kailā devī cālīsā

Forty verses in Hindi to Kaila Devi, whose shrine stands in the Karauli country of Rajasthan, opening in the posture the whole chalisa keeps: victory to you, mother Kaila, I bow my head; I fall at your feet and join both hands. What it recounts is the local telling of her — the hill, the coming of pilgrims, and the help given to those who ask. The interest of the record is in its last doha, which most chalisas do not have: it dates the composition by a chronogram and then gives the day exactly, the second of the bright half of Pausha, a Sunday, on which the work was completed.