Devanagari
प्रद्युम्नं गदया शीर्णवक्ष:स्थलमरिंदमम् ।
अपोवाह रणात्सूतो धर्मविद् दारुकात्मज: ॥ २७ ॥
Verse text
pradyumnaṁ gadayā sīrṇa-
vakṣaḥ-sthalam ariṁ-damam
apovāha raṇāt sūto
dharma-vid dārukātmajaḥ
Synonyms
pradyumnam
—
Pradyumna
;
gadayā
—
by the club
;
śīrṇa
—
shattered
;
vakṣaḥ
—
sthalam — whose chest
;
arim
—
of enemies
;
damam
—
the subduer
;
apovāha
—
removed
;
raṇāt
—
from the battlefield
;
sūtaḥ
—
His chariot driver
;
dharma
—
of his religious duty
;
vit
—
the expert knower
;
dāruka
—
ātmajaḥ — the son of Dāruka (Lord Kṛṣṇa’s driver) .
Translation
Pradyumna’s driver, the son of Dāruka, thought that his valiant master’s chest had been shattered by the club. Knowing well his religious duty, he removed Pradyumna from the battlefield.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Pradyumna's driver, the son of Dāruka, thought that his valiant master's chest had been shattered by the club. Knowing well his religious duty, he removed Pradyumna from the battlefield.
KB 10.76.27
The force of the club on Pradyumna’s chest was very severe, and it appeared as though his chest had been torn asunder.
Pradyumna’s chariot was being driven by the son of Dāruka. According to Vedic military principles, the chariot driver and the hero on the chariot must cooperate during the fighting. As such, because it was the duty of the chariot driver to take care of the hero on the chariot during the dangerous and precarious fighting, Dāruka’s son removed Pradyumna from the battlefield.
Purport
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī explains that actually Lord Pradyumna has a
sac-cid-ānanda
body, an eternal, spiritual form that can never be wounded by mundane weapons. Dāruka’s son, however, was a great devotee of the Lord, and out of intense love he feared for the safety of his master and thus removed Him from the battlefield.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes: “The name of Śālva’s commander-in-chief was Dyumān. He was very powerful, and although bitten by twenty-five of Pradyumna’s arrows, he suddenly attacked Pradyumna with his fierce club and struck Him so strongly that Pradyumna became unconscious. Immediately there was a roaring, ‘Now He is dead! Now He is dead!’ The force of the club on Pradyumna’s chest was very severe, enough to tear asunder the chest of an ordinary man.”
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
Actually the spiritual chest of Pradumnya cannot be pierced by the material club of Dyuman . However the lila sakti quickly arranged all of this in order to increase his taste for energetic fighting. His driver, thinking that he had actually been pierced in the chest, took him from the battle field somewhere else. He did this because he was knowledgeable of the proper action: the scriptures say that the charioteer should protect the warrior in danger. However by the rules of sandhi the charioteer can also be described as adharma vit, not knowing the truth, since he was not aware that Pradumnya had a body which was sac cid ananda. But his ignorance in this matter is also very suitable, for he was the son of Daruka. The Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu says that Parikit, Daruka and Uddhava had raga bhakti for the Lord. The son of Daruka, who had such great prema, therefore had very great affection for Pradyumna, and therefore took him from the field.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
He removed him from the field though his chest was not shattered (asīrna-vakṣaḥ-sthalam) so that he could again defeat his enemy after resting a moment (arindamam). “But was removing him proper?” He knew the dharma of protecting the warrior on the chariot since he was the son of Dāruka.