Texts 2-3
śrī-śuka uvāca
arjunas tīrtha-yātrāyāṁ
paryaṭann avanīṁ prabhuḥ
gataḥ prabhāsam aśṛṇon
mātuleyīṁ sa ātmanaḥ
duryodhanāya rāmas tāṁ
dāsyatīti na cāpare
tal-lipsuḥ sa yatir bhūtvā
tri-daṇḍī dvārakām agāt
śrī-śukaḥ uvāca — Śukadeva Gosvāmī said; arjunaḥ — Arjuna; tīrtha — to holy places; yātrāyām — while on pilgrimage; paryaṭan — wandering; avanīm — the earth; prabhuḥ — the great lord; gataḥ — having gone; prabhāsam — to Prabhāsa; aśṛṇot — heard; mātuleyīm — uncle’s daughter; saḥ — he; ātmanaḥ — his; duryodhanāya — to Duryodhana; rāmaḥ — Lord Balarāma; tām — her; dāsyati — intends to give; iti — thus; na — not; ca — and; apare — anyone else; tat — her; lipsuḥ — desirous of obtaining; saḥ — he, Arjuna; yatiḥ — a sannyāsī; bhūtvā — becoming; tri-daṇḍī — carrying a triple staff; dvārakām — to Dvārakā; agāt — went.
Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: While traveling far and wide visiting various holy places of pilgrimage, Arjuna came to Prabhāsa. There he heard that Lord Balarāma intended to give his maternal cousin Subhadrā to Duryodhana in marriage, and that no one else approved of this plan. Arjuna wanted to marry her himself, so he disguised himself as a renunciant, complete with triple staff, and went to Dvārakā.
Arjuna’s plan for obtaining Subhadrā as his wife may have seemed unconventional, but he was not acting without encouragement; in fact, Lord Kṛṣṇa was his prime co-conspirator. And in Dvārakā, most of the members of the royal family, especially Vasudeva, were unhappy about giving their favorite daughter to Duryodhana.