SB 10.4.7 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

श्रीशुक उवाच उपगुह्यात्मजामेवं रुदत्या दीनदीनवत् । याचितस्तां विनिर्भर्त्स्य हस्तादाचिच्छिदे खल: ॥ ७ ॥

Verse text

śrī-śuka uvāca upaguhyātmajām evaṁ rudatyā dīna-dīnavat yācitas tāṁ vinirbhartsya hastād ācicchide khalaḥ

Synonyms

śrī — śukaḥ uvāca — Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said ; upaguhya — embracing ; ātmajām — her daughter ; evam — in this way ; rudatyā — by Devakī, who was crying ; dīna — dīna — vat — very piteously, like a poor woman ; yācitaḥ — being begged ; tām — her (Devakī) ; vinirbhartsya — chastising ; hastāt — from her hands ; ācicchide — separated the child by force ; khalaḥ — Kaṁsa, the most cruel .

Translation

Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: Piteously embracing her daughter and crying, Devakī begged Kaṁsa for the child, but he was so cruel that he chastised her and forcibly snatched the child from her hands.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Śukadeva Gosvāmī continued: Piteously embracing her daughter and crying, Devakī begged Kaṁsa for the child, but he was so cruel that he chastised her and forcibly snatched the child from her hands. KB 10.4.7 Kaṁsa was so cruel that he did not listen to the pitiful prayers of his sister Devakī. He forcibly grabbed the newborn child to rebuke his sister…

Purport

Although Devakī was crying like a very poor woman, actually she was not poor, and therefore the word used here is dīnavat. She had already given birth to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, who could have been richer than she? Even the demigods had come to offer prayers to Devakī, but she played the part of a poor, piteously afflicted woman because she wanted to save the daughter of Yaśodā.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Evam atma jam means "just as if the child were her own daughter" (since she was aware that it was not her daughter.) She is described as being "like" the most miserable person (dina dinavat) instead of being the most miserable, because the child was not actually hers. Threatening Devaki, he grabbed the child from her hands.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

The child is called her own (ātmā-jām) because out of close friendship with Yaśodā she considered herself non-different from her. She was like a very miserable person (dīnā-dīnavat). According to karmadhārayavat-uttara-padeṣvityadikārasthena prakāre guṇavacanasya (Pāṇini 8.11) repetition of dīna means “very miserable.” She cried miserably, even though she knew the child was not hers. Khalaḥ means cruel or low according to Viśva-kośa.

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

The child is called her own (ātmā-jām) because she had exchanged this child with hers or because out of close friendship with Yaśodā she considered herself non-different from her. She wept like a person in the most miserable position (dīna-dīnavat) because of the death of her children and because of the death of Yaśodā’s daughter.