SONGS OF THE LOVE OF RĀDHĀ AND KRISHNA TRANSLATED
INTO ENGLISH BY ANANDA COOMARASWAMY AND
ARUN SEN WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES AND
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM INDIAN PAINTINGS
LONDON: THE OLD BOURNE PRESS,
15 HOLBORN, E.C.
1915.
The whole creation will be consumed and appear infinite and holy,whereas it now appears finite and corrupt. This will come to pass by animprovement of sensual enjoyment.
—William Blake.
Be drunken with love, for love is all that exists.
—Shamsi Tabrīz.
KRISHNA PŪRBBARĀGA: The FirstPassion of Krishna
RĀDHĀ BAYAHSANDI: The Growing-up of Rādhā
RĀDHĀ PŪRBBARĀGA: The First Passion ofRādhā
SAKHĪ-SHIKSHĀ-BACANĀDI: TheCounsel of Girl-friends (Sakhīs)
PRATHAMA MILNA: First Meetings
ABHISĀRA: (Rādhā's) Going-forth (to visitKrishna)
VASANTA LĪLA: Dalliance in Spring
MĀNĀNTE MILNA: Reunion after Wilfulness
ĀKSHEPA ANUYOGA O VIRAHA:Reproaches, Lack and Longing
PUNARMILNA O RASODGĀRA: Reunionand the Flow of Nectar
VIDYĀPATI THĀKUR is one of the most renowned of the Vaishnava poetsofHindustān. Before him there had been the great Jāyadeva, with his GītāGovinda made in Sanskrit; and it is to this tradition Vidyāpatibelongs, rather than to that of Rāmānanda, Kabīr, and Tul'si Dās, whosang of Rāma and Sītā. Vidyāpati's fame, though he also wrote inSanskrit, depends upon the wreath of songs (pada) in which hedescribesthe courtship of God and the Soul, under the names of Krishna andRādhā.These were written in Maithilī, his mother-tongue, a dialectintermediate between Bengālī and Hindī, but nearer to the former. Hisposition as a poet and maker of language is analogous to that of Dantein Italy and Chaucer in England. He did not disdain to use thefolk-speech and folk-thought for the expression of the highest matters.Just as Dante was blamed by the classical scholars of Italy, soVidyāpati was blamed by the pandits: he knew better, however, thanthey, and has well earned the title of Father of Bengālī literature.
Little is known of Vidyāpati's life[1].Two other great Vaishnavapo