He goes on to think of how he will kneel before Krishna with folded hands and afterwards put on his head the dust of Krishna’s feet—­the same feet which ’have come to destroy crime, which fell on the snake Kaliya’s head and which have danced with the cowgirls in the forest.’  Krishna, he believes, will know at once that he is not Kansa’s envoy and will receive him with kindness.  And this is what actually ensues.  Meeting Krishna outside Brindaban, he falls at his feet, Krishna lifts him up, embraces him and brings him into Nanda’s house.  Akrura tells Nanda and Krishna how Kansa has oppressed the people of Mathura, imprisoned Vasudeva and Devaki and has now sent him to invite them to attend the festival of arms.  Krishna listens and at once agrees to go, while Nanda sends out a town-crier to announce by beat of drum that all the cowherds should get ready to leave the next day.  When morning comes, Krishna leaves in a chariot, accompanied by the cowherds and their children.

The news of his sudden departure devastates the cowgirls.  Since the circular dance in which their love was consummated, they have been meeting Krishna every evening and delighting in his company.  And during the daytime their passionate longings have centred solely on him.  That he should leave them so abruptly causes them complete dismay and they are only comforted when Krishna assures them that he will return after a few days.

On the way to Mathura Akrura bathes in the Jumna and is granted a vision of Krishna as Vishnu himself.

Reaching Mathura, Nanda and the cowherds pitch their tents outside the city walls[32] while Krishna with Balarama and the cowherd children go inside the city for a walk.  As they wander through the streets, the news of their arrival precedes them and women, excited by Krishna’s name, throng the rooftops, balconies and windows.  ’Some ran off in the middle of their dinner:  others while bathing and others while engaged in plaiting their hair.  They forgot all dalliance with their husbands and went to look at Krishna.’  As Krishna proceeds, he meets some of Kansa’s washermen carrying with them bundles of clothes.  He asks them to give him some and when they refuse, he attacks one of them and strikes off his head.  The others drop their bundles and run for their lives.  The cowherd children try to dress themselves up but not knowing how to wear the clothes, some of them put their arms into trousers and their legs into coats.  Krishna laughs at their mistakes until a tailor, a servant of Kansa, repudiates his master, glorifies Krishna and sets the clothes right.  A little later, a gardener takes them to his house and places garlands round their necks.  As they are leaving, they meet a young woman, a hunchback, carrying a pot of scented ointment.  Krishna cannot resist flirting with her and asks her for whom she is carrying the ointment.  The girl, Kubja, sees the amorous look in his eyes and being greatly taken by his beauty answers