This is one of Vidyāpati's most renowned poems, and a favourite subject of Rājput painters.
1. The bank of the Jamunā, or the steps of a bathing ghāt. Jamunā bank in Vaishnava literature stands for this world regarded as the constant meeting place of Rādhā and Krishna where amidst the affairs of daily life the soul is arrested and beguiled to her (worldly) undoing.
12. It is a popular tradition that the partridge (cakora) is in love with the moon and lives on the moon's rays. (Cf. [XXV], 5).
7. A favourite motif of Indian poets. When the day lotus closes at dusk, the thoughtless bee intent on honey is made a prisoner.
2. Rādhā's feet do not touch the ground, but are upborne by lotus flowers that spring up beneath them. Thus Rādhā is very tenderly represented as divine. Every footfall finds a lotus-footstool,—which is a constant convention of Buddhist and Hindū art. The lightness of her step is also suggested.
8. Called 'water-lily' eyes "for the calm repose of their drooping lids." (Tagore, loc. cit.).