Tālavana
Tālavana · tāla-vana, “the palm forest”
Dhenuka has other meanings too: see all meanings of Dhenuka.
Tālavana, “the palm forest”, is a lovely forest of palm trees in the land where Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa tended the cows as boys. Vyāsa tells the munis in the Brahma Purāṇa that the dānava Dhenuka guarded it in the form of a donkey, so that no one could touch its fragrant fruits, until Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa slew him and all his kin. After that the forest became a place of play for the gopas and gopīs.
Dhenuka’s forest
Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa, tending the cows together and roaming through the forests, came to a lovely palm forest. In it lived a dānava named Dhenuka in the form of a donkey, eating the flesh of men and cows. The cowherd boys saw the palm fruits there in abundance and said eagerly: “O Rāma, O Kṛshṇa! Because this place is under Dhenuka’s guard, these fragrant fruits are left untouched. We want them. If you agree, let us knock them down.”
The killing of Dhenuka
Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa knocked the fruits down. Hearing the noise, the donkey-shaped rākshasa came in rage and kicked with his hind legs at the chest before him. Those legs were seized; he was whirled round and round and flung into the sky, and he lost his life. As he fell, the palm fruits came down in heaps. His kinsmen, many donkey-asuras, rushed against the two brothers, but as the wind scatters clouds, Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa flung them all up onto the palm trees, and the palm fruits fell to the ground, pleasant to see. When those cruel donkey-forms lay dead, the forest was free of harm; the gopas and the cows moved about happily, and it was most lovely. There on the fresh green grass the cowherd boys ate the palm fruits.
A place of play
After the donkey-asura was slain with his younger brothers, the palm forest became a fine place of play for the gopīs and gopas. Balarāma and Śrī Kṛshṇa shone among the cowherds like young bulls with fresh horns. They drove the herds far off and called the cattle by their names. With the calves’ ropes on their shoulders, wearing forest garlands and garments bright with golden and añjana powders, they looked like a rainbow between a white cloud and a dark one, and they played the wonderful games of the land. They who are the sarva-loka-nāthas, the protectors of all the worlds and the refuge of all, having come to the earth and honouring the human state, played in that forest the games that befit humankind: they swung on swings, wrestled, threw stones upward and enjoyed many other wonderful exercises.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 186–187
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 186–187