Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c8.s3.11

c8.s3.11

The Parakiyā (=belonging to another) heroine, who is the object of the Upa-pati's love, may however be a maiden (Kanyakā) or a married woman (Paroḍhā). Even if orthodox Poetics deprecates love to a married woman,¹ she is, according to Vaiṣṇava ideas, the highest type of the heroine, and forms the central theme of the later Parakiyā doctrine of the school, in which the love of the mistress for her lover becomes the universally accepted symbol of the soul's passionate devotion to God. Kṛṣṇa as a Nāyaka, again, is conceived to be the most complete (Pūrṇatama) in Vraja, more complete (Pūrṇatara) in Mathurā, and complete (Pūrṇa) in Dvārakā. In their character as a lover, both the Pati and the Upa-pati, may be (following orthodox classification) the faithful (Anukūla), the gallant whose attention is equally divided among many (Dakṣiṇa), the sly (Śaṭha) and the saucy (Dhṛṣṭa). Thus ninety-six different aspects of Kṛṣṇa as the hero are obtained by this elaborate classification.