The makhan-chor cycle — Kṛṣṇa’s childhood thefts of butter in Braj — as a sustained text of Vaiṣṇava theology. The butter is śakti in its most condensed, most nourishing form; the theft is the divine’s refusal to be bound by propriety. Includes Sūrdās’s pada tradition, Yaśodā’s vision of the cosmos in Kṛṣṇa’s mouth, and the bhakti understanding that divine love exceeds all rule.