348 Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead

chief. After Rukmini there were seven other principal wives, and the names
of the sons of these eight principal queens have already been mentioned.
Besides these eight queens, Lord Krsna had ten sons by each of the other
queens. Thus all together Krsna’s children numbered 16,108 times ten.
One should not be astonished to hear that Krsna had so many sons. One
should alwaysremember that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead
and that He has unlimited potencies. He claims all living entities as His
sons, so even if He had sixteen million sons attached to Him personally,
there would be no cause for astonishment.

Among Krsna’s greatly powerful sons, eighteen sons were mahd-rathas.
The maha-rathas could fight alone against many thousands of soldiers,
charioteers, cavalry and elephants. The reputations of these eighteen sons
are very widespread and are described in almost all the Vedic literatures.
The eighteen maha-ratha sons are listed as Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Dipti-
man, Bhanu, Samba, Madhu, Brhadbhanu, Citrabhanu, Vrka, Aruna,
Puskara, Vedabahu, Srutadeva, Sunandana, Citrabahu, Virdipa, Kavi and
Nyagrodha. Of these eighteen mahd-ratha sons of Krsna, Pradyumna is
considered to be the foremost. Pradyumna happened to be the eldest son
of Queen Rukmini, and he inherited all the qualities of his great father,
Lord Krsna. He married the daughter of his maternal uncle, Rukmi, and
Aniruddha, the son of Pradyumna, was born from that marriage. Ani-
ruddha was so powerful that he could fight against ten thousand elephants.
He married the granddaughter of Rukmi, the brother of his grandmother,
Rukmini. Because the relationship between these cousins was distant, such
a marriage was not uncommon. Aniruddha’s son was Vajra. When the
whole Yadu dynasty was destroyed by the curse of a brahmana, only
Vajra survived. Vajra had one son whose name was Pratibahu. The son of
Pratibahu was named Subahu, the son of Subahu was named Santasena,
and the son of Santasena was Satasena.

It is stated by Sukadeva Gosvami that all the members of the Yadu
dynasty had many children. Just as Krsna had many sons, grandsons and
great-grandsons, so each one of the kings named herewith also had similar
family extensions. Not only did all of them have many children, but all
were extraordinarily rich and opulent. None of them were weak or short-
lived, and above all, all the members of the Yadu dynasty were staunch
devotees of the brahminical culture. It is the duty of the ksatriya kings to
maintain the brahminical culture and to protect the qualified brahmanas,
and all these kings discharged their duties very rightly. The members of
the Yadu dynasty were so numerous that it would be very difficult to
describe them all even if one had a duration of life of many thousands of
