HV 52.2
नीलपीताम्बरधरौ पीतश्वेतानुलेपनौ । बभूवतुर् वत्सपालौ काकपक्षधराव् उभौ ॥
nīla-pītāmbara-dharau pīta-śvetānulepanau | babhūvatur vatsa-pālau kāka-pakṣa-dharāv ubhau
Both wearing dark-and-yellow garments, anointed with yellow and white, they became calf-herders — both bearing the crow-wing side-locks.
The Living Words
*Nīla-pītāmbara-dharau*, 'wearing dark and yellow garments' — the pair's distinctive coloring. *Pīta-śvetānulepanau*, 'anointed with yellow and white'. *Vatsa-pālau*, 'calf-herders'. *Kāka-pakṣa-dharau*, 'bearing the crow-wing side-locks'.
The Heart of It
The verse is the adolescent-iconography answer to HV 45.42's infant-iconography. *Kāka-pakṣa* — 'crow-wing' — names the specific child-hairstyle, two locks of unshaven hair hanging at the temples. The Varkari tradition's tenderness toward this particular detail (a hairstyle) in HV 52.2: the Lord's appearance is given at every age, not just at birth. Jñāneśvar's Haripāṭh imagines Gopāla precisely this way — seven-year-old with two dark side-locks, yellow cloth, anointed face — the *bāla-kṛṣṇa* of every Varkari household shrine.