1.19 [11.3] Kaliya was a serpent king who dwelled in the Yamuna, polluting it with his venom. The child Krishna dove into the river, danced on the head of the snake, subdued him, and then banished him to the ocean.

1.19 [11.3] Yadava lotus refers to the dynastic descendants of Yadu, the line into which Krishna was born.

1.20 [11.4] Madhu, Mura, and Naraka’s slayer: the demon Madhu was slain by Vishnu to prevent him from killing the sleeping Brahma and stealing the Veda. Naraka stole the earrings of Vishnu’s mother, Aditi, and took them to the city guarded by Mura. Krishna killed Naraka and Mura, destroyed their city, and retrieved her jewels. Killer-of-Madhu and Slayer-of-Mura are frequently used epithets for Krishna in the text.

1.20 [11.4] The regal eagle is Garuda, Vishnu’s mount, the king of birds and arch-enemy of serpents.

1.22 [11.6] Ravana’s trooper is Dushana, one of the generals of Lanka killed in battle by Rama.

SONG III There are references throughout this song, and the text as a whole, to Kama, the god who is love. In hearing the poem recited (or in reading it in a script without capitalization) there would be an ambiguity between Love as the god, and love as an emotion, desire, or pleasure.

1.28 [111.1] Westerly winds (Malaya/samira), blowing from the southern Malabar mountains, are, by literary convention, fragrant with the smell of the sandalwood trees that flourish there. They can also be, as in 1.48, laced with the fumes of the venom of the deadly serpents that reside in the hollows of those trees.

1.32 [111.5] Weeping willows laugh: Weeping willow is for karuna, a citrus tree with small white flowers. Karuna means “mournful” and, as a term in Sanskrit poetics, it refers to the tragic or pitiful aes- thetic sentiment. “To show [the] whiteness [of one’s teeth]” is _________