Part 6

The following synonyms of Krishna are used by Vidyāpati: Hari, Mādhava, Kāna, Kānu, Kānta, Kanāi, Murāri, Murali, Banamāli, Shyāma, Vallabha, Giridhara, Gokula-nātha, Nanda-kumara,--and the following of Rādhā: Rādhikā, Rāi.

As regards the use of capitals: 'Love' is so printed when the poet refers to love as a Power (Kāmadeva, Anaʼnga, Pañca-bān, Madan, Manmatha), and 'Desire' is similarly printed with a capital when the reference is to desire as a Power (Rati, the wife of Kāmadeva).

In the use of pronouns refering to Krishna, we have only occasionally printed a capital 'He,'--for though He was God, he appeared to Rādhā as man. We have generally used the colloquial second person plural, in place of the thee and thou of the original, since to reproduce the original would not convey the needed intimacy of the French '_tutoyer_': but in few cases it seemed better to adhere to the singular.

ELUCIDATIONS

KRISHNA PŪRBBARĀGA

The First Passion of Krishna

I

Rādhā first seen:

_'She was a phantom of delight_ _When first she gleamed upon my sight.'_

Wordsworth.

2. 'Unstained,' literally 'without antelope.' Indian fancy sees in the moon's markings, not a 'man in the moon,' but an antelope (or a hare). Rādhā is flawless, and so lovelier than the moon itself.

4. 'Sūrm,' viz. _añjana_, otherwise rendered as kohl or collyrium, with which the lower eyelid is blackened.

10, 11. A woman's throat is commonly compared to a conch. The Shambhu (Shiva-lingam) is the nipple (cf. Nos. XVI, LXVI). The poet suggests that Rādhā's pearl necklace seems to be an ambrosial offering to Shiva, made by Kāmadeva, using the sacrificial vessel of Rādhā's conch-like throat (cf No. LI, 12).

12, 13. _'Hevene y tolde al his_ _That o nyght were hire gest.'_

II

Rādhā excels the sources of her charms in every quality, so that each is put to shame. Cf. _Prema Sāgara_, Ch. LXIII, and

_'Straighter than cedar, brighter than glass;_ _More fine in trip than foot of running roe . . ._ _Fresher than poplar, smaller than my span._

Shep. Tony (in 'England's Helicon').

4. 'Olifant,'--the elephant is commonly regarded by those least familiar with him, as a clumsy animal, probably on account of his size and weight. For the eastern poet he symbolises strength, grace and symmetry. The old form 'olifant' is therefore used here as if to restore him to his true position by a slight suggestion of mystery.

"The soft and graceful gait of an Indian woman is likened to that of an elephant; and in the East, where a woman's garments permit freedom of movement and sympathetic co-operation of the muscular system this is an apt comparison. In the West the natural swing of the hips, only possible in conjunction with the free, lithe play of the muscles of the foot and torso, is restricted and becomes jerky . . . The elephant has an exquisite sense of balance and most supple joints, and can even make obeisance with profound dignity."

F. H. Andrews, _Journal of Indian Art_, X, 52. See also Max Muller,_S.B.E._, Vol. XI, p. 46, note 2.

11. To save the Worlds, Shiva drank up the poison that appeared at the churning of the Ocean, whence his throat is stained blue. The poet suggests that despair at the sight of Rādhā's beauty was the real cause that Shiva drank.

III

6. "The _Khanjana_ (wagtail) eyes are characterised by their playful gaiety." (A. N. Tagore, _Some notes on Indian Artistic Anatomy_, Calcutta, 1914). The 'snakes' are the lines of collyrium drawn on each lower-lid.

8. _Lomā-latā-bāli_, lit. 'down-vine-wreath,' here compared to a half suffocated snake, to suggest the depth of Rādhā's navel. Garuḍa is the enemy of all snakes. The _lomā-latā-bāli_ is often indicated in Orissan sculpture (e.g. _Viśvakarma_ LV) by a slight furrow extending upwards from the navel. See also LI, 17.

12. The Indian Eros is armed with five arrows, from which he sometimes takes the name Five Arrows (cf. No. CXX). Here it is suggested that Love with Three Arrows slew the Three Worlds, and gave the two others to Rādhā's eyes, that the slain might be slain again.

The Three Worlds, constantly alluded to are _Svarga_, _Mata_ and _Patal_,--Heaven, Earth and Underworld.

17. The well of love: by 'maidens about the village well,' we can hardly doubt that the poet intends to signify the souls of men, attracted to the source of Eternal Life.

18, 19. The names of the poet's patron and his queen are constantly introduced in the refrains.

IV

_'Oh woe is me, that ever I did see_ _The beauty that did me bewitch.''--_

John Forbes, 1661.

VI

1. 'Cowdust-time,' viz. evening, when the cows are driven home: a favourite subject of Pahārĩ painters.

5. _'Tis not the linen shows so fair_ _Her skin shines through and makes it bright.'--_

Anon. (1671).

8. 'Lord of the Five Gaurs'--the Panjab, Kānoja, Bengal, Darbhangā, Orissā. The sway of the Princes of Gaur was of course far less extended than this in Vidyāpati's day. The term is complimentary: see Dinesh Chandra Sen, Bengali Language and Literature, p. 290.

VII

1. 'Milk-white,' a free rendering of '_nanuñga-badanī_': _nanuñga_, modern _nanī_, is a preparation of milk, not exactly curd.

_'Whiter far than Moorish milk.'_

Richard Braithwait. IX

7. '_Cakravākas_,' birds (_Anas casarca_), of which the pairs are said to separate at night, for example, to sleep on opposite sides of a river.

X

This is one of Vidyāpati's most renowned poems, and a favourite subject of Rājput painters.

XI

1. The bank of the Jamunā, or the steps of a bathing ghāt. Jamunā bank in Vaishnava literature stands for this world regarded as the constant meeting place of Rādhā and Krishna where amidst the affairs of daily life the soul is arrested and beguiled to her (worldly) undoing.

12. It is a popular tradition that the partridge (_cakora_) is in love with the moon and lives on the moon's rays. (Cf. XXV, 5).

XII

7. A favourite motif of Indian poets. When the day lotus closes at dusk, the thoughtless bee intent on honey is made a prisoner.

XIV

2. Rādhā's feet do not touch the ground, but are upborne by lotus flowers that spring up beneath them. Thus Rādhā is very tenderly represented as divine. Every footfall finds a lotus-footstool,--which is a constant convention of Buddhist and Hindū art. The lightness of her step is also suggested.

8. Called 'water-lily' eyes "for the calm repose of their drooping lids." (Tagore, loc. cit.).

RĀDHĀ BAYAHSANDI

The Growing-up of Rādhā

XVI

3. Her eyes are elongated just when she grows up: or possibly the poet means that she then first artificially extends their length with a line of collyrium.

14. 'Mahesha,' i.e. a Shiva-lingam, Cf I, 11, and LXVI, 10.

XVII

1, 2. Sometimes she flashes sidelong glances, sometimes she veils her face.

XIX

8. _'And vital feelings of delight_ _Shall rear her form to stately height._ _Her virgin bosom swell.'_

Wordsworth.

9, 10. The attraction of music for deer is a favourite motif of Rājput paintings, particularly in the representation of certain rāgiṇīs (Torī, etc),--see Coomaraswamy, '_Arts and Crafts of India and Ceylon_,' fig. 78. In another poem Vidyāpati has:

For when she hears love's language spoken, She turns away her eyes,--and lends her ears.

RĀDHĀ PŪRBBARĀGA

The First Passion of Rādhā

XXI

4, Lit. 'That he wears a yellow garment is the lightning's streak.'

6. The peacock plume, Krishna's constant headdress, beside his moon-face.

XXIII

3, 7. 'Strings of moons,' i.e. toe-nails and finger-nails.

5. The yellow dhoti round his legs, the 'tamāl-shafts.'

8-12. Krishna's lips, nose, eyes and hair.

XXIV

The flute of Krishna is the call of the Infinite, 'the sound of the camel-bell,' the 'sword' of 'I come to bring not peace, but a sword.'

3. Lit. 'Suddenly (or forcibly) it takes its seat in my ears,' cf.

_'Every moment the voice of Love is coming from right and left.'_

Shamsi Tabrīz (Nicholson, IX).

11. _'When the strings of thy robe are loosed by the intoxication of love.'_

Shamsi (Nicholson, I).

SAKHĪ-SHIKSHĀ-BACANĀDI

The Counsel of Girl-friends (Sakhīs)

XXX

'Artless,'--_mugadhini_. Svakīya heroines are classified according to their experience, as _mugdhā_, inexperienced, _madhyā_, more experienced, and _pragalbhā_, fully mistress of love's art (e.g. Rudraṭa, _Kāvyālaṅkara_, XII, 17: _Sāhityadarpaṇa_, 97,98, _Daśarūpa_ 11,25). _Mugadhini_ has also the signification of 'fond,' 'lovesick,' as in XXII, 2 (_mugadha nārī_).

PRATHAMA MILNA

First Meetings

XXXIII

_'A honey-comb and a honey-fower_ _And the bee shall have his hour.'_

Rossetti.

XXXV

4. The day-lotus closes and fades at night and in the moon's rays; Rādhā is the lotus, Krishna the moon, as also in XLII, 8.

XXXVI

7-10. _'Sweet reward for sharpest pain.'_

Sir Philip Sydney.

12. 'Artless 'or 'innocent,'--_mugadhini_, as in XXX, 1 and again in XXXVII, 10.

XXXVIII

12. _Lit._ Happy is she that can look on him unmoved.

XXXIX

2. Rādhā knows and fears that she will yield to Krishna's wooing.

14. Rāhu, demon that swallows the moon at each eclipse. Cf. CXX, 10 and CXXIII, 3.

XL

Mark the contrast between Krishna's memories of the night, and Rādhā's.

XLII

12. The Indian woman's purse is a knot tied in her _sārī_. The suggestion is that of the uselessness of tying up the treasure which the thief has already seen.

XLV

3. Cānūra, a wrestler in the service of Kaṅs, slain by Krishna (CF _Prema Sāgara_, Chs. XLIV, XLV).

XLVI

5. Cf. The following _dohā_, the text of a Pahārī drawing:

_'Jyoṅ jyoṅ parasai Lāla tana tyoṅ tyoṅ rākhata gō, ē_ _Navala bāla ḍara Lāla-kai indabadhu-sī hū, ē_

'The more that Lāla touches her body, the more she curls up her body, The tender girl, afraid of Lāla, becomes, as it were, a woodlouse!'

XLVII

4. The Pairs of Opposites, as also in No. LXII.

XLVIII

2. 'A wife,'--the original signifies 'woman' or 'wife.' In any case, the reader will observe (Nos. LXXX, LXXXVI and CXVII) that Vidyāpati writes of Rādhā as a _svakīya_ heroine, whereas a majority of Vaishnava writers further emphasize the conflict between Love and Duty by making her _parakīya_, the wife of another. But as Rādhā's was at best a Gāndharva marriage (according to Vidyāpati's indications), ratified at first only by mutual consent (as in the case of Shakuntalā), and willingly accepted by the family, we should perhaps call her _anūdha_ (unmarried) rather than _svakīya_ (_Vāgbhaṭālaṅkāra_, V, 12,13). It is the yielding before or without marriage which Rādhā often speaks of as her shame and sin, and for which she is blamed by her family. None the less, much of what is here related is quite true to everyday Indian life, where courtship normally follows marriage, and public flirtation is always considered disgraceful.

ABHISĀRA

(Rādhā's) Going-forth (to visit Krishna)

The Abhisārikā heroine is one who goes from her home to visit her belovèd, careless of danger or shame. The Abhisārikā is a favourite subject of Pahari painters (see Coomaraswamy, '_Journal of Indian Art_, October, 1914). An English example in John Davidson's 'A Ballad of a Nun.'

LIV

5-8. _'Teeth of pearl, the double guard_ _To speech, whence music still is heard.'_

Carew.

11, 12. See note to 1, 2.

VASANTA LILA

Dalliance in Spring

LVI

Cf. the extract from Kālī Krishna Dasa's _Kāmini Kumāra_, translated in Dinesh Chandra Sen's _Bengali Language and Literature_, p. 688.

8. _Pañcam_--the dominant. Also in CV, 2. The pitch of each of the seven notes "was originally determined by the rishis of the forest from the sounds of various Birds and Animals uttered at particular seasons and times. . . Pā is the note sounded by the Kokila, the Indian nightingale, at springtime, when after a silence of six months it hails the brightest period of the year and tastes the first sprouts of the new season with an ebullition of joy"--Chinnaswami Mudaliyar, _Oriental Music_.

10. 'Twice-born,' epithet equally of Brāhmans and birds. The sense is that in this Nature-festival the birds performed the 'the most solempne servise' of the officiating priests.

LVII

14. 'For ever and for ever'--since the Krishna Līlā is eternal.

LIX

2. _Rāsa_, the circular dance of Krishna with the _gopīs_ (herd-girls), wherein his form was multiplied and became many; thus described in the _Prema Sāgara_, and often represented in Rājput drawings, and constantly acted in the _Rās-līlā_--

_'Two and two the gopīs held hands and between each pair was Hari their friend. . ._ _Gopi and Nanda-kumara alternate, a round ring of lightnings and heavy clouds,_ _The fair Braj girls and the dusky Krishnas, like to a gold and sapphire necklace._

The _Rās Maṇḍala_ thus described is the exact equivalent of the 'General Dance' to which (in a well-known mediæval carol, 'To-morrow will be my Dancing Day') Christ invites the souls of men,--for the words of the carol see G. R. S. Mead, in 'The Quest,' October, 1910.

8. _Vasanta Rāg_.

9. Cf. _Indian Drawings_, II, PI. 2.

MĀNA

Wilfulness

This affection of a heroine is something compound of pride, disdain, offense and coldness: a hardening of heart (cf. _hṛdaya-granthih_). The soul's contraction though the voice of God is heard,--she will not open her doors.

LXII

3. The Pairs of Opposites, cf. No. XLVII, 4.

LXIII

This is most typical Vaishnava poetry, in one breath blaming Krishna's wiles and proclaiming Him One without second. The note of blame is specially characteristic. In the _Prema Sāgara_:

_'He forsakes goodness; He accepts badness: deceit is pleasing to Him!'_

In Tagore's King of the Dark Chamber:

_'Well, I tell you, your King's behaviour is--mean, brutal, shameful!'_

In the _Krishna_ of 'A.E.'

_'I saw the King pass lightly from the beauty that he had betrayed._ _I saw him pass from love to love; and yet the pure, allowed His claim_ _To be the purest of the pure, thrice holy, stainless, without blame.'_

6. The golden jar is Krishna's body.

12, 13. All love is one, though you may reject it,--sacred or profane:

_'Cowl of the monk and bowl of wine, how shall the twain by man be wed'?_ _Yet for the love I bear to thee, these to unite I dare for thee.'_

Hafiz (translated by Walter Leaf).

Vidyāpati might have written (since Vaishnavas never used the Sufī symbol of wine), 'Lust of the flesh and love of Thee . . . these to unite I dare for Thee.'

LXV

7-9. Rādhā ignores a message from Krishna, sent through the priestess of a Sun-shrine, to meet him at the temple.

LXVI

10, II. The nipple with its areola, compared to a Shiva-lingam with the digit of the moon that Shiva wears in his hair. Cf. XVI, 10, 11.

LXVII

6. Lakshmī, consort of Vishnu and goddess of beauty and fortune.

LXIX

8, 9. This message implies, by the lock of hair that he would leave the world as a shaven monk if Rādhā would not yield. Flowers and pān (betel) are an 'olive-branch.' A blade of grass is sometimes held in the mouth to swear by, and here means sincerity.

LXX

6. The sandal is the best of trees, the shālmāl the worst.

LXXI

10. Evidently a popular proverb--cf. 'The leopard cannot change its spots.'

LXXII

3. Here the night-lily closing at dawn.

LXXIII

3. '_Jap-tap_: prayers, personal office, daily ritual,--(_japa_ or offerings of water, _tapas_ or 'rule').

8. The moon is brother to the poison, since both were produced at the Churning of the Ocean: a thief because he stole Tārā, the wife of Brihaspati: vomited (unclean) because he escapes from Rāhu's jaws at each eclipse; cruel because his rays are scorching fires to divided lovers; slayer of lilies, because the day-lotus wilts at night; yet in spite of these enormities, some merit makes him bright.

13. _Saba guṇa mula amula_: A thought akin to that of LXIII.

LXXIV

Rādhā is here the typical Khaṇḍitā Nāyikā who reproaches her lover when he returns in the morning and has spent the night with some other flame.

6. _'He takes another girl on his knee_ _And tells her what he dosen't tell me.'_

LXXV

8. Fickle, like the 'rootless' of LXXIII, 13. _Lit._ 'His heart is the essence of lightning.'

9-12. Here the thought approaches the prevailing motif of the _Gītā Govinda_, where Rādhā is the higher self of man, and Krishna the self entangled in the world of sensation.

18. _Rasa bujha'i rasamanta_: a pregnant epigram, valid equally in love and art.

MĀNĀNTE MILNA

Reunion after Wilfulness

LXXVI

4. 'Might not bend,' _lit_. 'was like a _stambha_,' a monumental pillar.

LXXIX

The lovers are mixed like milk and water.

LXXX

2. 'Spell,'--_sādhanā_.

8. Inasmuch as being a religious mendicant, he could not be refused.

LXXXI

4. _Gañja_-seeds (_Abrus precatorius_), used by jewellers as weights.

8, 10. Rādhā complains that she has cast her pearls before a monkey; but the poet retorts by the insinuation that Rādhā has given Krishna betel from her own mouth (as lovers do) and says that for betel to issue from a monkey's mouth is at least as strange as to see a necklace of pearls on a monkey's neck.

LXXXII

6. _'Phillis' closed eyes attracts you her to kiss,'_

Francis Pilkington, 1605.

_'She lay still and would not wake,'_

Campion and Rosseter's Book of Airs, 1601.

9, 10. Such exchange of gear, when it amounts to a complete disguise of lover as belovèd, belovèd as lover, is known as _Līlā-hāva_. A familiar English parallel is the London coster lovers' habit of exchanging hats, when out for dalliance on Hampstead Heath; here also the original or sub-conscious motif is a sense of indentity.

_Rādhā Hari Hari Rādhā-ke bani-āe sanketa--_

The station of Rādhā becoming Hari and Hari Rādhā: is a not infrequent subject of Pahārī paintings.

LXXXIII

10, Ratipati, the Lord of Rati, Madan, Love.

15. For this gesture, see 'Journal of Indian Art,' No. 128, fig. 3.

LXXXIV

6. i.e. 'I could have sunk into the earth with shame.'

8. The poet overlooks that no snow settles on the southern hills.

LXXXV

2. The stain: see note to XLVIII, 2.

6. Yaduvīra, Hero of the Yadus, Krishna.

14. The poet insinuates that Rādhā could have escaped from Krishna's gaze had she wished; just as the Kāshmīrī paṇḍitānīs bathing naked, slip from the river-bank into the water while the traveller's boat is passing.

LXXXVI

1. Mother-in-law: see note to XLVIII.

Even as a wife, such dalliance before a mother-in-law would be contrary to all decorum; thus the mother-in-law represents, as it were, the cares of this world, whereby the soul is prevented from yielding herself,--and hence Vidyāpati's disappointment.

LXXXVII

2. Skirt, _ghagari_, not now a separate garment, but that part of the _sārī_ which forms a skirt. But in Vidyāpati's day the costume of Bengālī women seems to have been that of Western Hindustan (skirt, bodice and veil), familiar in Rājput paintings. In this case the _nībībandha_ (see Introduction p. 11), is actually the skirt-string, and the translation as 'zone' or 'girdle' is not inappropriate, nor that of _añcala_ as 'wimple' or 'veil.'

LXXXVIII

8. Like the 'neither within or without' of Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad, IV, 3, 33: 'beyond the striving winds of love and hate'--Wilfrid Wilson Gibson.

LXXXIX

10. With such a tempest, as when Jove of old Fell down on Danäe in a storm of gold--

Carew.

XC

4. _Tilka_, the vermilion brow-spot.

7. Hari-Hara, God as equally Vishnu and Shiva: see _Prema Sāgara_, Ch. LXXXIX, also Havell, _Indian Sculpture and Painting_, PI. XXVI.

14. Vidyāpati's Master: Krishna.

XCII

Rādhā presumptuously claims for herself alone the love that is given to all that seek it. This song would be more appropriately included under the heading 'Māna.'

3. _Kadamba_, (_Anthocepalus cadamba_, Mig.) the tree most associated with Krishna, beneath which he stands and plays his flute and dallies with the milk-maids.

XCIII

Rādhā is here the typical Abhisandhitā Nāyikā "who repulses her lover just when he seeks to soften her pride, and suffers double grief when he is no longer beside her" (Keśava Dāsa).

ĀKSHEPA ANUYOGA O VIRAHA

Reproaches, Lack and Longing

The departure of Krishna to Mathurā is God forsaking the soul, or seeming to do so; the complaint of Rādhā is "Why hast thou forsaken me?"

XCV

6, Moving her heart to love, though love be hopeless.

7. Beauty-spots, _kuca-kuṅkuma_, patterns drawn on her breasts with sandal-paste: cf. _Gītā Govinda_ XII, 18, 'Draw leafy patterns on my breasts.'

XCVII

This conceit is the subject of beautiful songs by many poets, including Jāyadeva and Rāmbasu.

The Bodiless (Anaṅga) is Kāmadeva, Love: on behalf of Umā he endeavoured to rouse Shiva from his rapt meditation, and Shiva in wrath destroyed his body with a glance from his third eye.

Rādhā feigns to think that Love has mistaken her for Shiva, and explains in detail that she is but a human maiden. Amongst the attributes of Shiva are the Ganges in his matted locks, and crescent moon, a third eye, the stain of poison in his throat (see No. II, 11), and a serpent coiling about it, a tiger-skin, a skull, and ashes smeared on his body; in place of these Rādhā has flowing tresses, a pearl ornament, a brow-spot, a touch of musk, a pearl necklace, a dark silk sari, a lotus, and her body is dusted with sandal paste. The lotus of dalliance (_kelika kamala_) is a real or artificial lotus flower held in the hand as a plaything: for an illustration see _Indian Drawings_ II, PL IX, 1.

XCVIII

This is one of the most obviously mystical of Vidyāpati's songs:

_'I am he whom I love, and he whom I love is I.'_

Mansūr Hallāj.

Cf. the exclamation _Śivoham_, 'Shiva is myself (_sohambhāva_, He being I); and the injunction _Devo bhūtva, devam yajet_, 'By becoming God, worship Him!' also the half-_dohā_ quoted in the note to LXXXII, 9, i o.

3. _O nija bhāva svabhāva hi bichurala_, Forgetting her own _bhāva_ and _svabhāva_, feelings and character, will and self-consciousness.

_'At last I have found myself.'_

Jalālu'd Din Rumi.

_'Whoso has not escaped from will, no will has he.'_

Shamsi Tabrīz,

CII

10. _Piu, piu_: that is to say, 'Belovèd, Belovèd.'

CIV

3. Even from a crow's mouth--the crow is the chief omen and messenger, of a lover's return. Cf. No. CXXIII, and also _Journal of Indian Art_, No. 128, p. 103 and figure 12.

CV-CVI

These are clearly related to reverdies of the folk, such as the Kāshmīrī songs recorded in Ratan Devī's _Thirty Indian Songs_. It is probable that the more one could learn of contemporary folk-song, the more apparent would be Vidyāpati's dependence on the folk-tradition. These popular motifs are interwoven throughout with the familiar similes of the classic literature. Perhaps we ought to think of Vidyāpati as a sort of mystic Burns.

CVII

3. 'House': the house, in Vidyāpati's songs refers sometimes to the actual home of Rādhā's parents, or her own home, and sometimes as here, to the 'house of love,'--the 'palace' of Shamsi Tabrīz (Nicholson XXXVIII).

CVIII

2. 'Cross the sea': see note to CXXXI.

CX

Rādhā is here the typical Proshita-preyasī 'whose husband has gone abroad, appointing a time of return' (Keśava Dāsa).

CXI

The poet says that Rādhā should have thought _before_ she drank. To take water from a man of low caste is to 'lose caste'--but it is too late to think of this after the water is already drunk.

CXII

The idea of reproach is essential to the drama of the soul, and a leading motif of the greater part of Rādhā-Krishna literature:

_'Folk, family, house and husband are abandoned, the reproach of the world rejected.'_

_Prema Sāgara._

Compare:

_'Blessed are ye when men shall revile and persecute you for My sake,'_

and likewise:

_'Let every reproach that honour disdains and avoids be mine.'_

Nau'i.