And What of Those Arbors

teṣām gopavadhūvilāsasuhṛdāṃ rādhārahaḥsākśiṇāṃkṣemaṃ bhadra kalindaśailatanayātīre latāveśmanāmvicchinne smaratalpakalpanamṛducchedopayoge 'dhunāte jāne jaraṭhī bhavanti vigalannīlatviṣaḥ pallavāḥ

• teṣāṃ. those

• gopa-vadhū-vilāsa-suhṛdāṃ. (bv. cmpd. with vine-groves)

• gopa-vadhū. cowherd’s wife

• vilāsa. passion, seduction, erotic desire

• suhṛdāṃ. love, love-play

• rādhā-rahaḥ-sākṣiṇāṃ. (bv. cmpd. for bowers: witnesses to secret affairs of Radha)

• rahaḥ. secret

• sākṣiṇāṃ. viewers, witnesses (literally, with eyes)

• kṣemaṃ. prosperous, safe

• bhadra. blessed, auspicious

• kalinda-śaila. Kalinda Mountain

• tanayā-tīre. daughter riverbank

• tanayā. child, offspring (I think it means the bank is the descendant of Kalinda Mountain)

• tīre. riverbank

• latā-veśmanām. vine-groves, bowers or dwellings

• vicchinne. (loc.) cut, torn, split

• smara. love

• talpa. bed

• kalpana. arranged, made, fashioned

• mṛdu. tender, pliant, soft

• ccheda. cut

• upayoge. enjoyment, love

• adhunā. now, today

• te. those (pallavāḥ, flowers)

• jāne. I know (wonder)

• jaraṭhī. bent, drooping, yellowed

• bhavanti. (have they) become

• vigala. dried up

• nīla. dark blue

• tviṣaḥ. splendor, beauty

• pallavāḥ. buds, blossoms, shoots

And what of thosearbors of vinesthat grow where the riverdrops away from Kalinda Mountain?They conspired in the lovegames of herding girlsand watched over the veiledaffairs of Radha.Now that the daysare gone when I cut theirtendrils, and laid themdown for couches of love,I wonder if they’vegrown brittle and iftheir splendid blue flowershave dried up.

If early dates for Vidyā are correct—around the seventh century—then this would be one of the first moments Radha steps from shadowy origins into poetry. Vidyā brings her onstage, confident that readers will know the story: that Radha is the cowherd girl beloved by Krishna, that their love goes through painful dark nights of separation, that their erotic union mirrors the human spirit’s approach to divine wholeness. In Sanskrit poetry, the full account would appear in Jayadeva’s Gīta-Govinda (twelfth century).

Vidyā’s poem shows that the changing phases of Krishna and Radha’s love were known to poets long before Jayadeva wrote. The late Barbara Miller, a fine scholar of Sanskrit, has traced Radha’s name from its use for a two-star constellation in the sky (a force of nature) to its transference on Earth to this particular woman. Miller also suggests Vidyā’s poem here may be in Radha’s voice.

Yet the speaker sounds far removed from her youth, wistful for days long past or nights of love. The river is the Yāmunā (now Jumna), identified with Krishna’s biogeography. Kalinda Mountain forms the backdrop—the watershed—for Krishna’s rasa-līlā, or circle dance.

Vidyā calls the riverbank tanayā, daughter, of the mountain; another name for the river in India’s sacred geography is Kalindī. An arbor or bower in the woods is where Krishna and Radha first consummated their love, on a bed of flowered cuttings. The flowers are nīla, dark blue, a color sometimes associated with Krishna. It is also the color to which Vidyā likens her own complexion in her poem “Not Knowing Me.”

The story of Radha may have been common property, circulated through villages by storytellers, dancers, puppeteers, theologians. But the emotion here is all Vidyā’s.