Krsna and Balarama began dancing around (valgantau) with their friends.

They mocked the wrestlers with laughter and then called the cowherd boys. They were shy to enter suddenly, and thus were brought to the arena by force and all joined together, holding one another (saṁsṛjya). They jumped about (valgantau) like wrestlers. Though they were wearing cloth ornaments, they had jewelled ankle bells since these would not get crushed by the opponent in wrestling. They kept them because the sound nourished their jumping and incited their limbs to move. The two boys brought the other boys into the arena for fun and to make Kaṁsa angrier.

Out of fear of Kaṁsa or because of shyness the boys did not come, but he forcibly pulled them there and met them because they were friends. They played at fighting. The two boys moved here and there (valgantau) while their ankle bells sounded. They played in the huge arena to show the beauty of their play wrestling and to show the superiority of the cowherds over Cāṇūra and others and make Kaṁsa angry, in order to kill him. This would also counteract later suffering of himself and the boys (on separation). bala-kṣayaṁ vivṛddhiṁ ca dṛṣṭvā cāṇūra-kṛṣṇayoḥ / vārayāmāsa tūryāṇi kaṁsaḥ kopa-parāyaṇaḥ // mṛdaṅgādiṣu tūryeṣu pratiṣiddheṣu tat-kṣaṇāt / khe saṁgatāny avādyanta deva-tūryāṇy anekaśaḥ // jaya govinda cāṇūraṁ jahi keśava dānavam / antardhānagatā devās tam ūcur atiharṣitāḥ // Seeing the destruction of Cāṇūra’ strength and the increase of Kṛṣṇa’s strength, Kaṁsa, full of anger, stopped the music. When the mṛdaṅgas and other instruments stopped, at that moment in the sky the devatas’ many instruments began to sound together. The devatās spoke in joy in the sky “Victory to Govinda! Keśava! Kill the demon Cāṇūra.” Viṣṇu Purāṇa Hari-vaṁśa says: tataḥ prasvinna-vadanaḥ kṛṣṇa-praṇihitekṣaṇaḥ / nyavārayata tūryāṇi kaṁsaḥ savyena pāṇinā // With sweating face, Kaṁsa glared at Kṛṣṇa and stopped the music with his left hand. svayam eva pravādyanta tūryaghoṣāś ca sarvaśaḥ All the instruments began playing on their own.