The brothers herd, sing and wrestle in the woods. Pralamba, meaning to kill Krishna and then Balarama, joins the cowherd boys in disguise. In the game of leaping like deer in pairs Krishna is matched with Sridaman and Balarama with Pralamba; the losers carry the winners to the Bhandira fig and back. Krishna's side wins, Pralamba carries Balarama and runs off, and unable to bear his weight swells huge like a black rain cloud. Balarama calls out to Krishna, who smiles and reminds him that he is the thousand-headed upholder of the earth come down with him to lighten its load. Balarama laughs, grips the demon with his knees and strikes his head with his fists, and Pralamba dies. The boys cry well done.
Vishnu Purana 5.9, tr. H. H. Wilson (1840), sacred-texts (archived)
Summer feels like spring. Krishna sees through the disguised Pralamba and pretends friendship. Two teams are led by Krishna and Balarama, and the winners ride the losers to the Bhandiraka banyan. Balarama's side wins; Krishna carries Shridama, Bhadrasena carries Vrishabha and Pralamba carries Balarama, choosing him because he thinks Krishna unbeatable. He carries him past the spot; Balarama grows heavy as Sumeru; the demon shows his shining form. Balarama seems a little frightened, then remembers and strikes his head with his fist like a thunderbolt. The boys embrace him and the gods shower garlands.
No reminder from Krishna; Balarama's side wins; teams instead of pairs.
Srimad Bhagavatam 10.18 (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, vedabase)
Sources: Vishnu Purana 5.9, tr. H. H. Wilson (1840), sacred-texts (archived); Srimad Bhagavatam 10.18 (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, vedabase)
King Raivata takes his daughter Revati to Brahma to ask whom she should marry; while he waits for the heavenly singers to finish, ages pass on earth; Brahma sends him back to give her to Balarama, and in the Vishnu Purana Balarama shortens the too-tall bride with his ploughshare.
Samba carries off Duryodhana's daughter Lakshmana and is captured by the Kurus; Balarama goes to Hastinapura to make peace, is insulted, and drags the city toward the Ganga with his plough until the Kurus hand the couple over.
Balarama, teacher of the mace to both Bhima and Duryodhana, refuses to fight in the Kurukshetra war and goes on pilgrimage; he returns for the final duel, and when Bhima strikes below the navel he rushes at him with his plough until Krishna holds him back, then leaves for Dwaraka. In the Bhagavata he tries to stop the duel and fails.
The boy Krishna leaps into the Yamuna pool poisoned by the serpent Kaliya, is bound in his coils while Vrindavan weeps on the bank, then dances on his hoods until the serpent's wives beg for his life, and sends him back to the sea.
Arjuna sees Subhadra at the Raivataka festival; Krishna advises him to carry her off rather than risk a swayamvara; the Yadavas rush to arms and Balarama rages until Krishna persuades them to bring Arjuna back for the wedding. The Bhagavata has Arjuna come as an ascetic, Subhadra want him too, and her parents agree.
In a Gaudiya Vaishnava telling, Subhadra guards the door while Rohini tells Krishna's queens about Vrindavan; she and her brothers are so absorbed that all three take the round-eyed, handless forms of Puri, and Krishna promises Narada to show them there. At Puri she rides between her brothers on her chariot Darpadalana, with Arjuna as its charioteer.
Shesha, eldest of the thousand naga brothers, leaves them for their envy and malice and does austerities until his body dries to sinew; Brahma asks him to hold the unsteady earth, and he goes below and bears it on his head; the epic's last books show him leaving the dying Balarama as a white serpent going home to the sea.
The Rigveda's hymn portrait of the river Sarasvati, and the Mahabharata's account of the river that vanishes and comes when called.