Daruki

Pradyumna is struck unconscious by Shalva's arrows in battle. His charioteer Daruki, fearing for his master's life, drives him away from the field. When Pradyumna regains consciousness and finds himself retreating, he demands an explanation — and what he hears does not satisfy him.

Pradyumna, having been carried unconscious from the battlefield, imagines the scorn of every Vrishni hero — Gada, Baladeva, Satyaki, and the women of his clan — if he does not return. He tells Daruki that shame with ridicule is worse than death, and commands the chariot be turned back at once.

Shalva, unable to tolerate Pradyumna's penetration from the right, attacks the charioteer Daruki and then Pradyumna himself. Pradyumna counters every weapon Shalva throws at him — including the terrible maya of the asuras — and strikes him unconscious. But when he nocks a supreme arrow to finish the king of Soubha, the gods themselves intervene.

Pradyumna awakens on the battlefield to find himself far from the fighting, his charioteer Daruki having retreated while he was unconscious. The son of Rukmini demands an explanation — and Daruki gives one, then proves his skill with the reins in a way that leaves every witness astonished.