Verse 1

¹Kama, a portion of Vasudeva, who had been burnt up before this by Rudra's anger, came back to that same one to get himself a body. ²He it was who was born of Vaidarbhi, sprung from Krsna's own strength, known as Pradyumna, and less than his father in nothing. ³Sambara, who could take what shape he liked, stole him when the child was not ten days old, and knowing him for his own enemy, threw him into the sea and went home. ⁴A strong fish swallowed him, and that fish with others was caught in a great net by men who live by fishing. ⁵The fishermen brought it to Sambara as a present. The cooks carried it to the kitchen and cut it open with a knife: a wonder.

⁶Seeing the child in its belly they told Mayavati, and her mind was in doubt; and Narada told her the whole of it, what the child was, his birth, and his lodging in the fish's belly. ⁷And she was the wife of Kama, Rati by name, the famous one, waiting for a body to come into being for her husband, whose body had been burnt. ⁸Sambara had set her over the cooking of the rice; and knowing the infant to be the god of love, she grew fond of the little one.