Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c11.s5.34

c11.s5.34

Hence, *snapayati nija-dāsye rādhikā mam kadā nu : rādhām kadāham bhaje ; kṣaṇam api mama rādhe netram ānandaya tvam ; bhaja mano rādhām agādhām rasaiḥ* ; such words and sentiment form the refrain of each stanza, as well as the theme, respectively of his *Rādhikāṣṭaka, Utkaṇṭhā-daśaka, Prema-pūra* and *Navāṣṭaka Stotras* ; while his *Abhīṣṭa-prārthana* and *Abhīṣṭa-sūcana* give expression to his eagerness to serve and worship Rādhā, and his *Nava-yuva-dvandva-didṛkṣāṣṭaka* as well as *Prārthanāmṛtā* to a longing to witness the divine sports. It is true that some of the Stotras are composed in direct honour of Kṛṣṇa (e.g. *Mukundāṣṭaka, Gopāla-rāja-stava, Madana-gopāla-stotra*),¹ but Rādhā figures in them very prominently. The more ambitiously elaborate *Viśākhānanda-stotra* is a panegyric of Rādhā (in 134 Śloka verses), in which she is described, in a highly rhetorical passage (77-86), as personified Victory in Love-sports (*Kandarpa-yuddha-śrī*), with all her paraphernalia of charming, yet deadly, weapons and battle-resources, and in which Kṛṣṇa throws out a single-handed challenge for love-fight, not only to Rādhā but also to all her companions ! The extensive *Rādhā-kṛṣṇojjvala-kusuma-keli* describes (in 44 Sikharinī stanzas with occasional intrusion of connecting prose) such a mild combat, but it is only a wordy warfare, a battle of erotic wit and raillery,² arising from a playful dispute over the ownership of the groves of Vṛndāvana, and ending in Kṛṣṇa's prescribing suitable, but audacious, punishment to Rādhā and the Gopīs for having, without title, plucked flowers from the groves which belong to him !