About
Rusadru — King of the Yadu Line
Rusadru · Rusadgu · Rushanku · Ruseku · Rusheku · Usadgu
Rusadru is a king recorded in the Yadu lineage, one of the great royal dynasties of ancient India tracing its origin to Yadu, the eldest son of Yayati and Devayani. Yadu was a celebrated lunar-dynasty king whose descendants formed one of the most prominent kshatriya clans in Puranic tradition, eventually giving rise to the Yadava people and, in later generations, to Sri Krishna. Rusadru appears in the genealogical lists preserved in the Puranas as a link in the Yadu succession, and is identified primarily as the father of Chitraratha, through whom the line continued.
✦ Lineage
- Dynasty: Yadu — the lunar-dynasty clan founded by Yadu, son of the celebrated emperor Yayati of the Puru-Yadu lineage, and his wife Devayani, daughter of the preceptor Shukracharya
- Son: Chitraratha — king of the Yadu line, whose own son Shashabindu would become one of the most celebrated monarchs in Puranic tradition
✦ Textual Base
Rusadru's presence in the primary sources is confined to genealogical lists. The Bhagavata Purana and the Vishnu Purana both record the Yadu dynastic succession and place Rusadru within it as an ancestor of Shashabindu. His profile in these texts is purely genealogical; no independent narrative episode is attributed to him in any of the major Puranas or in the Mahabharata's dynastic reckonings.
✦ References
- Bhagavata Purana, Skandha 9, Chapter 23: Records the genealogical succession of the Yadu dynasty, within which Rusadru appears as an ancestor of Shashabindu.
- Vishnu Purana, Book 4, Chapter 12: Provides the Yadu dynastic list situating Rusadru in the lineage leading to Chitraratha and Shashabindu.