ose face with his pleasure was overwhelmed and who was possessed with
Desire,
Who engendered passion with his face made lovely through tremblings of
glancing eyes,
Like a pond in autumn with a pair of wagtails at play in a fullblown
lotus.
Like the gushing of the shower of sweat in the effort of her travel to
come to his hearing,
Radha's eyes let fall a shower of tears when she met her beloved,
Tears of delight which went to the ends of her eyes and fell on her
flawless necklace.
When she went near the couch and her friends left the bower, scratching
their faces to hide their smiles,
And she looked on the mouth of her loved one, lovely with longing, under
the power of love,
The modest shame of that deer-eyed one departed.'

In the picture, Radha and Krishna are again united. Krishna has drawn
Radha to him and is caressing her cheek while friends of Radha gossip in
the courtyard. As in Plate 25, the artist has preferred a house to the
forest--the sharp thrust of the angular walls exactly expressing the
fierceness of the lovers' desires.

[Illustration]

PLATE 28

_Krishna awaiting Radha_

Illustration to the _Rasika Priya_ of Keshav Das
Bundi (Rajasthan), c. 1700
National Museum, New Delhi

Following the Sanskrit practice of discussing poetic taste, Keshav Das
produced in 1592 a Hindi manual of poetics. In this book, poems on love
were analysed with special reference to Krishna--Krishna himself
sustaining the role of _nayaka_ or ideal lover. During the seventeenth
century, illustrated versions of the manual were produced--poems appearing
at the top of the picture and the subjects being illustrated beneath. The
present picture treats Radha as the _nayika_ or ideal mistress and shows
her about to visit Krishna, She is, at first, seated on a bed but a little
later, is leaning against a pillar as a maid or friend induces her to
descend. In the left-hand bottom corner, Krishna sits quietly waiting. The
bower is hung with garlands and floored with lotus petals while lightning
twisting in the sky and torches flickering in the courtyard suggest the
storm of love. The figures with their neat line and eager faces are
typical of Bundi painting after it had broken free from the parent style
of Udaipur.

[Illustration]

PLATE 29

_Radha and Krishna making Love_

Illustration to the _Sursagar_ of Sur Das
Udaipur, Rajasthan, c. 1650
G.K. Kanoria collection, Calcutta