Śatadhanvā
Śatadhanvā · śata-dhanvā, “the one with a hundred bows”
Śatadhanvā was the man who killed Satrājit, the father of Satyabhāmā, to take the Syamantaka jewel. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa calls him utterly wicked, a pāpī whose life was at its end. Akrūra and Kṛtavarmā turned his mind, and out of greed for the jewel he killed Satrājit in his sleep. When he learnt that Śrī Kṛshṇa had resolved to slay him and recover the jewel, he asked Kṛtavarmā and then Akrūra for help; both refused, knowing the power of Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa. He left the jewel with Akrūra and fled on a horse that could go a hundred yojanas, and near the city of Mithilā Śrī Kṛshṇa cut off his head with the cakra.
The killing of Satrājit
Śuka tells Parīkshit that Satrājit had given his daughter Satyabhāmā and the Syamantaka jewel to Śrī Kṛshṇa, and that Śrī Kṛshṇa left the jewel with Satrājit. Many had once hoped to marry Satyabhāmā. Later, when Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa had gone to the Kuru country to share the grief of the Kurus over the report of the burning of the lac-house, Akrūra and Kṛtavarmā seized the opening and said to Śatadhanvā: “Why do you not seize the Syamantaka jewel? Satrājit promised to give the excellent maiden Satyabhāmā to one of us, then slighted us and married her to Śrī Kṛshṇa. Why should he not follow his brother Prasena to the city of Yama?”
Śatadhanvā was utterly wicked, a pāpī, and his life was at its end; and the two had corrupted his mind. Out of greed for the jewel he killed Satrājit as he slept. The women cried out and wept like the helpless, but he paid them no heed; he killed Satrājit as a butcher kills animals, took the Syamantaka and went away. Satyabhāmā went to Hastināpura and told Śrī Kṛshṇa, who already knew everything, and he came back to Dvārakā with Balarāma and Satyabhāmā and began the work of slaying Śatadhanvā and recovering the jewel.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 57
Refused by Kṛtavarmā and Akrūra
Learning of Śrī Kṛshṇa‘s resolve, Śatadhanvā was afraid and asked Kṛtavarmā for help to save his life. Kṛtavarmā said: “I will not act against Balarāma and Kṛshṇa, who are all-powerful. Who can remain safe after offending those two? Through hatred of them Kaṃsa lost his wealth and was destroyed with his followers, and Jarāsandha, in seventeen battles, lost even his chariot and turned back.”
Then Śatadhanvā asked Akrūra to protect him from behind. Akrūra too refused: “Who that knows the strength of those two all-powerful ones would oppose them? Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa creates, sustains and withdraws the world as his līlā, and those deluded by his māyā cannot know it. When he was a boy of seven he plucked up a mountain with ease and held it on one hand as a child holds a mushroom. The līlās of Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa, without beginning or end, are wondrous. Many namaskāras to him, who is the changeless ātmā.”
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 57
Flight and death near Mithilā
Rejected by Akrūra too, Śatadhanvā left the great jewel with him and fled on a horse that could go a hundred yojanas. Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa mounted a chariot drawn by very swift horses, with Garuḍa on its flag, and pursued the man who had killed their father-in-law. In terror Śatadhanvā abandoned his horse, which fell in the outer garden of the city of Mithilā, and ran on foot. Śrī Kṛshṇa followed him on foot, running, and cut off the head of the fleeing Śatadhanvā with his sharp-edged cakra. He searched Śatadhanvā’s lower and upper garments for the jewel, but it was not there. “Killing Śatadhanvā was in vain,” he told his elder brother; “he did not have the jewel.” Balarāma answered that Śatadhanvā must surely have hidden it with some person, and that Śrī Kṛshṇa should go to the city and find him. Balarāma himself entered Mithilā to see the king of Videha.
When Akrūra and Kṛtavarmā, who had incited Śatadhanvā, heard that he had been slain, they trembled with fear and left Dvārakā. Later Śrī Kṛshṇa called Akrūra back and said to him: “Śatadhanvā placed the brilliant Syamantaka jewel in your keeping. It is with you, is it not?” Akrūra brought out the jewel, and Śrī Kṛshṇa showed it to the relatives, wiped away the slander that had fallen on him because of it, and gave it back to Akrūra.
Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 57
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 57