SB 10.80.14 · Srimad-Bhagavatam

Devanagari

याचित्वा चतुरो मुष्टीन् विप्रान् पृथुकतण्डुलान् । चैलखण्डेन तान् बद्ध्वा भर्त्रे प्रादादुपायनम् ॥ १४ ॥

Verse text

yācitvā caturo muṣṭīn viprān pṛthuka-taṇḍulān caila-khaṇḍena tān baddhvā bhartre prādād upāyanam

Synonyms

yācitvā — begging ; caturaḥ — four ; muṣṭīn — fistfuls ; viprān — from the (neighboring) brāhmaṇas ; pṛthuka — taṇḍulān — flat rice ; caila — of cloth ; khaṇḍena — with a ripped piece ; tān — them ; baddhvā — tying up ; bhartre — to her husband ; prādāt — she gave ; upāyanam — gift .

Translation

Sudāmā’s wife begged four handfuls of flat rice from neighboring brāhmaṇas, tied up the rice in a torn piece of cloth and gave it to her husband as a present for Lord Kṛṣṇa.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Sudāmā's wife begged four handfuls of flat rice from neighboring brāhmaṇas, tied up the rice in a torn piece of cloth and gave it to her husband as a present for Lord Kṛṣṇa. KB 10.80.14 The wife immediately collected four palmfuls of chipped rice from her neighborhood friends and tied it in a small cloth, like a handkerchief, and gave it to her husband to present to Kṛṣṇa.

Purport (Jiva Goswami)

She begged chipped rice from brāhmaṇas. She got four handfuls, since she did not have a goal concerning more or less quantity.

Purport (Sanatana Goswami)

She begged from neighboring brāhmaṇas because they were absorbed in the four goals of life for four types of liberation (caturaḥ). Or they lived in the four directions and she begged a handful of rice from each. She obtained flat rice because that is what the wives of the brāhmaṇas gave her or because she was too weak from hunger to thresh the rice properly. She bound it up in a worn out piece of cloth. She offered it to her husband as a gift so he would keep it tightly in his cloth. All this was done out of extreme poverty, not out of intention to display their destitute situation to the Lord.