Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

Fashioning many ornaments of flowers, the radiant lady places them upon her beloved.
The Lord himself gathers flowers and adorns her many bodices and necklaces.
They dress all the companions, and the companions weave flowers through the partings of one another’s hair.
They fashion many white-flower saris with pure borders of varied colours.
The Lord dresses them with his own hands and applies divine fragrance to their faces.
All shine divinely ornamented, and the springtime rāsa of rasa is created.

Spring recreation

The darling and her Beloved play at spring, while garlands of joy surge from the ocean of happiness.
In that wondrous forest where spring is eternal, the Lord sports with his beloved and endless companions.
White cloth shines upon their beautiful limbs, like young swans settled in the middle of the Ganga.
The gracious Lord laughingly casts colours of every kind, like red blossoms seated upon jasmine creepers.
All the companions carry many-coloured flowers; one fashions a canopy that enchants Love.
They make a flower-arrow throne whose beauty would shame ten million Sharadas attempting to describe it.
The companions seat Shyama upon it, every limb putting ten million Kamadevas to shame.
There the companions dance and sing many songs; mṛdaṅgas throb and great drums resound.
Vīṇā, tambūra, nedura, and upaṅga sound; kettledrums and mucaṅgas overflow with rasa.
Anklets, bracelets, and girdle-bells ring sweetly, and the rhythm rises—theī, theī, theī, theī.
They sing unique, nectar-filled rāginīs; hearing them, the Beloved laughs under rasa’s control and rises.
For the sake of rasa, the Lord assumes innumerable forms, and a matchlessly beautiful company of companions appears on one side.
Four syringes of colour advance from the lover’s side, while clouds of coloured powder strike from the companions’ side.
Aloeswood, saffron, and colour become fragrant mud, and waves of bliss swell within the ocean of happiness.
One accomplished companion named Hema advances, tricks the Lord through playful rasa, and catches him.
One snatches away his necklace and yellow garment; another draws the Lord’s chest against her own.
One fondles and kisses the Beloved’s face; another laughs and affectionately places betel in his mouth.
Meeting their beloved, the companions become embodiments of delight; Ramcharan thus fashions the incomparable mystery.

They begin to dance upon the jewelled ground, every reflection glittering.
Before this beauty of amorous love, Kama and Rati grow ashamed and choose instead to adorn the dancers’ feet.

The companions’ dance

Jewelled trees and vines glitter as though lightning, yet the eyes can never be satisfied.
The companions dance in joyous postures, and the Lord moves between them, holding hand after hand—