He is also the founder of the ikshvākuvamśa, and further, upon his cousins, Nami and Vinami, he bestows vidyās, magical powers, and the land to establish their own dynasty, the vidyādharavamśa (8–10).
In sarga 13 the Harivamśapurāna proper begins, with a sketch of history up to the tenth Jina, Śītalanātha, during whose time the Hari dynasty arises.
The eighteenth sarga presents King Yadu in the Hari dynasty giving rise to the Yādava branch in Mathurā and introduces some of the characters known from their equivalents in the Mahabharata: Andhakavrishni and his ten sons (Daśārhas) and two daughters, Kuntī and Mādrī, Bhojakavrishni and his sons Ugrasena, Mahāsena and Devasena, and Jarāsandha, the king of Rājagriha.
One day Jīvadyaśas insults the ascetic Atimuktaka, who curses her, swearing that her husband and father will die at the hand of Devakī’s seventh son.
After a short doctrinal discourse, including the previous birth stories of the future Tīrthankara Nemi, Devakī’s first six children are exchanged by the god Naigama for stillborns (34–35).
The birth of the seventh child is announced by seven dreams, the standard narrative theme in the conception of a future Vāsudeva or Ardhacakravartin.
Jarāsandha wants to avenge the death of Kamsa, his son-in-law, and sends his son Kālayavana and his brother Aparājita after the Yādavas, but to no avail.
As a long interlude Jinasena here inserts the account of the conception, birth and consecration of the Tīrthankara Nemi, son of Samudravijaya, the eldest of the Daśārhas and cousin of Krishna (37–39).
The gods create an illusion of funeral pyres burning with the bodies of the Yādava armies, making Jarāsandha’s camp believe that his enemies have committed suicide and abandon the pursuit.
The neighbouring king, Duryodhana, promises the hand of his firstborn daughter to Krishna's first son, born to either Rukminī or Satyabhāmā.
However, a god seeking vengeance for insults suffered in a previous life kidnaps the boy and abandons him in Meghakūta where he grows up in a Vidyādhara family.
They return to Hāstinapura where they make every effort at peaceful coexistence but are forced to leave their home again to avoid war with their cousins.
After this concise sketch of the Pāndavas' past history the Harivamśapurāna takes us back to Pradyumna, who has now grown up to accomplish many heroic feats, much to the envy of his foster mother and brothers.
On the way Pradyumna raids the caravan that is accompanying Duryodhana’s daughter to Dvāravatī, where she will marry Satyabhāmā’s son Bhānu, and he steals the bride.
Rukminī recognizes her son and Nārada introduces him to Krishna after which Pradyumna triumphantly enters Dvāravatī and marries Duryodhana’s daughter (47).
Sarga 48 describes the anecdotes of Pradyumna and his half brother Śamba, who is always taunting Satyabhāmā’s younger son Subhānu.
They misinterpret this as a sign that the goddess demands blood and from then on they engage in the practice of sacrificing buffaloes, hence the origin of the Durgā cult.
They cross the ocean of salt surrounding Jambūdvīpa and reach Dhātakīkhanda, where they subdue Padmanābha’s armies and are reunited with Draupadī.
When he hears that the Pāndavas are responsible for this he angrily banishes them to Mathurā in the south and installs Parīksita, Subhadrā’s grandson, in Hāstinapura (54).
Twelve years later, as predicted, the city and all its inhabitants are burnt by a vengeful god, who, when in a former existence he was an ascetic named Dvīpāyana, was insulted by Dvāravatī’s drunken young princes.
In the final sarga the genealogy of the Hari dynasty is enumerated up to Jitaśatru, the monk about whom Shrenika had requested to hear the whole story.