(i) The mother exclaims:

“Alas! my daughter feels let down by the Lord who, as Narasiṃha (Man-Lion), came to Prahlāda’s aid. Restive and rattling, she looks out for Him everywhere, her heart melts down in contemplation of the Lord and she cries out for Him in melodious notes expressive of her melancholy”.

(ii) The tears flowing down the cheeks of Parāṅkuśa Nāyakī

(i)

“Oh, Lord Kṛṣṇa, You secured Uṣā, the daughter of the mighty Bāṇāsura for Aniruddha, your grandson, after chopping off the Asura’s thousand sinewy shoulders. And yet you would not relent in the case of my daughter and relieve her distress”.

(ii) Reference has again been made to the bright forehead of Parāṅkuṣa Nāyakī oṇly to betray the mother’s surprise at

[Mother to the Lord:]

“What you did to reclaim Sītā from her captivity in Laṅkā, how you languished without food and sleep days on end, how you bunded the roaring sea and routed Rāvaṇa’s Laṅkā, lock, stock and barrel have been chronicled by sage Vālmīki in his immortal Rāmāyaṇa. And so it is well within the Knowledge of my hapless daughter. Therefore it is she feels

(i) [Mother to the Lord:]

“I thought I had consoled my daughter saying that she should sustain herself meditating on your meritorious deeds as Śrī Rāma with the firm belief that you will, some day, succour her as you did Sītā. Even Sītā had to wait for quite some length of time before she was reclaimed from her captivity in Laṅkā. But suddenly my daughter has started

(i) [Mother to the Lord:]

“Well, if you don’t relent even in such a precarious condition of my daughter what indeed has happened to your quality of mercy? Has it dried up altogether?

My daughter is talking about you all the time whereas it should be the other way round. We know from Hanumān’s report to Sītā how you kept pining for her, spending sleepless days and

(i) In the preceding stanza the mother complained about a heartless Lord, who had put her daughter in such a parlous predicament. But no sooner had the mother opened her mouth, with such a reproach on her tongue than the daughter (Parāṅkuśa Nāyakī) gagged it effectively, despite her pangs of separation from the Lord, by proclaiming that the Lord is an inexhaustible fountain

(i) With an aching heart the mother gives expression to her daughter’s enticement by the Lord and her present critical condition. The soul which is inherently incapable of being burnt or dried up, is said to have been dried up in Parāṅkuśa Nāyakī’s case. And yet, she tries to keep her mother off the track and lauds her beloved Lord.

(ii) Parāṅkuśa Nāyakī says her Lord

(i) When the mother complained in the previous song about the treacherous enticement of her daughter by the Lord, Parāṅkuśa Nāyakī could not bear this affront to her beloved Lord. Uttering the same word, ‘treachery’, as the mother did, the Nāyakī gives it a different complexion. The Lord’s treachery lies in the great good He has done her by making her His vassal unknown

(i) Unlike the worldlings who know day and night too well, earning by day and spending by night those earnings on worldly pleasures, Parāṅkuśa Nāyakī is altogether ignorant of Sun-rise and Sun-set. Does it mean that she is not sentient? She is no doubt sentient as her mouth constantly utters the words ‘tulacī cool and fragrant, studded with honey

(ii) When the Lord

[Mother to the Lord:]

“The tears welling up my daughter’s eyes day and night resemble the water drops around the lotus leaf shining like pearls, a sight indeed for you which you cannot afford to miss. Actually it is you that had worked her up to such a pitch and would you not like to behold and enjoy the fruits of your labours?

Is it not a sight for Gods, the rapturous

(i) Those that recite these ten songs will be endowed with the bliss of rendering perennial service at the feet of the Lord in the company of the ‘Nitya Sūrīs’ in spiritual world, the very bliss coveted by the Āzhvār at the end of the last decad, without passing through any of the sufferings undergone by the Āzhvār.

(ii) In the first song of this decad reference was