The Sun's Gift and a Jealous Refusal
Satrajit was a devotee of , and , pleased with him, gave him a gift no king possessed: the Syamantaka, a gem that shone like the sun itself and produced, without fail, its own weight in gold each day. It carried one condition, unspoken but absolute — worn by someone pure of conduct, it protected and enriched; worn by someone unworthy, it destroyed them. When Satrajit rode into Dvaraka wearing it, the city's people mistook the light for descending in his chariot, and ran to to ask if the sun god himself had come to visit. , seeing the gem's power, suggested to Satrajit that so great a treasure belonged with Ugrasena, the Yadavas' king, for the good of the whole realm rather than one household. It was not a demand — never made it one — but Satrajit heard it as a threat to what he now considered his alone, and refused. He kept the Syamantaka for himself, and in time lent it to his brother Prasena, who wore it hunting, proud of the light it threw ahead of him in the forest.
✦ Visual cue — A radiant gem-studded warrior riding into a golden city at dawn, the jewel at his chest blazing so brightly that onlookers shield their eyes and kneel, mistaking the light for the sun god's own chariot.