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 ideal lovers and enumerates the eight archetypal male and female lovers (nayakas/nayikas) and their corresponding emotions and encounters.
This folio from a Nayika series illustrates the hidden nayika on her way to meet her lover out of love (Kama Abhisarika) as described in the Rasikapriya (7:234):
When she made haste her lover to meet
Snakes round her legs entangled were,
And many lay trampled under her feet!
And seeing her speed the demons stared
From all sides; the thick shower of rain,
She heeded not, nor the crickets’ cry,
Nor thunder of clouds: nor yet remained
Aware of ornaments falling aside,
Clothes rent, or thorns her breasts that hurt:
Seeing her the sprites said, ‘Where did you
Oh! lustful woman learn such love?
This manner of keeping your rendezvous?”
(Translation by K. P. Bahadur.)
The heroine braves the raging storm's lightning and blinding rain to keep her rendezvous with her lover. She ignores the cobras slithering by her feet, as well as the loss of her golden ornaments in her haste. See also M.71.49.6.
Formerly in the Svetoslav Roerich collection.
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. 83, 239, verse and fig. 7.31.
