Skip to main content

ŚB 10.57.32

Devanagari

देवेऽवर्षति काशीश: श्वफल्कायागताय वै ।
स्वसुतां गान्दिनीं प्रादात् ततोऽवर्षत् स्म काशिषु ॥ ३२ ॥

Text

deve ’varṣati kāśīśaḥ
śvaphalkāyāgatāya vai
sva-sutāṁ gāṇdinīṁ prādāt
tato ’varṣat sma kāśiṣu

Synonyms

deve — when the demigod, Lord Indra; avarṣati — had not been supplying rain; kāśī-īśaḥ — the King of Benares; śvaphalkāya — to Śvaphalka (Akrūra’s father); āgatāya — who had come; vai — certainly; sva — his own; sutām — daughter; gāndinīm — Gāndinī; prādāt — gave; tataḥ — then; avarṣat — it rained; sma — indeed; kāśiṣu — in the kingdom of Kāśī.

Translation

[The elders said:] Previously, when Lord Indra had withheld rain from Kāsī [Benares], the king of that city gave his daughter Gāndinī to Śvaphalka, who was then visiting him. It soon rained in the kingdom of Kāśī.

Purport

Śvaphalka was Akrūra’s father, and the citizens felt that the son must have the same power as the father. Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī points out that because of Akrūra’s relationship with his maternal grandfather, the King of Kāśī, in a time of difficulty Akrūra went to that city.