As the toll discussion continued, Nandimukhi slowly approached. She told Krishna that she brought a message from Paurnamasi. Radha and the other cowherd women were going to the sacrifice with ghee that day. Paurnamasi asked Him to favor them in the matter of the toll. Krishna received the message with an expression of joy and respect.
Then Krishna addressed Madhumangala. He praised the ghee of the young sun worshippers as especially sweet. He called on His friend to calculate the amount of the toll. In doing so, He mentioned Paurnamasi's partiality toward the cowherd women. Madhumangala began by reciting the measures of weight.
Four tankas made one karsha, and four karshas made one pala. One hundred palas made one tula, and twenty tulas made one bhara. Madhumangala then appealed to Lalita's words about the “great burden.” He turned her ordinary expression into the technical measure mahabhara. He said that one such measure amounted to fifty bharas.
According to his comic calculation, each of the five gopis carried such a load. He thus arrived at eighty lakhs of tankas for their ghee. He added another four lakhs for maintaining the toll keeper. The total became eighty-four lakhs. That was eight million four hundred thousand tankas in his extravagant account.
Krishna smiled and told him that he had actually reduced the sum. As part of the joke, He accused him of hoping for a bribe. Madhumangala brought his face close to His ear and mimed speaking. But the stage direction expressly says that he said nothing. Krishna smiled again and asked that the calculated sum be brought quickly.
Then Chitra challenged the unbelievable bill. If the toll alone for five pots was eighty-four lakhs, what could their price be? Krishna answered by praising the sages who bestowed priceless jewels. Nandimukhi intervened on the cowherd women's behalf. She asked Him to show compassion and think of an accommodation.
Madhumangala interpreted her words through another play on meanings. He compared the gopis' forms and beauty with the eighty-four lakhs of living forms. Smiling, he turned away before completing his thought. Krishna playfully understood the message as advice to keep one of the cowherd women. Lalita compared that wish to a greedy parrot eating grapes only in its imagination.
Krishna said that lotus-eyed Radha pleased Him most. Vrinda pointed out that her ornaments had already been hidden and proposed bejeweled Lalita. Krishna replied by describing Radha's beauty through images of precious stones. Her smile was like pearls, her face like moonstone, and her hair like blue sapphires. Thus the conversation returned from the enormous account to His admiration of Radha.