Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.83.12
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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svayaṁ - vare
—
at the self-choice ceremony
Svayam (self) + vara (choosing, bridegroom). The Vedic institution by which a princess herself selects her husband. The chapter contrasts svayaṁvara (Mitravindā, Lakṣmaṇā), rākṣasa-vivāha (Rukmiṇī), tapas (Kālindī), and dāna (Bhadrā, Satyā) as four valid routes — Bhagavān honors them all.
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dvipa - ariḥ
—
enemy of elephants (i.e., a lion)
Dvipa (elephant) + ari (enemy) — kenning for the lion. Mitravindā escalates Rukmiṇī's mṛgendraḥ image: not just lord-of-beasts but specifically the one elephants fear. Her brothers, who thought themselves powerful, were street-dogs by comparison.
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aṅghri - avanejanatvam
—
the status of washing the feet
Aṅghri (foot) + avanejana (washing) + tva (-ness). She asks not to be queen but to hold the office of foot-washer. Gauḍīya sevā-tattva: the lowest service is the highest position. Note the abstract suffix tvam — she wants the office itself, perpetually.
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anu - bhavam
—
life after life
Anu (following) + bhava (becoming, birth). She does not ask for liberation from birth — she asks to keep being born, provided each birth contains the foot-washing service. Gauḍīya bhakti's classic refusal of mokṣa-as-cessation.
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apakurutaḥ
—
(those who were) insulting
Apa (away from) + √kṛ (do). A precise word for the offence: not just opposing, but apa-karaṇa — anti-action, doing the wrong thing toward the Lord. The brothers' apakāra is what Kṛṣṇa's lion-step corrected.
As a lion takes his share from a pack of dogs, defeating the kings and my offensive brothers, Krsna, the abode of Laksmi (sriyaukah) took me to his city. May I take repeated births as a washer of his lotus feet.
In place of Mitravindā, Bhadṛā is described here in Śrīdhara Svāmī’s version. In the Madhva line also, this verse occurs here. There were actually two brothers Vinda and Anuvinda but here many brothers are mentioned. But the meaning is the same. Śriyaukaḥ instead of sriyah okaḥ (abode Lakṣmī) is poetic license. It indicates Kṛṣṇa or can modify “his city.”
There were actually two brothers Vinda and Anuvinda but here many brothers are mentioned. They were the chief persons to oppose her marriage to the Lord, and were thus mentioned. However there were many others present who opposed the marriage also. Śriyaukaḥ instead of sriyah okaḥ (abode Lakṣmī) is poetic license. He is the abode of Lakṣmī. I am thus not qualified. Therefore let me wash his feet in every birth. Or he brought me to his city, the abode of Lakṣmī, though I was unqualified to go there. He brought me there by his mercy.
- From what 'pack of dogs' has the Lord rescued me?
- What lifelong service do I want to offer in gratitude?
At Mitravindā's svayaṁvara her own brothers stood between her and her chosen Lord, insulting Him; Kṛṣṇa stepped through them as a lion steps through a pack of barking street-dogs and carried her away. Her closing word is not 'queen' but aṅghri-avanejana — let me wash His feet, life after life. The svayaṁvara was the door; the foot-washing is the room.
Mitravindā was the daughter of Kṛṣṇa's paternal aunt Rājādhidevī, and her own brothers Vinda and Anuvinda — allied with Duryodhana — opposed her choosing Kṛṣṇa. At her svayaṁvara, her heart already fixed on Him, she walked toward Him; her brothers stepped in to block her.
In SB 10.58, Kṛṣṇa carried her off in His chariot before the assembled kings, defeating those who resisted. Her own verse here calls her brothers 'dogs' — strong language softened by bhakti's clarity: anything that comes between the soul and Kṛṣṇa's feet earns that name.
My note
Source: vedabase.io