Chapter Eight: Literature of the Rasika Tradition in Hindi

The youthful beloveds secretly swing one another.
Passion is their throne and fresh affection its two pillars, attaining perfect beauty.
Love surges through every limb; the forceful push awakens playful rasa.
Clouds of Cupid’s desire gather, longing pours down, and lightning flashes.
Auspicious cries resound, and excellent frogs announce the season.
By Kripanivas’s grace, the worshipping companion beholds their eyes meet.

Their garments gleam with mingled white, dark, yellow, gold, and emerald radiance,
Like night meeting a friend beneath an autumn moon and cloud.
Sri Rama shines as the beautiful limbs at his left join with his own,
Like restless lightning filled with rasa within a dark monsoon cloud of Love.
Upon the auspicious bank of the sacred river, dark rainclouds sway and pour.
It is as though the earth plays Indra’s festival, filling Sita’s bridegroom with colour.
New company after company of their own attendants gathers on every side and fondles the Couple,
As devotion and Bhagavan, sacred fame and the Vedic revelations all sing together.
The companions bend, spring forward, and send forceful pushes; spray flashes upon the water.
It resembles Love and Rati, helpless in the sport of arrows, releasing quick shafts of radiance.
Dense forest trees flower, while birds create auspicious melodies,
As though the Vedic metres uttered their noble, unceasing speech.
Sometimes an accomplished maiden takes up a fresh melodic phrase, and the beloved women sacrifice their lives.
Knowing him as her own wise lord, Janaki beholds her bridegroom’s form with both eyes.
This swing festival is said to be a treasury of happiness, the supreme recreation of the rainy season.
May Kripanivas’s blossoming hope remain forever attached to their lotus feet.

Rama’s connoisseur queen swings him.
Gazing upon the Lord of her love, the accomplished lady smiles within her eyes.
She takes the rope in her hand; her two cakora-eyes drink the moon of his glance.
Kripanivas says: absorbed in their recreation, the beloved woman remains devoted to the happiness of her lover.

Today Sita and Rama swing together upon a swing filled with the colours of rasa.
Crimson garments and ornaments flash upon their bodies, while flower garlands enchant the heart.
A skilful companion coaches her: “Take Sita’s name; when dark Shyam approaches, delight will overcome reserve.”
Turning her face, she laughs and looks toward her beloved, while her eyes travel sideways beneath the veil.