Balarama

Rohini's son, Krishna's elder brother

Balarama, also called Baladeva and Rama, was the son of Vasudeva and his wife Rohini, and so Krishna's elder half-brother among the Vrishnis. He was fair, huge of frame and quick to anger, carried a plough as his weapon and a palmyra tree on his banner, and was married to Revati. The tales of his boyhood with Krishna in Vraja and Mathura belong mostly to the Harivamsa and the later Puranas.

In the Mahabharata he is above all the master of the mace. Both Bhima and Duryodhana learned the weapon from him, and he was fond of Duryodhana in particular.

Kinsman of the Pandavas

When Arjuna carried off his sister Subhadra from the Raivataka hill, Balarama roused the Yadavas in the Sudharma hall to pursue him. Krishna argued that Arjuna had taken her in a way the warrior's law allowed and was a match for the house, and Balarama let himself be calmed, and the wedding was held in Dwaraka.

During the exile he came with Krishna to meet the Pandavas at Prabhasa and grieved aloud that Dhritarashtra had driven his own nephews from their throne. Yet at Upaplavya, after Abhimanyu's wedding, he urged a humble embassy and said that Yudhishthira had lost his kingdom by gambling. Satyaki answered him angrily.

A pilgrimage instead of a war

Balarama would not choose between his pupils. Rather than watch kinsmen and students kill one another, he left on a pilgrimage along the Sarasvati, bathing at its sacred fords while the armies fought. He was away forty-two days.

He returned as Bhima and Duryodhana were about to fight with maces, and on his advice the duel moved to Samantapanchaka. When Bhima struck Duryodhana below the navel and broke his thighs, Balarama raised his plough and ran at Bhima. Krishna held him back, reminding him of Bhima's vow and of the sage Maitreya's curse on Duryodhana. Balarama was not persuaded. He declared that Bhima would be known as a crooked fighter and Duryodhana would reach heaven, then drove away to Dwaraka.

Into the western sea

Thirty-six years later the Yadavas destroyed one another in a drunken brawl at Prabhasa. Balarama went away from the slaughter and sat in yoga beneath a tree at the edge of the forest. When Krishna found him, a great white serpent with a thousand heads was coming out of his mouth. It left his body and entered the ocean, and Balarama's life on earth ended there.

The man who would not take a side

Balarama is the epic's honest outsider. He loved both Bhima and Duryodhana, refused to kill either, and said plainly that the victory was won by a foul blow, even against his own brother's arguments. His absence from Kurukshetra is a judgment on the war: a strong man choosing not to use his strength in a quarrel between people he loved.