Devanagari
लाङ्गलाग्रेण नगरमुद्विदार्य गजाह्वयम् ।
विचकर्ष स गङ्गायां प्रहरिष्यन्नमर्षित: ॥ ४१ ॥
Verse text
lāṅgalāgreṇa nagaram
udvidārya gajāhvayam
vicakarṣa sa gaṅgāyāṁ
prahariṣyann amarṣitaḥ
Synonyms
lāṅgala
—
of His plow
;
agreṇa
—
with the tip
;
nagaram
—
the city
;
udvidārya
—
tearing up
;
gajāhvayam
—
Hastināpura
;
vicakarṣa
—
dragged
;
saḥ
—
He
;
gaṅgāyām
—
in the Ganges
;
prahariṣyan
—
about to cast it
;
amarṣitaḥ
—
enraged .
Translation
The Lord angrily dug up Hastināpura with the tip of His plow and began to drag it, intending to cast the entire city into the Ganges.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The Lord angrily dug up Hastināpura with the tip of His plow and began to drag it, intending to cast the entire city into the Ganges.
Purport
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes as follows: “Lord Balarāma seemed so furious that He looked as if He could burn the whole cosmic creation to ashes. He stood up steadily and, taking His plow in His hand, began striking the earth with it. In this way the whole city of Hastināpura was separated from the earth. Lord Balarāma then began to drag the city toward the flowing water of the river Ganges. Because of this, there was a great tremor throughout Hastināpura, as if there had been an earthquake, and it seemed that the whole city would be dismantled.”
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī states that by the Lord’s desire His plow had increased in size, and that as Balarāma began dragging Hastināpura toward the water, He ordered the Ganges, “Except for Sāmba, you should attack and kill everyone in the city with your water.” Thus He would fulfill His promise to rid the earth of the Kauravas while making sure that nothing would happen to Sāmba.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
With the tip of his plow, which had increased in size by his desire, pulling up the city by digging at the base of the southern wall, he began dragging it with force towards the water. Why? To throw it in the Ganga. He ordered the Ganga, "Except for Samba, kill everyone by attacking the whole city except Samba with water." This was to fulfill his previous promise that he would rid the earth of the Kauravas. Though the whole city would be submerged, Samba would be safe.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
He began to pull the city to the Gaṅgā forcibly in order to destroy the city. Or he dragged the city to make if fall into the Gaṅgā. By his will, his plough became very long.