Text 41
lāṅgalāgreṇa nagaram
udvidārya gajāhvayam
vicakarṣa sa gaṅgāyāṁ
prahariṣyann amarṣitaḥ
lāṅgala — of His plow; agreṇa — with the tip; nagaram — the city; udvidārya — tearing up; gajāhvayam — Hastināpura; vicakarṣa — dragged; saḥ — He; gaṅgāyām — in the Ganges; prahariṣyan — about to cast it; amarṣitaḥ — enraged.
The Lord angrily dug up Hastināpura with the tip of His plow and began to drag it, intending to cast the entire city into the Ganges.
Śrīla Prabhupāda writes as follows: “Lord Balarāma seemed so furious that He looked as if He could burn the whole cosmic creation to ashes. He stood up steadily and, taking His plow in His hand, began striking the earth with it. In this way the whole city of Hastināpura was separated from the earth. Lord Balarāma then began to drag the city toward the flowing water of the river Ganges. Because of this, there was a great tremor throughout Hastināpura, as if there had been an earthquake, and it seemed that the whole city would be dismantled.”
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī states that by the Lord’s desire His plow had increased in size, and that as Balarāma began dragging Hastināpura toward the water, He ordered the Ganges, “Except for Sāmba, you should attack and kill everyone in the city with your water.” Thus He would fulfill His promise to rid the earth of the Kauravas while making sure that nothing would happen to Sāmba.