Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c8.s3.64

c8.s3.64

(i) Pūrva-rāga, Incipient Love, that is, love before actual union, consequent upon first sight, hearing, dream, or looking at the picture of the beloved, etc. Its various attendant feelings and conditions, succeeding each other in order of intensity and leading even up to death, are minutely described and illustrated. It may be either Prauḍha (developed), Samañjasa (well-proportioned) or Sādhāraṇa (general). The sending of love-letters (Kāma-lekha) is also incidentally discussed. The ten stages of the Prauḍha Pūrva-rāga are : Lālasā (ardent desire), Udvega (anxiety), Jāgara (sleeplessness), Tānava (thinness of the limbs), Jaḍimā (stupidity), Vaiyagrya (impulsiveness), Vyādhi (paleness, heat etc. of the body), Unmāda (dementedness), Moha (unconsciousness) and Mṛtyu (death). Of the Samañjasa the ten stages are : Abhilāṣa (desire), Cintā (reflection), Smṛti (recollection), Guṇa-kīrtana (recital of qualities of the beloved), Udvega (anxiety), Vilāpa (lamentation), Unmāda (dementedness), Vyādhi (illness), Jaḍatā (stupidity) and Mṛti (death). Of the Sādhāraṇa Pūrva-rāga, the stages consist of the first six of the Samañjasa mentioned above, beginning with Abhilāṣa and ending with Vilāpa.