Radha's Confidante Entreating Krishna, Folio from a Rasikapriya (Connoisseur's Delights)

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Radha's Confidante Entreating Krishna, Folio from a Rasikapriya (Connoisseur's Delights)

India, Madhya Pradesh, Malwa, circa 1640
Drawings; watercolors
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper
Image: 6 1/2 x 6 5/8 in. (16.51 x 16.83 cm); Sheet: 8 x 7 in. (20.32 x 17.78 cm)
Gift of Michael and Diandra Douglas (M.80.223.6)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

The Rasikapriya (Connoisseur’s Delights) was composed in 1591 in Braj-Bhasa by the poet Keshavdas (1555–1617). He was the court poet of Kunwar Indrajit Singh and Raja Bir Singh Deo of Orchha (r....
The Rasikapriya (Connoisseur’s Delights) was composed in 1591 in Braj-Bhasa by the poet Keshavdas (1555–1617). He was the court poet of Kunwar Indrajit Singh and Raja Bir Singh Deo of Orchha (r. 1605-1627). The text portrays Radha and Krishna as archetypal male and female lovers (nayakas/nayikas) and their corresponding emotions and encounters. This folio [#46] illustrates the confidante entreating Krishna or Krishna’s Punishment (Shiksha) (Rasikapriya 13:398): Having smeared her limbs with sandal paste, And bathed her with saffroned water With perfumed things having her arrayed, For making love have you brought her? Put sandal-marks on her, and laid Flower garland her neck to adorn, And beautified her in all ways All to no end? Her eyes how come You have dark with collyrium made? Why beetle-leaves you have begun To give with camphor scented, say? Oh! Krishna! Your mind in merriment Remains absorbed, why don’t you lay Yourself upon her feet, that won With fawning she’s whose mouth always Imbued with fragrance, sweet becomes? (Translation by K. P. Bahadur.) For an almost identical folio [#255] in the Polsky Collection, New York, see Andrew Topsfield, ed., In the Realm of Gods and Kings (London: Philip Wilson, 2004), pp. 156-157, no. 61. For an alternate translation by V. P. Mishra, see Harsha V. Dehejia, Rasikapriya: Ritikavya of Keshavdas in Ateleirs of Love (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2013), pp. 106, 295, verse and fig. 13.3.
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