Jaur Gita Govinda #11
BY: SUN STAFF
Nov 21, USA (SUN) — This month-long series explores text and manuscript illustrations from Gita-Govinda
Text Folios No. 22 and 23, Bhavas 25, 26, 27 and 28
Bhavas 25 through 28 describe the sakhi telling Krsna of the frail condition of Radha. 'Radha', says the sakhi, 'is distraught and beside herself with the anguish of separation.' In desperation she dresses in yellow and wears peacock feathers, in the make-believe that she is you.' Indeed the sakhi uses the word 'mad' (pagalasakhi requests Krsna to go and quench her thirst. Radha, she tells him, can think of none else but him. 'Radha', says the sakhi, 'sometimes laughs, sometimes weeps and is at other times immobile and still like a staff.' This bhava also poignantly captures the mood of the twelfth prabandha.
Radha continues her lament in bhava 27 and says that although she waited all night long under the kadamba tree, there was no sign of Krsna. She had waited amongst the forest reeds as the sakhi advised, but it all came to naught. She is certain (bhava 28) that Krsna without doubt is reveling with others and does not care for her. This is a close rendering of the thirteenth prabandha, and parts of the fourteenth. Through simple prose, intense anguish is expressed.
Illustration Folio 23
Both sections of this folio portray Radha in the described state. In one, she is sitting with folded knees under the kadamba tree and in the other she is seen running in a perturbed state surrounded by many trees and plants. The anxiety and the waiting are poignantly portrayed. The craving and the loneliness are all captured through the use of corner spaces, in the first and through a sense of agitated movement in the other.
