रुक्मी
[rukmi] IAST: RUKMĪ
General information ---
King of the Province भोजकट in the country of विदर्भ . It is stated in महाभारत , आदि पर्व , Chapter 67, Stanza 62, that this रुक्मी was born from a portion of the असुर named क्रोधवश .
Father of रुक्मी was the king भीष्मक . Two children were born to भीष्मक , named रुक्मी and रुक्मिणी . [mh-2-31-62 ] .
Getting a bow
श्री कृष्ण took रुक्मी 's sister रुक्मिणी by force and married her. रुक्मी did not like this and so he confronted श्री कृष्ण . In the contest श्री कृष्ण reviled him. रुक्मी got angry at this and went to कैलास and did penance before शिव . शिव appeared before him after three years, and gave him a bow for destroying the enemies. शिव told him that it would be broken, only if it was used against महाविष्णु . After getting this bow he returned to भोजकट and lived there.
The details regarding रुक्मी , given in the महाभारत
रुक्मी accepted the suzerainty of सहदेव at the time of his regional conquest. [mh-2-21-62 ]
रुक्मी paid tribute to कर्ण at the time of his regional conquest. [mh-3-254-14 ] .
The पाण्डवस् had sent invitation to रुक्मी for the भारत -battle. [mh-5-11-16 ] .
भीष्मक , the father of रुक्मी , was known by the name 'Hiraṇyaromā' also. रुक्मी became famous throughout all the countries. He accepted द्रुम , a famous किम्पुरुष ( किन्नर ) as his teacher in archery. द्रुम presented him with a bow called विजय . This विजय was on a par with the गाण्डीव . रुक्मी fought with श्री कृष्ण and was defeated. The place at which he was defeated by श्री कृष्ण is known as भोजकट .
After having been defeated by श्रीकृष्ण , a thought arose in the mind of रुक्मी to keep amity and concord with श्रीकृष्ण . Knowing this, the पाण्डवस् invited रुक्मी to their palace. He promised his help if ever अर्जुन feared to do battle. At this अर्जुन laughed and said that he was not in need of any help. After this रुक्मी went to दुर्योधन and promised to help him. But दुर्योधन also rejected his help. [mh-5-158-1 ] .
Death of रुक्मी
Discontented with everybody, रुक्मी lived in भोजकट , having no contact with any body. During this period the king of कलिङ्ग once approached रुक्मी and advised him to challenge बलभद्रराम for a game of dice. The challenge was made knowing that बलभद्र was not a good player. Knowing that to reject a challenge was not honourable, बलभद्र went to play the game. रुक्मी won the first round of game. Staking everything, the second round of the game began and बलभद्र won the game. But रुक्मी and the king of कलिङ्ग did not accept the victory. All the kings who witnessed the game sided with रुक्मी . Instantly an ethereal voice said " बलभद्रराम has won the game." The friends of रुक्मी did not accept the ethereal voice. They began to create a tumult in the hall. बलभद्रराम who became furious at this ridicule took a pestle of iron and killed रुक्मी with one blow. The rest of the kings fled from the place. (Bhāgavata, Skandha 10)
Project अर्थ (Artha): X, yashbonde.com, LinkedIn. See Sources