A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s4.22

c19.s4.22

Nandi Timmana, the second great poet of Krishnadeva Rāya’s court, was the author of *Pārijātāpaharaṇa*, which elaborates in beautiful verse a well-known episode in Śrī Krishna’s life. The poem is said to have been composed to reconcile the emperor to one of his queens, who, he thought, had insulted him by sleeping with her legs stretched towards his portrait; Krishna’s efforts to appease Satyabhāma, particularly the scene of his falling at her feet and being spurned by her with a kick, was calculated to hint to the emperor the extent of liberties permitted between lovers, and served its purpose. A pretty story, but most probably apocryphal.