SB 10.43.30 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

अयं चास्याग्रज: श्रीमान्‍राम: कमललोचन: प्रलम्बो निहतो येन वत्सको ये बकादय: ॥ ३० ॥

Verse text

ayaṁ cāsyāgrajaḥ śrīmān rāmaḥ kamala-locanaḥ pralambo nihato yena vatsako ye bakādayaḥ

Synonyms

ayam — this ; ca — and ; asya — His ; agra — jaḥ — elder brother ; śrī — man — the possessor of all opulences ; rāmaḥ — Lord Balarāma ; kamala — locanaḥ — the lotus-eyed ; pralambaḥ — the demon Pralamba ; nihataḥ — killed ; yena — by whom ; vatsakaḥ — Vatsāsura ; ye — who ; baka — Bakāsura ; ādayaḥ — and others .

Translation

This lotus-eyed elder brother of His, Lord Balarāma, is the proprietor of all transcendental opulences. He has killed Pralamba, Vatsaka, Baka and other demons.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

This lotus-eyed elder brother of His, Lord Balarāma, is the proprietor of all transcendental opulences. He has killed Pralamba, Vatsaka, Baka and other demons. KB 10.43.30 The citizens of Mathurā then began to talk about Balarāma. They spoke of His very beautiful lotus-petal eyes, and they remarked of Him, “This boy has killed the Pralamba demon and many others also.”

Purport

In fact two of the demons mentioned here were killed by Kṛṣṇa, not Balarāma. The reason for the mistake is that as news of Kṛṣṇa’s exploits spread among ordinary people, the facts became somewhat muddled. The same tendency can be observed in modern newspapers.

Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

After the killing of Vatsasura there was the killing of Bakasura. Then there was the killing of Dhenukasura, the taming of Kaliya and the killing of Pralambasura. But in this verse, the killing of Pralamba is mentioned first, out of order. This is because, when the news spread from mouth to mouth, the accurate sequence could not be discerned.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

Now they describe the pastimes of Balarāma. He is addressed as śrīmān, endowed with all beauty, since he is elder. They become greedy because of the beauty of his eyes: he had lotus eyes. Vatsaka here indicates that Balarāma killed a demon similar to Vatsāsura, since Kṛṣṇa killed Vatsāsura. That killing a cow is a fault but in this case there was no fault. This is indicated by the suffix ka in vatsakaḥ. Ive pratikrtāu: the suffix ka indicates “like this” to express an imitation. (Pāṇini 5.3.96) The word adayaḥ indicates the relatives of Dhenuka. They recite the demons’ names in the opposite order of their killing since their information depended on what they had heard and seen, with lack of true knowledge.