Yudhishthira said: O Krishna, O son of Vrishni, why were you absent? Where did you live in your sojourn and what did you do?

Srikrishna said : O Bharata chief, O foremost of the Kurus, I went to destroy the city of Shalva; listen to the reasons thereof. O foremost of the Bharatas, at the sacrifice of Rajasuya, the heroic son of Damaghosha, the highly effulgent, the mightyarmed and the illustrious king Shishupala was killed by me, for he could not bear to see the first worship offered to me. O descendant of Bharata, having heard of his destruction, Shalva, stricken with dreadful anger, went to the empty Dvarka, myself living here.

Having reached there, O king, in a chariot, coursing at will, made of precious metals and called accordingly Saubha, he fought ruthlessly with the young and leading princes of the Vrishni family.

Thereupon slaying a numberless young princes of the Vrishni race, the wicked-minded one laid waste all the gardens belonging to the city.

O mighty armed hero, he (Shalva) said, "Where has that greatly vicious-minded son of Vasudeva, that disgrace of the Vrishni race Vasudeva (Krishna) gone?

I shall humiliate in battle his pride. Tell me truly, O Anarthas, I shall repair where he has gone. I shall go back after slaying that destroyer of Kansa and Keshi; I swear by my weapon that I shall not return without slaying him."

(Exclaiming repeatedly) Where is he! Where is he!' the lord of Saubha, being desirous of fighting with me again and again rushed hither and thither in battle.

“Being enraged at the destruction of Shishupala, I shall dispatch today to the abode of Yama that mean and treacherous wight of vicious deeds. Oh king of the earth, “I shall slay him, vicious character as he is by whom, my brother, the great king Shishupala, was killed.

My royal brother was a boy and that hero was killed in the battle field unprepared and therefore I shall kill Janarddana."

O great king, having thus bewailed and abused me, O descendant of Kuru, he rose up in the sky in (his car) Saubha, coursing at will.

Returning there, O descendant of Kuru, I heard all that the vicious-minded and evilsouled king of Martika had said regarding myself.

Thereupon, O descendant of Kuru, O king, having my mind agitated by wrath and resolving in my mind to kill him, I determind to do it.

O descendant of Kuru, having heard of his oppressions on the Anarthas, of his vilifying me and also of the increasing arrogance of that one of impious deeds (I resolved upon his destruction). Thereupon, I proceeded, O lord of the earth, to destroy Saubha. He (Shalva) was espied by me in an island in the midst of an ocean.

Thereupon O king, blowing my conch, called Panchajanya, obtained from the ocean and inviting Shalva to an encounter 1 prepared myself for battle.

There took place at once a dreadful encounter between me and the Danavas and they were all vanquished and prostrated on earth by me.

It is for this, O mighty-armed hero, that I could not come to you. But no sooner I heard of the unfair gambling at Hastinapur than I have come here to see you who have been thus sunk in calamity.