राधा रस सुधा निधि

The Treasury of Radha’s Sweet Nectar

270 Sanskrit verses, claimed by both the Rādhāvallabha and Gauḍīya traditions

16th c. Sanskrit · ascribed to Hit Harivaṃśa or Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī

The Rādhā-Rasa-Sudhā-Nidhi is a Sanskrit poem of 270 verses, written in Vrindavan in the 16th century, in the register of pure Rādhā-adoration. The verses circle her name. They build the kuñja in language and invite the reader to live there: Rādhā is supreme, Krishna is her devotee, and the seeker’s highest happiness is service at the edge of their meeting.

Its authorship is contested. The Rādhāvallabha sampradāya holds it as Hit Harivaṃśa’s, a companion to his Brajbhāṣā Hit Caurāsī; the Gauḍīya tradition holds it as Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī’s. Manuscript evidence is divided, both attributions are coherent, and both communities recite the verses daily, four centuries on. The poem itself never signs a name.

Take this poem as you would take an offering of flowers from a child. The child does not know whether the flowers are the right ones. The child knows only that they are the only flowers the child has. Here are mine.