Nanda now arrives from Mathura and congratulates the cowherds on their escape—­so great was Putana’s size that her body might have crushed and overwhelmed the whole colony.  He then arranges for her burning but as her flesh is being consumed, a strange perfume is noticed for Krishna, when killing her, had granted her salvation.

A second demon now intervenes.  It is twenty-seven days since Krishna’s birth.  Brahmans and cowherds have been summoned to a feast, the cowgirls are singing songs and everyone is laughing and eating.  Krishna for the time being is out of their minds, having been put to sleep beneath a heavy cart loaded with pitchers.  A little later he wakes up, begins to cry for the breast and finding no one there wriggles about and starts to suck a toe.  At this moment the demon, Saktasura, is flying through the sky.  He notices the child and alights on the cart.  His weight cracks it but before the cart can collapse, Krishna kicks out so sharply that the demon dies and the cart falls to pieces.  Hearing a great crash, the cowgirls dash to the spot, marvelling that although the cart is in splinters and all the pots broken, Krishna has survived.

The third attack occurs when Krishna is five months old.  Yasoda is sitting with him in her lap when she notices that he has suddenly become very heavy.  At the same time, the whirlwind demon, Trinavarta, raises a great storm.  The sky darkens, trees are uprooted and thatch dislodged.  As Yasoda sets Krishna down, Trinavarta seizes him and whirls him into the air.  Yasoda finds him suddenly gone and calls out, ‘Krishna, Krishna.’  The cowgirls and cowherds join her in the search, peering for him in the gusty gloom of the dark storm.  Full of misery, they search the forest and can find him nowhere.  Krishna, riding through the air, however, can see their distress.  He twists Trinavarta round, forces him down and dashes him to death against a stone.  As he does so, the storm lightens, the wind drops and the cowherds and cowgirls regain their homes.  There they discover a demon lying dead with Krishna playing on its chest.  Filled with relief, Yasoda picks him up and hugs him to her breast.

Vasudeva now instructs his family priest, Garga the sage, to go to Gokula, meet Nanda and give Krishna and Balarama proper names.  Rohini, he points out, has had a son, Balarama, and Nanda has also had a son, Krishna.  It is time that each should be formally named.  The sage is delighted to receive the commission and on arriving is warmly welcomed.  He declines, however, to announce the children’s names in public, fearing that his connection with Vasudeva will cause Raja Kansa to connect Krishna with the eighth child—­his fated enemy.  Nanda accordingly takes him inside his house and there the sage names the two children.  Balarama is given seven names, but Krishna’s names, he declares, are numberless.  Since, however, Krishna was once born in Vasudeva’s house, he is called Vasudeva.