To avenge the death of his friend, Naraka, the ape Dvivida ravaged the land, setting fires that burned cities, villages, mines and cowherd dwellings. Once, he tore up a number of mountains and used them to devastate all the neighboring kingdoms, especially the province of Anarta, wherein dwelt his friend's killer, Lord Hari. Another time he entered the ocean and, with the strength of ten thousand elephants, churned up its water with his arms and thus submerged the coastal regions. The wicked Gorilla tore down the trees in the hermitages of exalted sages and contaminated their sacrificial fires with his feces and urine. Just as a wasp imprisons smaller insects, he arrogantly threw both men and women into caves in a mountain valley and sealed the caves shut with boulders.
Once, while Dvivida was thus engaged in harassing the neighboring kingdoms and polluting women of respectable families, he heard very sweet singing coming from Raivataka Mountain. So he went there. There he saw Balarama, adorned with a garland of lotuses and appearing most attractive. He was singing amidst a crowd of young women, and since He had drunk varuni liquor, His eyes rolled as if He were intoxicated. His body shone brilliantly as He behaved like an elephant in rut.
The mischievous ape climbed a tree branch and then revealed his presence by shaking the trees and making some funny sounds. When Baladeva's consorts saw the ape's impudence, they began to laugh. They were, after all, young girls who were fond of joking and prone to silliness. Even as Lord Balarama looked on, Dvivida insulted the girls by making odd gestures with his eyebrows, coming right in front of them, and showing them his bottom. Seeing the impudence of the ape enraged Balarama, so much so that He hurled a rock at him. But the cunning ape dodged the rock and grabbed the Lord's pot of liquor, and further infuriated the Lord by laughing and by ridiculing Him. Wicked Dvivida then broke the pot and offended the Lord even more by pulling at the girls' clothing. Thus the powerful ape, puffed up with false pride, continued to insult Sri Balarama.
When Balarama saw the ape's rude behavior and thought of the disruptions he had created in the surrounding kingdoms, He angrily took up His club and His plow weapon, having decided to put His enemy to death. As the monstrous Dvivida came forward to attack the Lord, with an uprooted Palm tree, he rushed toward Balarama and struck Him on the head with the tree trunk. But Lord Sankarshana remained as motionless as a mountain and simply grabbed the log as it fell upon His head he throw in on the side and then struck Dvivida with His club.
Struck on the skull by the Lord's club, Dvivida became brilliantly decorated by the outpour of blood, like a mountain beautified by red oxide. Ignoring the wound, Dvivida uprooted another tree, stripped it of leaves by brute force and struck the Lord again. Enraged Balarama shattered the tree into hundreds of pieces, upon which Dvivida grabbed yet another tree and furiously hit the Lord again. This tree, too, the Lord smashed into hundreds of pieces. Thus fighting the Lord, who again and again demolished the trees He was attacked with, Dvivida kept on uprooting trees from all sides until the forest was left treeless. The angry ape then released a rain of stones upon Balarama, but the wielder of the club easily pulverized them all. Dvivida, the most powerful of apes, now clenched his fists at the end of his palm-tree-sized arms, came before Lord Balarama and beat his fists against the Lord's body. The furious Lord of the Yadavas then threw aside His club and plow and with His bare hands hammered a blow upon Dvivida's collarbone. The ape collapsed, vomiting blood. When he fell, Raivataka Mountain shook, along with its cliffs and trees, like a wind-tossed boat at sea. In the heavens the devas, perfect mystics and great sages cried out, "Victory to You! Obeisances to You! Excellent! Well done!" and showered flowers upon the Lord.
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