SB 4.5.21 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

पूष्णो ह्यपातयद्दन्तान् कालिङ्गस्य यथा बल: । शप्यमाने गरिमणि योऽहसद्दर्शयन्दत: ॥ २१ ॥

Verse text

pūṣṇo hy apātayad dantān kāliṅgasya yathā balaḥ śapyamāne garimaṇi yo ’hasad darśayan dataḥ

Synonyms

pūṣṇaḥ — of Pūṣā ; hi — since ; apātayat — extracted ; dantān — the teeth ; kāliṅgasya — of the King of Kaliṅga ; yathā — as ; balaḥ — Baladeva ; śapyamāne — while being cursed ; garimaṇi — Lord Śiva ; yaḥ — who (Pūṣā) ; ahasat — smiled ; darśayan — showing ; dataḥ — his teeth .

Translation

Just as Baladeva knocked out the teeth of Dantavakra, the King of Kaliṅga, during the gambling match at the marriage ceremony of Aniruddha, Vīrabhadra knocked out the teeth of both Dakṣa, who had shown them while cursing Lord Śiva, and Pūṣā, who by smiling sympathetically had also shown his teeth.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Vīrabhadra made Pūṣā’s teeth fall out, just as Balarāma made the King of Kaliṅga’s teeth fall out. Pūṣā had smiled, showing his teeth, when Śiva was being rebuked by Dakṣa. Just Balarāma, at the time of Aniruddha’s marriage, during a game of dice, made the teeth of the King of Kaliṅga fall out, so Vīrabhadra made Pūṣā’s teeth fall out. Garimaṇi refers to Śiva. Dataḥ stands for dantān (teeth). Another version has puṣnoḥ in the dual form. Sometimes Indra and Pūṣā are grouped together as in the phrase aindrāpauṣṇaṁ carum: the rice offering of Indra and Pūṣā. (Black Yayur Veda, Taittirīya-bṛahmaṇa 1.7.2.4.5) Thus Vīrabhadra made the teeth of both Indra and Pūṣā fall out.

Purport

Here a reference is made to the marriage of Aniruddha, a grandson of Lord Kṛṣṇa’s. He kidnapped the daughter of Dantavakra, and thereafter he was arrested. Just as he was to be punished for the kidnapping, the soldiers from Dvārakā arrived, headed by Balarāma, and a fight ensued amongst the kṣatriyas. This sort of fight was very common, especially during marriage ceremonies, when everyone was in a challenging spirit. In that challenging spirit, a fight was sure to occur, and in such fights there was commonly killing and misfortune. After finishing such fighting, the parties would come to a compromise, and everything would be settled. This Dakṣa yajṣa was similar to such events. Now all of them — Dakṣa and the demigods Bhaga and Pūṣā and Bhṛgu Muni — were punished by the soldiers of Lord Śiva, but later everything would come to a peaceful end. So this spirit of fighting between one another was not exactly inimical. Because everyone was so powerful and wanted to show his strength by Vedic mantra or mystic power, all these fighting skills were very elaborately exhibited by the different parties at the Dakṣa yajṣa.