Samdaun song is sung in Mithila at the time of vidaai, when a daughter leaves her parental home for her husband’s house. These songs reveal the parents’ anguish and the daughter’s heart-wrenching parting, softening even the hardest of hearts. In this Samdaun song, the mother’s sorrow finds a voice as her child prepares to depart. She says that had she known her daughter must leave, she would have planted a sandalwood tree in the courtyard so its cool shade could comfort her on the journey ahead. Now, as the kahar (palanquin bearers) carry the bride away to a place where her parents will not be, the mother’s heart breaks at the thought of her daughter’s anguish.