Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.79.16-17
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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hala-āyudhaḥ
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Lord Balarāma, whose weapon is the plow
Compound: hala (plow) + āyudha (weapon). One of Balarāma's standing epithets — He alone among the gods holds the plow as His armament. The epithet quietly contrasts with the violence elsewhere in the canto: even His weapon is a tool of cultivation.
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ayutam adāt dhenūḥ
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He gave ten thousand cows
Phrase: ayutam (ten thousand) + adāt (He gave) + dhenūḥ (cows). Go-dāna is the supreme form of dāna in śāstra. Twice in this chapter Balarāma gives ten thousand cows — the Lord who tends Vraja's cows is also the cosmic donor of cows.
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namaskṛtya
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bowing down
Absolutive of namas + √kṛ. Bhagavān bows to His own great devotee Agastya — a constitutive Vaiṣṇava reversal that Caitanya later embodied when He fell at the feet of Rāmānanda Rāya and Haridāsa. The Lord teaches respect for sages by performing it Himself.
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kanyā-ākhyām durgām devīm
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Goddess Durgā known as Kanyā
Compound: kanyā (maiden) + ākhyā (named) + Durgā + Devī. The Kanyā-kumārī goddess at the southern tip — Devī in her unmarried virgin form. In Vaiṣṇava theology this Durgā is Yogamāyā, the Lord's own internal śakti when she takes a protective form for the world; Balarāma's darśana of her is an internal-family courtesy.
He gave cows to the brāhmaṇas at Sāgara-setu. He is called holder of the plow because after killing Balvala, he continued to carry the plough in order to protect the brāhmaṇa families wherever he went. He was also Saṅkarṣaṇa, able to do anything because of being directly the Supreme Lord. He went to the southernmost point of Bhārata-varṣa, with the Malaya mountain range (kulācalam) and met Agastya who dwelled there constantly. Receiving his blessings and permission to leave, he went to the southern ocean, and saw Durgā who was worshipped by the universe or shone with her glory (devīm).
- Where in my journey could I add a moment of generosity?
- Whose blessing have I not yet sought?
Ten thousand cows poured out at Setubandha, another bow to Agastya in the Malayas, a visit to Kanyā-kumārī's Devī — Balarāma moves through the south the way a king moves through his own provinces, distributing wealth, paying respect to elders, and finally bowing to the feminine boundary-deity at the very tip of Bhārata. Charity, daṇḍavat, daṇḍavat, daṇḍavat — the rhythm of an avatar conducting Himself as a proper householder.
Setubandha, also called Rāmeśvaram, is the stone-bridge built by Hanumān and the vānara army to cross to Laṅkā in the Rāmāyaṇa. When Lord Rāmacandra returned from Laṅkā, He installed a Śiva-liṅga there in gratitude — and the place became one of the seven mokṣa-puris.
Balarāma giving ten thousand cows at Setubandha is Saṅkarṣaṇa honoring the līlā-sthala of His own previous incarnation. The Bhāgavatam links the avatāras across yugas by mapping their feet onto the same soil.
Agastya Ṛṣi is the southern sage par excellence — born from a pot, husband of Lopāmudrā, the seer who once drank the entire ocean to expose the asuras hiding within (Mahābhārata Vana-parva). Rāmacandra received the Brahmāstra from him on His way to Laṅkā.
Balarāma bowing to Agastya in the Malayas is again Lord meeting His own previous līlā's teacher. Gauḍīyas read this whole chapter as Saṅkarṣaṇa retracing Rāma-līlā geography while Kṛṣṇa-līlā continues elsewhere.
My note
Source: vedabase.io