13 / The Marriage of Samba

Duryodhana, the son of Dhrtarastra, had a marriageable daughter by
the name of Laksmana. She was a very highly qualified girl of the Kuru
dynasty, and many princes wanted to marry her. In such cases, the sva-
yamvara ceremony is held so that the girl may select her husband according
to her own choice. In Laksmana’s svayamvara assembly, when the girl
was to select her husband, Samba appeared. He was the son of Krsna by
Jambavati, one of the chief wives of Lord Krsna. This son Samba is so
named because he was a very bad child, and he always lived close to his
mother. The name Samba indicates a son who is very much his mother’s
pet..Amba means mother, and sa means with. So this special name was
given to him. because he always remained with his mother. He was also
known as Jambavatisuta for the same reason. As previously explained, all
the sons of Krsna were as qualified as their great father, Lord Krsna. Simba
wanted the daughter of Duryodhana, Laksmané, although she was not
inclined to have him. Therefore Samba kidnapped Laksmana by force
from the svayarvara assembly.

Because Samba took Laksmana away from the assembly by force, all
the members of the Kuru dynasty, namely, Dhrtarastra, Bhisma, Vidura,
Ujahan and Arjuna, thought it an insult to their family tradition that the
boy, Samba, could possibly have kidnapped their daughter. All of them
knew that Laksmana was not at all inclined to select him as a husband and
that she was not given the chance to select her own husband; instead she
was forcibly taken away by this boy. Therefore, they decided that he must
be punished. They unanimously declared that he was most impudent and
that he had degraded the Kurus’ family tradition. Therefore, all of them,
under the counsel of the elderly members of the Kuru family, decided to
arrest the boy but not kill him. They concluded that the girl could not be
married to any boy other than Samba since she had already been touched

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