śrī śyāma cālīsā

The chalisa of Khatu Shyam, and it is the only one here that has first to argue who its subject is. Its early couplets take the genealogy head on: Bhima's son, born of Ahilavati, and elsewhere called Bhima's grandson — the accounts differ because they belong to different kalpas, and not a hair of difference is to be allowed between them; Barbarika is Vishnu come down, who took a human body for his devotees' sake. Having settled that, it pours the whole of Krishna's naming over him — Madhusudana, Murari, Govardhandhari, Damodara, Ranchhod, Dwarakadhish, Radhavallabh, Ghanshyam. Then the rescued: the courtesan, the Bhil woman, Ahalya, Ajamila, Sadan the butcher. Its geography is Khatu and not Vraja, and it says so flatly — in Khatu lives the dweller of Mathura.