6The song gives a new twist to the legend. According to the literary tradition, Vasudeva and Devakī were imprisoned by Kaṁsa in Mathurā and their seven children were killed, one after the other, by the tyrant because of a forecast that one of their children would destroy him. Nanda, however, saved the eighth child, Kṛṣṇa, by bringing his new born baby daughter and taking back the boy across the Yamunā to his village, Gokula. In the song, however, Yaśodā, Nanda's wife, goes to fetch water from the river, hears Devakī crying on the opposite shore, crosses over and promises to give her own child to be killed to save Devakī's eighth child.
Several versions have been recorded. Also cp. S. Avasthī (S.P. '50: 157) and Kumārī Saroja (Ibid: 297); R. Tripāṭhī ('29: 445); V. Prasāda ('62: 47, 48).

1July-August.

2The second half of each odd-numbered line is repeated by the singers; the repetition is not translated.

3Each even-numbered line begins with lalanā, a stobha-vocative meaning ‘dear young one’, as if the story is told to some such person.

4Ghayalā ghaylariyā, ‘the pitchers and so on’; a twin-word or ‘Reimbildung’.

5An expression meaning ‘some’, ‘a number of’.

6A string is often tied around the neck of a pitcher to dip the pitcher into a well or any deep water.

7Nāva navariyā, ‘a boat or any such thing’.

8Tying the upper garment around the waist; gathering the ends of the lower garment such as a sari, passing it between the legs and tucking it into the waist at the back.

1Hari, God as Viṣṇu; such terms are often used by Hindu women to address their husbands or to refer to them.

2Sc. ‘Do not speak such inauspicious words’.

3The supreme and natural law and personal virtue; here personified.

4Viṣṇu's or Kṛṣṇa's heaven.

5In another version of the song this line is: sūra śyāma balī āsa, ‘(says) Sūra(dāsa), (by the grace of) Śyāma (i.e. Kṛṣṇa) there is powerful hope that she attains...’.