Devkota's Muna Madan is believed to be based on an 18th-century Nepal Bhasa ballad called 'Ji Waya La Lachhi Maduni' ('It has not been a month since I came').

[7][8][9] Before Muna Madan, Devkota had primarily been influenced by the English Romantics, but with this poem, he took a quintessentially Nepali folk tradition as his inspiration, the jhyaure meter.

[2] Devkota was reportedly inspired to write a poem in jhyaure by the singing of women plating rice in the fields during the Nepali month of Asar.

Devkota also used the epic form to comment on various socio-political issues, namely the pursuit of wealth at the cost of family and the Hindu caste system.

Another of the poem's couplets that has entered common usage occurs when Muna is entreating Madan not to go to Lhasa for the sake of riches: हातका मैला सुनका थैला के गर्नु धनलेसाग र सिस्नु खाएको बेस आनन्दी मनले Purses of gold are like the dirt on your hands, what can be done with wealth?Better to eat only nettles and greens with happiness in your heart.

Although Devkota would go on to produce epic works of immense literary significance, like Shakuntala, Sulochana, and Maharana Pratap, Muna Madan was reportedly his most beloved poem.

[12] Devkota also makes a bold statement against the prevailing caste system, by having his devout Chhetri protagonist touch the feet of the 'untouchable' Tibetan man.

The poem presents a distinct contrast between the masculine Madan who goes off on a trip (to Lhasa) to provide for his family and the feminine Muna who is "a paragon of high-caste Hindu female virtue, enclosed in the home and waiting for her husband".