Lord Krsna and Balarama Meet the Inhabitants of Vindavana_ 191
were Gada, Pradyumna, Samba, and many other members of the Yadu
dynasty who had come there with a view to atone for sinful activities
accrued in the course of discharging their respective duties. Because
almost all the members of the Yadu dynasty went to Kuruksetra, some
important personalities, like Aniruddha, the son of Pradyumna, and
Krtavarma, the commander-in-chief of the Yadu dynasty, along with
Sucandra, Suka and Sarana remained in Dvaraka to protect the city.

All the members of the Yadu dynasty were naturally very beautiful,
and yet on this occasion, when they appeared duly decorated with gold
necklaces and flower garlands, dressed in valuable clothing and properly
armed with their respective weapons, their natural beauty and personalities
were a hundred times enhanced. The members of the Yadu dynasty came
to Kuruksetra in their gorgeously decorated chariots resembling the air-
planes of the demigods, pulled by big horses that moved like the waves of
the ocean, and some of them rode on sturdy, stalwart elephants that
moved like the clouds in the sky. Their wives were carried on beautiful
palanquins by beautiful men whose features resembled those of the
Vidyadharas. The entire assembly looked as beautiful as an assembly of
the demigods of heaven.

After arriving in Kuruksetra, the members of the Yadu dynasty took
their baths ceremoniously, with self-control, as enjoined in the sdstras, and
they observed fasting for the whole period of the eclipse in order to
nullify the reactions of their sinful activities. Since it is a Vedic custom to
give in charity as much as possible during the hours of the eclipse, the
members of the Yadu dynasty distributed many hundreds of cows in
charity to the brahmanas. All those cows were fully decorated with nice
dress and ornaments. The special feature of these cows was that they had
golden ankle bells and flower garlands on their necks.

All the members of the Yadu dynasty again took their baths in the lakes
created by Lord Paragurama. After this they sumptuously fed the brahma-
nas with first-class cooked food, all prepared in butter. According to ‘the
Vedic system, there are two classes of food. One is called raw food, and
the other is called cooked food. Raw food does not include raw vegetables
and raw grains, but food boiled in water; whereas cooked food is made in
ghee. Capatis, dahl, rice and ordinary vegetables are called raw foods, as
are fruits and salads. But puris, kacuri, sangosas, sweet balls, etc., are called
cooked foods. All the brahmanas invited on that occasion by the members
of the Yadu dynasty were fed sumptuously with cooked food.

The ceremonial functions performed by the members of the Yadu
dynasty externally resembled the ritualistic performances performed by
