ଶ୍ରୀ କୃଷ୍ଣ ସ୍ତୋତ୍ରମ୍ (ଦାନଵ କୃତମ୍)

A hymn spoken by a demon in the body of an ass — Brahmavaivarta Purana, Krishna-janma-khanda, chapter twenty-two — and it never lets you forget the speaker. He names himself a son of the Bali at whose sacrifice Vamana came begging, says a curse of Durvasas gave him this contemptible birth and that the same sage foretold his death would come from Krishna, then asks for it outright: slay me with the sixteen-spoked discus. Between those lies a full Dashavatara litany, closing on Krishna as the seed-form of them all. The nineteenth verse gives the piece its edge — the Vedas and Brahma cannot praise him, so what can I, a daitya once and an ass now? The twenty-first turns that into an argument: Brahma is a praiser and an ass is a praiser, do not laugh at me; for one who is lord and knows, grace falls the same on the fit and the unfit.