Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c5.s2.5

c5.s2.5

The prominence given to Rādhā in the Gita-govinda makes it probable that the source of Jayadeva's inspiration could not have been the Kṛṣṇa-Gopī legend of the *Śrīmad-bhāgavta*, which avoids all direct mention of Rādhā as Kṛṣṇa's consort, and which speaks of autumnal, and not vernal, Rāsa-līlā. The incident referred to in the opening verse of Jayadeva's poem, again, cannot be traced in the earlier Purāṇas, but it is supposed to refer to an episode described in the fifteenth chapter of the Kṛṣṇa-janma-khaṇḍa of the *Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa*, in which the infant Kṛṣṇa, similarly entrusted by Nanda during the rains to Rādhā, sports with her on the banks of the Yamunā. This reference possesses some historical importance. We have already pointed out that the *Brahmavaivarta*, much more than any other Purāṇa, presents Rādhā in a vivid background of great sensuous charm, and in no other Purāṇa the erotic possibilities of the theme have been so elaborately worked out. This Purāṇa is also singular in effecting a regular marriage between Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, and thereby discountenancing the Parakīyā doctrine which came to prevail in Bengal Vaiṣṇavism. But while the erotic Mādhurya aspect of Kṛṣṇa-worship is emphasised in this Purāṇa, the Aiśvarya aspect of this worship is also made prominent by legendary descriptions of Kṛṣṇa's greatness and power as the supreme deity. It is remarkable that almost similar tendencies are found in Jayadeva's poem. The opening Daśāvatāra Stotra, as well as the second Jaya-Jaya Deva-Hare Stotra, presents Kṛṣṇa in his Aiśvarya aspect, not as an Avatāra, but as the veritable supreme deity of many incarnations (*daśākṛtikṛte kṛṣṇāya tubhyam namaḥ*), omitting all reference to Rādhā but mentioning Śrī or Lakṣmī. As the poem proceeds, the Dhīrodātta Nāyaka becomes Dhīralalita, and all the erotic Mādhurya implications of the theme are developed to their fullest extent.