprastha for the Rājasūya. He besieged the city and broke its forests, gardens, towers, gates, buildings, walls and sport-grounds. From the Saubha he rained down weapons, rocks, trees, thunderbolts, serpents and hailstorms. A terrible whirlwind covered all directions with dust and darkness.

Pradyumna defends Dvārakā

Pradyumna, the son of Rukmiṇī and a great hero, saw his people suffering. He mounted his chariot and called out: “Do not be afraid!”

He led Sātyaki, Cārudeshṇa, Sāmba, Akrūra and his brothers, Hārdikya, Bhānuvinda, Gada, Śuka, Sāraṇa and other mahārathas (great chariot warriors) into battle. A fierce and fearful war began between the Yādavas and Śālva’s forces.

Pradyumna cut through all of Śālva’s māyā (illusion), as the sun destroys the darkness of night. He struck Śālva’s general Dyumanta with twenty-five golden-tipped arrows. He killed Dyumanta’s horses, his charioteer and his chariot-banner, and cut off his head with eight arrows one after another. The Yādava forces pressed on, and many of Śālva’s commanders fell into the sea.

The Saubha was wonderful in its māyā. Sometimes it looked like one city, sometimes like many. Sometimes it was seen and sometimes unseen. It moved like a whirling firebrand. It appeared on the ground, then in the sky, then on a mountain peak, then on the water, and it was never still.

Then a comrade of Dyumanta struck Pradyumna on the chest with a great iron gadā (mace). Pradyumna was stunned and fell. His charioteer, the son of Dāruka, wisely drove him away from the battlefield.

When Pradyumna recovered, he spoke sharply to the charioteer: “A kshatriya should never retreat!” The charioteer explained that he had acted by dharma, to protect a warrior who was hurt. Pradyumna went back, killed Dyumanta, and pressed the battle further.

Kṛshṇa breaks the Saubha

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa returned from Hastināpura after the Rājasūya and the killing of Śiśupāla. He saw signs of disaster in Dvārakā. He guessed that Śiśupāla’s allies had used his absence. He put Balarāma in charge of the defence of the city and went himself to face Śālva.

By then the forces of the Saubha were much reduced. Śālva shot a terrible lance at Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s charioteer, but Bhagavān Kṛshṇa broke it in mid-air with arrows. He struck Śālva with sixteen arrows. He filled the sky with arrows as the sun fills it with rays, and bombarded the Saubha.

Śālva shot Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s left hand, which held the Śārṅga bow, and the bow fell. The crowd of watchers cried out in grief.

The false news about Vasudeva

Śālva then vanished by his māyā. He sent a messenger who said that Devakī herself had sent him. The messenger brought news that Śālva had captured Vasudeva and was about to kill him.

For a moment Bhagavān Kṛshṇa was overcome by human feeling and grieved. Almost at once he knew that this was the asura-māyā that Maya had taught Śālva. Things seen in a dream are not there when one wakes, and in the same way this vision was an illusion.

Śālva appeared again, with what looked like the severed head of Vasudeva. He boasted and mocked Bhagavān Kṛshṇa. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa regained his steady wisdom and thought: “Balarāma cannot be defeated by anyone. How could this petty Śālva have captured my father? This is asura-māyā.” He looked again. There was no messenger and no severed head, only Śālva on the battlefield.

The end of the Saubha and of Śālva

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa bombarded Śālva and broke his armour, his bow and his helmet. He struck the Saubha with his gadā, and the great iron flying city broke into a thousand pieces and sank into the sea.

Śālva came down to the ground and charged at Bhagavān Kṛshṇa with a gadā. Bhagavān Kṛshṇa cut off his arm with an arrow. Then he took up the Sudarśana Cakra, which blazed like the sun at the time of pralaya (the end of the world), and cut off Śālva’s head, with the crown and earrings still on it.

Śālva’s forces cried out. The devas beat their drums in the sky.

Sources

• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 76 (Śālva’s vow, the Saubha, the siege, Pradyumna’s defence)
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 77 (Bhagavān Kṛshṇa’s return, the destruction of the Saubha, the death of Śālva)