Kṛṣṇa saves Nanda Mahārāja and delivers Sudarśana Vidyādhara

Pramāṇa (Śāstra reference)

ŚB 10.34.1–4 states that Nanda Mahārāja and the cowherd men traveled by bullock cart to the Ambikāvana forest, bathed in the Sarasvatī, worshiped Lord Paśupati and Ambikā, and remained there for the night. In 10.34.5–7 a huge hungry serpent begins swallowing the sleeping Nanda. Nanda calls out to Kṛṣṇa, while the cowherd men try to make the serpent release him with blazing firebrands. In 10.34.8 Kṛṣṇa comes and touches the serpent with His foot. In 10.34.9 the serpent gives up that body and appears in the radiant form of a Vidyādhara. In 10.34.12–18 Sudarśana explains that the sages of the Āṅgirasa line cursed him for pridefully ridiculing them; he accepts the curse as mercy and receives the Lord's permission to return to his abode. The artwork joins the touch of Kṛṣṇa's foot and the beginning of the transformation in one visible instant. The exact number and appearance of the cowherd men, moonlight, and the visual form of Sudarśana's emergence are artistic reconstruction.

Saṅkṣepa (short meaning)

During a night halt in the Ambikāvana forest, a huge serpent began swallowing the sleeping Nanda Mahārāja. The cowherd men struck the serpent with blazing firebrands, but it would not release him. Hearing His father's call, Kṛṣṇa came and touched the serpent with His foot. By that touch the being abandoned its snake body and appeared as the beautiful Vidyādhara Sudarśana. He explained that pride had led him to ridicule sages of the Āṅgirasa line and incur their curse. Sudarśana now understood that the curse was mercy because it brought him to Kṛṣṇa's lotus foot.

Śāstra-pramāṇa (key events from the text)

Tattva (essential teachings) — with śāstra

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