KRISHNA PŪRBBARĀGA
The First Passion of Krishna
Rādhā first seen:
'She was a phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight.'
Wordsworth.
2. 'Unstained,' literally 'without antelope.' Indian fancy sees in the moon's markings, not a 'man in the moon,' but an antelope (or a hare). Rādhā is flawless, and so lovelier than the moon itself.
4. 'Sūrm,' viz. añjana, otherwise rendered as kohl or collyrium, with which the lower eyelid is blackened.
10, 11. A woman's throat is commonly compared to a conch. The Shambhu (Shiva-lingam) is the nipple (cf. Nos. [XVI], [LXVI]). The poet suggests that Rādhā's pearl necklace seems to be an ambrosial offering to Shiva, made by Kāmadeva, using the sacrificial vessel of Rādhā's conch-like throat (cf No. [LI], 12).
12, 13. 'Hevene y tolde al his
That o nyght were hire gest.'