The story of Radha and Krishna is explored in the secular literature of love. This literature often identifies lovers according to types using features such as physical characteristics, situations, experience, and reactions. One of the most bountiful and authoritative of these secular love texts is the Rasika Priya, by Keshava Das, written in Hindi and compiled around 1591. Its categorization of women into eight basic kinds of heroines provided the structure for many sets of paintings of Eight Heroines, particularly in the Hill States, at courts such as Kangra.

According to the Gita Govinda, Radha is entrusted with the care of the younger man by his father on a stormy night and asked to bring Krishna through the forest to his village. On the way, the two are drawn to one another by emotions stronger than her vows, his age, their purpose. They experience the divine bliss of love that leaves them both smitten.

This romance, like most mortal loves, does not take a smooth course, and its infinite byways have been an enduring pre-occupation in the Indus region of poets, musicians, dramatists, and painters all too familiar with love's highs and lows. Radha and Krishna become emblems of all lovers-the nayika (beautiful lady, heroine) and the nayaka (eminent one, hero)

This image has lines of unidentified poetry on the back, conjuring the emotions of the lady who is both chaste and filled with desire. The lady is pursued by Krishna, but he cannot be trusted to be constant. His love is there for all those who can create it. And yet he pursues her relentlessly, single-mindedly. She turns her body away from him, but her head toward him, bending it almost to caress the hand on her shoulder that she would free herself from. He invites her gently toward the bed inside the pavilion.

Artists in the Hill States belonged to the carpenter class within the Hindu social structure. Their special interest in architecture and furniture is evident in this painting.

Continue the story of Lover and Beloved

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