________________ INTRODUCTION Now Devaki was depressed at heart as she felt that even though she gave birth to seven sons, she did not enjoy the pleasures of fondling any; that even Krsna visited her every six months. (940-41 ). Now when Krsna visited Devaki and found his mother depressed, he asked her why she was down-hearted. On her explaining the reason Krspa agreed to see that she would get the eighth son. He thereafter propitiated Harinaigamesin by observing a fast until the eighth meal and got a boon from the god that Devaki would have one more son. Devaki accordingly got a son who was named Gayasukumala, Sk., Gajasukumara. ( $ 42-45 ). Now there lived in Baravai a Brahmin, Somila by name, who had a daughter Soma. Krsna saw Soma playing on the street a game of ball, thought she would make a suitable wife for his brother Gajasukumara, and asked his men to take the girl to girls' harem. ( $ 46-49). Now once Aritthanemi came to visit the town of Baravai. Krsna and Gajasukumara went to listen to his discourse, and the latter felt that he should at once renounce the world and be a monk. His parents and also Krsna tried their best to persuade him but in vain. So Gajasukumara became a monk, and on the very day of his renunciation he began to practise the pratima for a night in a burning ground. Somila saw him there and in order to take revenge upon him for his neglect of Soma whom Gajasukumara left in the prime of youth, prepared an earthern basin on the head of Gaja
