SOURCE: Bahadur, Krishna P. “What Mira Wrote About.” In Mīrā Bāī and Her Padas, pp. 25-9. New Delhi, India: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1998.

In the following essay, Bahadur provides an overview of the descriptive language and themes of Mirabai's padas and suggests that they are strongly rooted in an oral tradition.

More than four hundred years ago, God sent on earth a puppet of his love. She came immersed in the love of God, held fast in his embrace and merged with his form, uniting her heart with the jingle of ankle-bell, pouring out her soul in the notes of his flute, held spellbound by his yellow garment of silk and his soft smiles, laying open her heart to him as though a carpet for his feet to tread on;—thus that artless yoginī, ankle-bells on her feet and cymbals in her hands, danced away and sang on...