The Rasikapriya (Connoisseur’s Delights) was composed in 1591 in Braj-Bhasa by the poet Keshavdas (1555–1617).
This folio illustrates How Nayikas Show Their Love and Radha’s Hidden Endeavor (Rasikapriya 5:124-125):
How Nayikas Show Their Love
Her ears she scratches, then anon
With laziness does stretch her limbs,
Sometimes repeatedly she yawns
And laughs at nothing - then begins
To talk with her dear friend, thus she
With false pretense her body shows
Unto her lover - so do these
Loved maidens their deep love disclose -
Clear and hid, and their lovers please,
And by their wisdom win them o’er.
Radha’s Hidden Endeavor
Radha’s bosom companion says to her:
“Why glancing down you turn and start,
Me covertly to look upon?
Why laugh, being pleased within your heart?
Swear you by Krishna! why oft you yawn?
Restless, your graceful limbs you stretch
And leave your splendid breasts unclothed,
And ofttimes with excitement swell,
And ’gainst my bosom nestle close:
And with mind wandering you essay
To do this when that should be done!
Tell me, my friend! have you this day
Accomplished something for your fun?”
(Translation by K.P. Bahadur.)
See its series mate M.72.3.2. Folios from the comparable dispersed “Boston” Rasikapriya, attributed to Amber, circa 1610-1615, are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (29 folios) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (18.85.5a-b, 1990.323, and 1991.404.2).
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. 67, 183, verse and fig. 5.4-9.
