Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

The two have disordered hair; curls, cheeks, and ornaments are entangled.
Their great eyes, beautiful with love, are absorbed in delight.
Their limbs are languid from the exertion of the rāsa, and again and again they grow drowsy.
Resting upon the beloved’s shoulder, he repeatedly bends forward.
Beholding their immeasurable beauty, the heart fills with happiness.
As he drinks the nectar of her lips, Sita Ji becomes shy.
The beloved speaks through his eyes from the couch:
“Abandon a little of your modesty; understand that the attendants have arrived.”
Many visitors have come today for the autumn-night festival.
Seeing that delightful display of beauty, their own forms are covered by its radiance.
Their eyes remain fixed upon the bodies on the couch, while the Couple glance toward them.
Shubhashila looks from this side with a graceful, loving gaze.

Darling Rama is weary, yet his heart remains awake in the arena of love.
His eyes are deeply immersed in the beauty of his beloved’s play.
Though their bodies are exhausted by amorous sport, they have not admitted defeat;
The heroic lovers have conquered Love himself upon his own battlefield.
Members of the retinue arrive today in many different forms.
Hearing a few of their words, the Couple become shy within their hearts.
Resting his neck upon the beloved’s shoulder, he sits bent against the bolster,
As though Love and the conqueror of Love had entered the palace of victory.
All the companions arrive and obtain their fill of the vision.
Beholding the languid forms, they fasten them within their eyes.
What poet can describe the beauty of those graceful, embarrassed eyes?
Only the connoisseur-bees in whose hearts that delight resides can know it.

A river swells within the heart and seeks to flow outward.
It appears as though a stream issues between the eyes.
Love has spread upon the banks of those eyes, and delight fills the heart.
Shubhashila bows and approaches the companions.

Beloved and lover shine in Kanak Bhavan.
Wearing lovely spring-coloured garments, Sita and her beloved are filled with enchantment.
Every member of the retinue embodies the proper season, while the spring garden blossoms.
The young women’s bodies are champak buds, and their ornaments shine like flowering branches.