Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c8.s3.20

c8.s3.20

Of these Rādhā, as the Vṛndāvaneśvarī and eternal consort of Kṛṣṇa, is the foremost Beloved. A whole section is devoted to her, in which she is identified with the Hlādinī Mahāśakti of the Tantra (*tantre pratiṣṭhitā*): and a big list is given of her attributes and excellences, with the final remark that her characteristics, like those of Kṛṣṇa, are incapable of enumeration (*saṃkhyātīta*). Although the name of Rādhā is not found in general literature before *Hāla-saptaśatī*, an attempt is made to prove her antiquity by a reference (p. 60) to such late neo-vaiṣṇava Upaniṣads as the *Gopāla-tāpanī* and to the apocryphal *Ṛk-pariśiṣṭa*, as well as to the canonical *Padma-purāṇa* (cf. *Prīti-sandarbha* pp. 564-9). Her five kinds of companions, namely, Sakhī, Nitya-sakhī, Prāṇa-sakhī, Priya-sakhī and Parama-preṣṭha-sakhī, are then mentioned, and their individual names are recorded (p. 79).¹