Rajput Painting, Being an Account of the Hindu Paintings of Rajasthan and the Panjab Himalayas from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century v2.c19.355

v2.c19.355

'One day all the Braj girls went together to a lonely rivers' edge to bathe, and there, taking off their clothes and laying them on the bank, they entered the water naked, and began to sing again and again the praises of Hari, and to play in the water. Just at that very time Śrī Krishna was seated in the shade of a fig-tree, grazing cows. It happened that he heard the sound of their singing, and, approaching quietly, he began to look on, himself unseen. At last, as he gazed, a thought arose in his mind, and he stole the clothes and went and climbed up a *kadamba* tree; and tying the clothes in a bundle, he laid them before him. Then when the milkmaids looked and found no clothes on the bank, they stood up here and there and began to look about in alarm, saying to one another, "Just now there was not even a bird to be seen: who can have taken away our clothes, O Mother?" Meanwhile one of the milkmaids saw that Śrī Krishna was up in the *kadamba* tree, sitting quietly hidden; he had a crown on his head, a staff in his hand, a yellow brow-spot, a garland of wild flowers, and a yellow garment, and the bundle of clothes tied up. On seeing him she cried, "My Friend, behold him there, the thief of our hearts and our clothes, on the *kadamba* tree, holding the bundle, and glorious!" When they heard these words, and beheld Śrī Krishna, all the young girls entered the water in shame, and folding their hands and bending their heads they prayed and coaxed:

"O Thou compassionate to the humble! dear taker-away of our grief! O Mohan, be pleased to give us our clothes."

But hearing this Kānha replied, "I will not give thus, I swear by Nand:

Come forth and receive your clothes one by one."'