Samdaun song is sung in Mithila at the moment of vidaai, when a daughter leaves her parental home for her husband’s house. These songs lay bare the parents’ anguish, and the daughter’s heart-wrenching parting, softening even the hardest of hearts. Summary of this song This Samdaun song captures the charged instant when the bride is about to set off and every corner of the house seems to echo with farewell. The bride recalls how, unaware and carefree, she was asleep in her father’s home when suddenly the kahar (palanquin bearers) arrived to carry her away. In that hour of parting, everyone in her family is crying - some weep in the courtyard, others in the verandah. She soothes her father with an oath in Lord Rama’s name and gives her mother courage with a vow upon herself. In the end, her friends gently remind the mother that every daughter must one day cross this threshold—such is the unchanging law of life and society.