Chapter Seven: Literature of the Rasika Tradition

—for dogmatism is one thing and fidelity another. Within exclusive devotion anyone may regard the chosen Lord as supreme, and no one should object or oppose such a conviction.¹

Śrī Rāmapaṭala

The Śrī Rāmapaṭala, available with a Hindi commentary, was printed in Vikrama year 1979 by Anand Press, Banaras, and published by Chhote Lal Lakshmichand of Ayodhya. It treats at great length Vaishnava conduct and thought, the five sacraments, ten characteristics, sacred emblems, the method of recitation, sixteenfold ritual worship, the name, initiatory rites, wearing the tilaka, and related matters.

It may be regarded as an encyclopedic work, or reference book, for the conduct and discipline of the four Vaishnava traditions, because a detailed, authoritative account of nearly every useful method and necessary element of practice is gathered here in one place.

Short erotic poems

Short erotic poems concerning Rama were created especially in imitation of the Meghadūta and the Gīta-govinda. The following works modelled upon the Meghadūta are known:

1. Haṃsa-sandeśa, or Haṃsa-dūta. A swan carries Rama’s message to Sita. The work is thought to date from the thirteenth century, and its author is variously named Venkateshika, Venkatanatha, Vedantacharya, or Sri Vedantadeshika.
2. Bhramara-dūta. In this composition of 288 stanzas by the logician Rudra Vachaspati, a bee is sent to Sita.
3. Bhramara-sandeśa. Composed by Vasudeva.
4. Kapi-dūta. Hanuman serves as the bearer of the message.
5. Kokila-sandeśa. A seventeenth-century work of six hundred stanzas by Venkatacarya.
6. Candra-dūta. Composed by Krishnachandra Tarkalankara.

Many poems concerning Rama and Sita were also written in imitation of the Gīta-govinda. For example:

1. Rāma-gīta-govinda. Traditionally attributed to Jayadeva himself.
2. Gīta-rāghava. Two works circulate under this title, one by Harishankara and another by Prabhakara.