Mystery Solved- the Enigmatic Concept of

Radha

Featuring Krishna in Cambodia but no

RADHE

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 The Concept of Radha
Dr Uday Dokras
I N T R O D U C T I O N

devī kṛiṣhṇamayī proktā rādhikā paradevatā

“She is like Krishna and a Supreme Personality.”

Radha is a prominent personality, earlier a consort of Krishna, some say a sister

elevated to the status of a Hindu goddess, primarily known as the beloved of Krishna,
a major deity in Hinduism. She is revered as the goddess of love, compassion, and
devotion, and is often depicted as Krishna's eternal consort. In various Vaishnava
traditions, Radha is considered the Supreme Goddess and the embodiment of
Krishna's internal energy.

 Radha is Krishna's beloved, particularly during his time among the cowherds
(gopas) of Vrindavan.
 She embodies love, compassion, and devotion, and is considered a source of
Krishna's bliss and happiness.
 In Vaishnavism, Radha is sometimes seen as symbolizing the human soul's
longing for union with the divine, with Krishna representing God.
 She is worshipped alongside Krishna in various Vaishnava traditions, with
festivals like Radhashtami (her birthday) celebrated to honor her.
 Radha is depicted in various forms, including as Lakshmi (the goddess of
prosperity), Mūlaprakriti (the primordial feminine energy), and the divine
consort of Krishna.
 There are numerous temples dedicated to Radha and Krishna, with Radha
Ramana Temple in Vrindavan being particularly significant.
 Radha's story is prominent in Hindu scriptures, devotional texts, and various
literary works, showcasing her eternal love for Krishna.

Go to any temple and just as Ram and Sita ( many times together with Laxman and
Hanuman) are idolized together, Radha and Krishna stand side by side.

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Radha /Krishna---------------------------------- Hanuman,Laxman,Ram and his wife Sita

Radhopanishad states that the personality, whom Shree Krishna worships, is known as
Radha. And the personality, whom Radha worships, is known as Krishna. Both worship
one another.The Radhaopanishad states:

ye yaṁ rādhā yaśhcha kṛiṣhṇo rasābdhirdeheśhchaikaḥ

krīḍanārthaṁ dvidhā bhoo
“Radha and Krishna are one, but have assumed two forms for the purpose of
performing loving pastimes.”

Again, the Radhopanishad states:

rādhā kṛiṣhṇayora ekāsanaṁ ekā buddhiḥ ekam manaḥ ekam jñānaṁ ekam
padam eka ātmā ekā ākṛitiḥ
“Radha and Krishna have one intellect, one mind, one soul, and even one face. They
have one knowledge. This is why there is no difference between these two. If someone
thinks there to be a difference, it is an offence.”

Mukhamarutena tvam krsna gorajo radhikaya apanayan |

Etasam ballavinam anyasam api gauravam harasi ||

"O Krishna, by the puff of breath from your mouth, as you blow the dust from

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Radha's face, you take away the glories of other milkmaids."

Radha also appears in the Puranas namely the Padma Purana (as an avatar
of Lakshmi), the Devi-Bhagavata Purana (as a form of Mahadevi), the Brahma
Vaivarta Purana (as Radha-Krishna supreme deity), the Matsya Purana (as form
of Devi), the Linga Purana (as form of Lakshmi), the Varaha Purana (as consort of
Krishna), the Narada Purana (as goddess of love), the Skanda Purana and the Shiva
Purana. The 15th and 16th century Krishnaite Bhakti poet-
saints Vidyapati, Chandidas, Meera Bai, Surdas, Swami Haridas, as well as Narsinh
Mehta (1350–1450), who preceded all of them, wrote about the romance of Krishna
and Radha too.[58] Thus, Chandidas in his Bengali-language Shri Krishna Kirtana, a
poem of Bhakti, depicts Radha and Krishna as divine, but in human love. Though not
named in the Bhagavata Purana, Visvanatha Chakravarti (c. 1626–1708) interprets an
unnamed favourite gopi in the scripture as Radha. She makes appearances
in Venisamhara by Bhatta Narayana (c. 800 CE), Dhvanyaloka by Anandavardhana (c.
820–890 CE) and its commentary Dhvanyalokalocana by Abhinavagupta (c. 950 –
1016 CE), Rajasekhara's (late ninth-early tenth century)
Kāvyamīmāṃsā, Dashavatara-charita (1066 CE)
by Kshemendra and Siddhahemasabdanusana by Hemachandra (c. 1088–1172). In
most of these, Radha is depicted as someone who is deeply in love with Krishna and is
deeply saddened when Krishna leaves her. But, on contrary, Radha of
the Rādhātantram is portrayed as audacious, sassy, confident, omniscient and divine
personality who is in full control at all times. In Rādhātantram, Radha is not merely the
consort but is treated as the independent goddess. Here, Krishna is portrayed as her
disciple and Radha as his guru.

Lakshmi Narayana (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी-नारायण) or Lakshmi Narayan is the dual

representation of the Hindu deities Vishnu, also known as Narayana, and his
consort, Lakshmi, traditionally featured in their abode, Vaikuntha. The goddess of
wealth and prosperity, Lakshmi, is depicted as standing next to Vishnu.The dual
representation of the deities Lakshmi Narayana has many historic roots, and is
sometimes interpreted differently by different traditions.

The goddess Lakshmi incarnates on earth with her beloved consort,

following Narayana's wishes, and mode of incarnation.

When Vishnu descended upon the world as Parashurama, the goddess incarnated
herself as Dharani;

when he was born as Rama, Lakshmi appeared as Sita; and when he was Krishna,
she appeared as Radha and Rukmini.

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Painting of Radha with Krishna, by M. V. Dhurandhar, 1915.

In Vishnu's next incarnation as Kalki that will spell the end of the present Kali Yuga, he
will wed Padmavati, who will also be an incarnation of Lakshmi.

This dual manifestation of the supreme deities of Vaishnavism is explored in

the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Brahma Vaivarta
Purana, Skanda Purana, and in other scriptures.

The Purushottama Mahatmya of Skanda Purana (13th century CE) and

of Vishnurahasya (16th century CE) referred to the female wooden image
between Jagannath and Balabhadra, Subhadra, as Lakshmi.

It is theorized that Radha may have inspired by the pairing of the

goddess Ekanamsha (associated with Durga) with Jagannatha (who is identified with

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Krishna) of Puri in Eastern India. Though Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (15th century, the
founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism) is not known to have worshiped the deity couple of
Radha-Krishna, his disciples around the Vrindavan region, affirmed Radha as
the hladini shakti ("energy of bliss") of Krishna, associating her with the Primordial
Divine Mother. While the poetry of Jayadeva and Vidyapati from Bengal treat Radha as
Krishna's "mistress", the Gaudiya poetry elevates her to a divine consort. In Western
India, Vallabhacharya's Krishna-centric sampradaya Pushtimarg, Radha is revered as
the Swamini of Krishna, who is worthy of devotion.

According to Jaya Chemburkar, there are at least two significant and different aspects
of Radha in the literature associated with her, such as Sri Radhika namasahasram.
One aspect is she is a milkmaid (gopi), another as a female deity similar to those found
in the Hindu goddess traditions. She also appears in Hindu arts as Ardhanari with
Krishna, that is an iconography where half of the image is Radha and the other half is
Krishna. This is found in sculpture such as those discovered in Maharashtra, and in
texts such as Shiva Purana and Brahma Vaivarta Purana. In these texts, this Ardha
Nari is sometimes referred to as Ardharadhavenudhara murti, and it symbolizes the
complete union and inseparability of Radha and Krishna.

It is demonstrated through a close study of her Sanskrit and Bengali sources that
Radha is both the "consort" and "conqueror" of Krishna and that "metaphysically
Radha is understood as co-substantial and co-eternal with Krishna." Indeed, the more
popular vernacular traditions prefer to worship the couple and often tilt the balance of
power towards Radha.

Graham M. Schweig in his work "The divine feminine theology of Krishna" in context
with Radha Krishna stated that, "The divine couple, Radha and Krishna, comprise the
essence of godhead. Radha is therefore acknowledged by Chaitanyaite Vaishnavas to
be part of very center of their theological doctrine. Sacred images of the forms of
Radha Krishna, standing together side by side, are elaborately worshiped in the Indian
temples. Through her image, her divine character and her amorous and passionate
relations with Krishna, Radha is the constant meditation of practitioners.

According to William Archer and David Kinsley, a professor of Religious Studies known
for his studies on Hindu goddesses, the Radha-Krishna love story is a metaphor for a
divine-human relationship, where Radha is the human devotee or soul who is
frustrated with the past, obligations to social expectations, and the ideas she inherited,
who then longs for real meaning, the true love, the divine (Krishna). This metaphoric
Radha (soul) finds new liberation in learning more about Krishna, bonding in devotion,
and with passion.

An image of Radha has inspired numerous literary works. For modern instance,
the Shri Radhacharita Mahakavyam—the 1980s epic poem of Dr. Kalika Prasad
Shukla that focuses on Radha's devotion to Krishna as the universal lover—"one of the
rare, high-quality works in Sanskrit in the twentieth century.

Ange tu vaame vrishabhaanujaam mudaa viraajamaanaam

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 anuruupasaubhagaam |
Sakhiisahasraih parisevitaam sadaa smarema deviim sakalestakaamadaam ||

The left portion of the body of the Supreme Lord is Srimati Radha, seated
blissfully, as beautiful as the Lord Himself; who is served by thousands of gopis:
we meditate on the Supreme Goddess, the fulfiller of all desires.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

saha na vavatu / saha nau bhunaktu /

saha viryankaravavahai / tejasvi navadhitamastu /
mavidvi sa vahai /

The Radha Tantra (Sanskrit: राधा तंत्र), also known

as Vāsudevarahasya (Vāsudeva's secret) is a Tantric scripture from Bengal that deals
with the story of Radha-Krishna in the backdrop of Vrindavan. The scripture is written in
the Sanskrit language and is dedicated to the goddess Radha. The Radha Tantra is
a Shakta text, despite its direct association with the Vaishnavite deities Radha
and Krishna.bIn the text, Radha is the Prakriti-Padmini, who is another form or
expansion Mahavidya Tripura Sundari, while Krishna is identified as a masculine form
of Kali. Contrary to the theology of Vaishnavism, this text elevates the goddess as the
Supreme Being. Besides being mentioned as the independent goddess, a mentor, and
spiritual guru of Krishna, Radha in this text is also portrayed as the partner of Krishna
who always has the upper hand in their relationship, giving her the new identity
of Shakta Radha (Radha as a goddess of the Shaktism sect).

The exact date of composition of the Radha tantra is uncertain, but its estimated time of
composition lies somewhere in between 17th century to 18th century. The oldest extant
manuscript (No. 13894, held at Sanskrit College, Kolkata) is dated 1778 CE. It appears
to be a copy of an earlier manuscript. Most of the other manuscripts date from the early
eighteenth century.

Radha tantra is an anonymous Tantric text from Bengal region. While most manuscripts
of the scripture are found in Bengal region, some manuscripts are also found in Orissa,
North India, Bangladesh and Nepal and their number is fairly large.

Rādhātantram is a fairly extensive Tantric work in Sanskrit. It has thirty-seven chapters

or Patalas (“coverings”) with 1,745 verses.

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Chromolithograph depicting an enthroned Radha as the supreme goddess and
Krishna standing as her subordinate

Radha Tantra is Shakta text giving a Shakta reinterpretation of a Vaisnavite story

of Radha Krishna. The Rādhātantram text bears formal resemblance to
the Mahavidya genre and contextual resemblance to the Vaishnava Sahajiya genre.
The frame of the Rādhātantram is a dialogue between Shiva and Parvati where Shiva
narrates her the love story and divine pastimes of Radha Krishna and their real spiritual
forms. In Radha tantra, Radha becomes the independent goddess and elevates to the
stature of Supreme goddess and Krishna's ultimate guru. Krishna here becomes her
disciple.The Rādhātantram can serve as a tool to examine textual and doctrinal
appropriations that took place between Vaishavism and Shaktism in precolonial Bengal.

om dhyauh shanti "Before beginning this work, I take refuge

urvantariksham shanti of the plenary portion of the Personality of
prithivis shanti Godhead, Lord Vishvaksena, the
apaha shanti elephant faced one, the leader of the
vayuh shanti assembly. It is He who constantly
tejah shanti destroys all obstacles."
oshadhayah shanti

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 loka shanti
brahmana shanti (Note: The incarnation in this period of
vaishnava shanti Manu is Vishvaksena, who is a friend of
Shambhu and who is born from the
shanti astu dhrtir astu, om shanti womb of Vishüci in the house of a
shanti shantih brähmana named Vishvasrashthä.”
harih om (Srimad Bhagavatam 8:13th chapter
summary 8:13:23., 8:21:16-17. as
om jaya sri krsna caitanya powerful associate of Vishnu., 11:27:29
prabhu nityananda With offerings such as prokshana one
sri advaita gadadhara should worship Durgä, Vinäyaka, Vyäsa,
srivasadi gaura-bhakta vrnda Vishvaksena, the spiritual masters and
the various demigods. All these
hare krsna hare krsna personalities should be in their proper
krsna krsna hare hare places facing the Deity of the Lord.,
hare rama hare rama 12:11:20 Vishvaksena, the chief among
rama rama hare hare His personal associates, is known to be
the personification of the Pancharätra
Om yasya dvirata vaktradya and other tantras. CC Madhya 20:327. In
parisadya parasatam the Brahma-sävarëya-manvantara, the
vighnan nighnanti satatam avatära is named Vishvaksena,)
vishvakshenam samashraye

May He, Lord Sri Krishna protect us all together; may He nourish us all together; may
we work conjointly with great energy, and enthusiasm together; may our realizations be
vigorous and effective; may there not be any dispute between any of us (nor may we
not hate anyone inside or outside of this assembly). Let there be peace, and peace, and
peace in all assembled here, in our temple environment and in the forces that act upon
us. (Maha-Narayanopanisad & Swetasvara Upanishad invocation verse)

Can one differentiate between Śrīmati Radha and Śrīmati Rukmini? For the
record, ParaVāsudeva Vrindavaneshwar Bhagwān Srī Krishna and Paraśrī
Vrindavaneshwari Bhagwati Śrīmatī Radhika are the ones who manifest as all forms
connected to Viṣṇu-tattva (for those who are specifically their upasaka). To think
otherwise is nothing short of tragic ignorance. It has been said :-

sā tu sākṣānmahālakṣmīḥ kṛṣṇō nārāyaṇaḥ prabhuḥ (pad.pur 5.81)

Which means Radha is Mahalakshmi while Krishna is Nārāyaņa. As per the vedas,
Bhagawan Krishna only is Bhagwan Nārāyaņa and his consort is none other than
ParaSri only.

rādhā lakṣmīḥ parāvidyā ramā śrīḥ ca nārāyaṇī (Laks.Nar S)

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In various Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is regarded as the Mūla Rūpa
Paraśrī, the supreme consort of the Lord, but at the same time, it is imperative to reject
baseless and unsound assertions such as “Rādhā is not some Gopī but Ādi Śakti
while Rukmiṇī is nothing” or convoluted comparisons regarding their respective
bhāvas toward Śrī Hari Nārāyaṇa. Statements like “Rādhā is called Lakṣmī, not
Lakṣmī is called Rādhā” are not only grammatically flawed but also has nothing to with
Vaiṣṇava śāstras and philosophy.

Theologically, it is clear that Īśvara and Īśvarī assume a multiplicity of forms, yet their
essential attributes (such as Īśvaratva) remain consistent across all manifestations. The
Vedas emphasize this foundational principle, rejecting any notions of hierarchy or
differentiation between these forms, such as claims of one being Ādi Śakti and another
being lesser or insignificant. Instead, Vaiṣṇava śāstra teaches that all forms of Viṣṇu
and Lakṣmī are one in essence and purpose, embodying the singular Viṣṇu-
tattva and Lakṣmī-tattva. Also, Mahālakṣmī is not distinct from Viṣṇu but rather is the
Lord Himself in consort form. Consequently, Lakṣmī-tattva is ultimately inseparable from
Viṣṇu-tattva. While our sampradāyas may emphasize a particular form as the center
(eg. Rādhā in nimbarkas, Rukmiṇī in Gyaneswars, Sita in Ramanandi etc), such
preferences are devotional in nature and do not imply theological superiority or
inferiority among these forms.

Creating artificial distinctions between Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and other manifestations of

Lakṣmī-tattva undermines the very coherence of Vaiṣṇava theology. The Smṛti
Śāstra (Vṛddha Hārīta) states that only Viṣṇu is entitled to the title of Lakṣmīpati,
thereby affirming that only Lakṣmī is His consort. Thus, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is not a
separate entity but the Paraśakti Paraśrī, the supreme form of Mahālakṣmī. Any
attempt to divide or prioritize one form over another contradicts the harmonious unity of
the divine forms and the underlying principles of Vaiṣṇava philosophy. The Brihad
Brahma samhita mentions How Radha only later incarnated as rukmini in dwarika :-

bhaviṣyati mahābhāge tatrecchā tava yāsyati |

dvārakāyāṃ tadā bhadre rukmiṇīrūpiṇī majapyetāṃ mahāvidyāṃ yāsyasi tvaritā
sukham | (3rd. Canto)
The notion of fame is at best is a subjective and fleeting metric, often influenced more
by cultural trends than by theological substance. In Southern India, Devi Rukmini holds
prominence while in Northern India, Devi Radha is more widely worshipped. To
extrapolate absolute truths from such a narrow and regionally bound sample space is
not insightful but it is intellectual laziness.

for example, the case of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana. While undeniably "all-India
famous," it’s reality is that it stands as one of the greatest tragedies in history of
television, where fake dialogues are used to glorify the demons and relegate Śrī
Anjaneya, the true hero of the Ramayana, to a secondary role. Similarly, the
oversimplification of Devi Lakshmi as merely a "goddess of wealth" is another testament
to fame distorting truth. The śāstras portray her as infinitely more, her divine feats are
unparalleled.

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Fame however is not a metric for truth. Intelligent and discerning people look to the
śāstras for guidance, not to fleeting trends or personal biases. To equate truth with
popularity is to undermine the depth and complexity of śāstric wisdom. In the end, it is
the intellectually feeble who swim with the current of what is famous; the truly wise
anchor themselves in the enduring truths of scripture.

the classic "Lover vs. Wife" debate is nothing but creation of the intellectually disabled
creatures. In reality, both Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and Devi Rukmini
are Mahālakṣmī incarnations and consorts of Lord Krishna. To pit them against each
other in such a foolish way is the hallmark of ignorance and as for the Rādhā in viraha,
she is not even the highest form of Rādhā.

Anyone who deliberately introduces apasiddhāntic distinctions between the various

forms of Viṣṇu or Lakṣmī deviates from the core principles of Vaiṣṇavism. Such a
person cannot be regarded as a Vaiṣṇava but is instead an upāsaka of Vāmadeva
Viṣṇu, who is a jivatma.

Radha ( राधा), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the
god Krishna. She is the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. In
scriptures, Radha is mentioned as the avatar of Lakshmi and also as the Mūlaprakriti,
the Supreme goddess, who is the feminine counterpart and internal potency
(hladini shakti) of Krishna. Radha accompanies Krishna in all his incarnations. Radha's
birthday is celebrated every year on the occasion of Radhashtami.

In relation with Krishna, Radha has dual representation—the lover consort as well as his
married consort. Traditions like Nimbarka Sampradaya worship Radha as the eternal
consort and wedded wife of Krishna. In contrast, traditions like Gaudiya
Vaishnavism revere her as Krishna's lover and the divine consort.

In Radha Vallabh Sampradaya and Haridasi Sampradaya, only Radha is worshipped as

the Supreme being. Elsewhere, she is venerated with Krishna as his principal consort in
Nimbarka Sampradaya, Pushtimarg, Mahanam Sampradaya, Swaminarayan
Sampradaya, Vaishnava-Sahajiya, Manipuri Vaishnavism, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism
movements linked to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

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 Ja
yadeva recites the mantra to Radha Krishna by Manaku./14th-century fresco of
Radha (right) and Krishna (left, playing flute) in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Radha is described as the chief of Braj Gopis (milkmaids of Braj) and queen
of Goloka and Braj including Vrindavan and Barsana. She has inspired numerous
literary works, and her Raslila dance with Krishna has inspired many types of
performance arts.

The Sanskrit term Rādhā means "prosperity, success, perfection and wealth".It is a
common word and name found in various contexts in the ancient and medieval texts of
India. The word appears in the Vedic literature as well as the Hindu epics, but is
elusive. The name also appears for a figure in the epic Mahabharata. Rādhikā refers to
an endearing form of Radha.

In chapter 15th, Goloka khanda of Garga Samhita, Sage Garga elaborates the
complete meaning of Radha. In Radha, 'R' signifies Rama, goddess Lakshmi, 'a'
means Gopis, "dh" signifies dhara, goddess Bhudevi and last 'a'
symbolises River Virājā (also called Yamuna).[

The fifth chapter, Fifth night of Narada Pancharatra mentioned 1008 names of Radha
under the title Shri Radha Saharsnama Strotam. The 68th chapter, Tritiya
paad of Narada Purana also listed 500 names of Radha. Some of the common names
and epithets are:

 Sri, Shreeji, Shriji: Goddess of radiance, splendor and wealth; Lakshmi

 Madhavi: Feminine counterpart of Madhava
 Keshavi: Feminine form of Keshava
 Aparajita: She who is unconquerable
 Kishori: Youthful
 Nitya: She is eternal
 Nitya-gehinī: Krishna's eternal wife
 Gopi: Cowherd girl

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 Shyama: Beloved of Shyam
 Gaurangi: She whose complexion is bright like the lustrous gold
 Raseshvari and Rasa-priya: Queen of Raslila and she who is fond of rasa dance
 Vrindavaneshvari: Queen of Vrindavan
 Krishneshvari: Feminine counterpart of Krishna

Radha is an important goddess in the Vaishnavite traditions of Hinduism. Her traits,

manifestations, descriptions, and roles vary by region. Radha is intrinsic with Krishna. In
early Indian literature, mentions of her are elusive. The traditions that venerate her
explain this is because she is the secret treasure hidden within the sacred scriptures.
During the Bhakti movement era in the sixteenth century, she became more well known
as her extraordinary love for Krishna was highlighted.

Radha's first major appearance in the 12th-century Gita Govinda in Sanskrit

by Jayadeva as well as Nimbarkacharya's philosophical works. Thus in the Gita
Govinda Krishna speaks to Radha:

O woman with desire, place on this patch of flower-strewn floor your lotus foot,
And let your foot through beauty win,
To me who am the Lord of All, O be attached, now always yours.
O follow me, my little Radha.

— Jayadeva, Gita Govinda

However, the source of Jayadeva's heroine in his poem remains a puzzle of the
Sanskrit literature. A possible explanation is Jayadeva's friendship
with Nimbarkacharya,[50] the first acharya to establish the worship of Radha-Krishna.
Nimbarka, in accordance with the Sahitya Akademi's Encyclopaedia, more than any
other acharyas gave Radha a place as a deity.

Prior to Gita Govinda, Radha was also mentioned in text Gatha Saptasati which is a
collection of 700 verses composed in Prakrit language by King Hāla. The text was
written around first or second century AD. Gatha Saptasati mentioned Radha explicitly
in its verse:

Why is Radha worshiped with Krishna instead of Rukmini?

In Hinduism, importance is given to one’s action, karma, dharma and its impact rather
than on one’s identity.

The Trimurti- Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesha are considered to be superior to the Devas
like Indra because the former have much bigger roles. In Shaktism, Shakti is considered
to be superior to the Trinity because she is the energy of all. Thus, these hierarchies are
formed due to their responsibilities and actions – dharma and karma.

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In Rukmini’s case, our mythology has only talked about her identity – Rukmini being the
incarnation of Mata Maha Lakshmi, it has never highlighted any of her achievements –
and for a reason – unlike the births of Sita and Ram whose objectives, besides
establishing dharma, were to set examples of ideal wife, husband, mother, ruler and so
on, Krishna’s role was to set examples of an ideal lover, devotee, friend, guide, guru
and to give mankind the lotus-like words of Gita, and Rukmini’s role was to be his
human-consort. One has to understand that this does not imply that she was inferior –
it’s just that they incarnated for some specific reasons.

Now to set an example of an ideal lover and a devotee, one needs other side of the coin
too, and here comes Radha, an epitome of selfless love, the love which knew no
boundaries, no age, no community. It is this devotion which pulled Krishna to play his
beautiful flute, and it is the same devotion which drove Radha to the Raas Leela,
forgetting her own self. This love, this devotion, this karma, pure as a prayer, a silent
meditation, is what makes Radha divine, this is what turns a devotee into God. Radha-
Krishna have been a part of poetry, drama, and folklore since time immemorial.

So the world worships Radha to celebrate the bond of love and devotion, one of the
paths to realize the Truth mentioned in the Gita. Devi Lakshmi’s incarnation was
Rukmini was supposed to be a silent supporter – very important but less conspicuous.
And this was by their own design, their own strategy, and their master plan.

There’s no bias between Radha and Rukmini as why one is only worshipped with
Krishna. There are many temples that worship Rukmini with Krishna as Rukmini-
Dwarikadhish or Rukmini-Vitthal. The rasa involved is different. But both of them are the
internal potency or hladini-shakti (internal potency) of Lord Krishna and they are meant
to worship with Him.

Moreover, Radha and Rukmini are non-different and we find this statement in Skanda
Purana confirming this:

“rukmini dvaravatyam tu radha vrndavane vane”

TRANSLATION: Rukmini is in Dwaraka what Radha is in the forest of Vrindavan.

Importance of spiritual shelter by Srimati Radha or Mother Rukmini to the

Devotee:

Radha or any of the forms of the spiritual potency of Krishna makes the way for the
sincere living entity who is aspiring to render devotional service to Krishna. Krishna
explains sincere devotees are always under the protection of His Internal Potency (i.e.
Radha, Mother Sita or Rukmini) this in Bhagavad-Gita:

“mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha

daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ

15
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam”

TRANSLATION: O son of Pritha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under
the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in devotional service because
they know me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, original and inexhaustible.-
Bhagavad-Gita 9.13

Also, many a times devotees are attached to a certain form of Lord Krishna and they
worship but this is no great issue or some bias. Some wish to worship Radha-Krishna,
or Sita-Rama, Lakshmi-Narayana, Lakshmi-Nrismhadeva. But the focus should be
sincere service to Lord Krishna. Krishna reciprocates with the devotee accordingly as
confirmed in Purusha-Bodhini-Upanishad:

“eko devo nitya-līlānurakto

bhakta-vyāpī hṛdy antarātmā”

TRANSLATION: “The one Supreme Personality of Godhead is eternally engaged in

many, many transcendental forms in relationships with His unalloyed devotees.”
In Laghu-bhagavatamrita (5.383) expounding the above fact:

“ata evā purāṇādau kecin nara-sakhātmatām

mahendrānujatāṁ kecit kecit kṣīrābdhi-śāyitām
sahasra-śīrṣatāṁ kecit kecid vaikuṇṭha-nāthatām
brūyuḥ kṛṣṇasya munayas tat-tad-vṛtty-anugāminaḥ”

“According to the intimate relationships between Sri Krishna, the primeval Lord, and His
devotees, the Puranas describe Him by various names. Sometimes He is called
Narayana; sometimes Upendra (Vamana), the younger brother of Indra, King of heaven;
and sometimes Kshirodakashayi Vishnu. Sometimes He is called the lord of the
Vaikuntha.”

Rukmini is the incarnation of Goddess of Fortune, Mother Lakshmi and Radha is the
origin of Mother Lakshmi and she is extremely dear to Lord Krishna. Some scriptural
evidence for this:

“yatha radha priya visnos-tasyah kundam priyam tatha

sarva gopisu saivaika visnor-atyanta-vallabha”

TRANSLATION: “Just as Radha is dear to Lord Krishna, so her bathing place [Radha-
kundah] is dear to Him. She alone is His most beloved of all the Gopis.” – Padma
Purana

[Krishna to Arjuna]

16
 Trai – Lokye prithvi dhanya
yatra vrindavanam puri
tatrapi gopikah partha
yatra radhabhidha mama

TRANSLATION: “O Partha, in all the three planetary systems, this earth is especially
fortunate, for on earth is the town of Vrindavan. And there the Gopis are especially
glorious because among them is My Srimati Radharani.” – Adi Purana

Since she is extremely dear to the Supreme Lord, whichever sincere devotee she
recommends Krishna immediately accepts unconditionally.

Radha is ‘NOT’ mentioned in Vedic Scriptures

Sometimes there are lame arguments that the name of Radha is not mentioned in
Scriptures, so she is an imaginary figure or a concocted personality by the Bhakti
Movement. But this is actually not a fact as she is mentioned, but to avoid unscrupulous
people and pretenders, her names are not directly mentioned as it is confidential
knowledge. At the same time, there are also direct mentions in Vedic Scriptures.

In many Vedic scriptures Srimati Radharani is described but in Bhagavatam Shukadeva

Goswami has tried to hide Her confidential name, nature, and pastimes.

Srimati Radharani is referred to in this verse as kaacit, “a certain Gopi”. To establish

that this particular Gopi is, in fact, Radha, Srila Jiva Goswami quotes the following
verses from the Agni Purana:
“gopyah papracchur usasi
krsnanucaram uddhavam
hari-lila-viharams ca
tatraikam radhikam vina
radha tad-bhava-samlina
vasanaya viramita
sakhibhih sabhyadhac chuddha-
vijñana-guna-jrmbhitam
ijyante-vasinam veda
caramamsa-vibhavanaih”

“At dawn, the Gopis inquired from Krishna’s servant, Uddhava, about the Lord’s
pastimes and recreation. Only Srimati Radharani, immersed in the thought of Krishna,
withdrew Her interest in the talks. Then Radha, who is worshiped by the residents of
Her Vrindavan village, spoke up in the midst of her girlfriends. Her words were full of
pure transcendental knowledge and expressed the ultimate portion of the Vedas.”

The Brihad-gautamiya-tantra also names Radha as the foremost consort of Lord

Krishna:

17
 “devi krsna-mayi prokta
radhika para-devata
sarva-laksmi-mayi sarva-
kantih sammohini para”

“The transcendental goddess Srimati Radharani is the direct counterpart of Lord Sri
Krishna. She is the central figure for all the goddesses of fortune. She possesses all
attractiveness to attract the all-attractive Personality of Godhead. She is the primeval
internal potency of the Lord.”

Additional information about Sri Radha is given in the Rig-Parishishta (the supplement
to the Rig Veda):

“radhaya madhavo devo madhavenaiva radhika/ vibhrajante janeshu”

“Among all persons, it is Sri Radha in whose company Lord Madhava is especially
glorious, as she is especially glorious in His.”

So Srimati Radharani is not a fictional character nor is it a bias of only her being
worshipped with Krishna. Different devotees have an attachment to various incarnations
of Krishna so they serve Him appropriately.

If Radha is a true example of ‘Love’ then Rukmini a true example of being a

‘Devoted Wife’

Once, Satyabhama prided herself about the love Krishna had for her and her grasp over
his heart. On one contrived occasion, Deva Rishi Narada arrived in Dwarka and in the
course of conversation hinted to Satyabhama that the love that Krishna exhibits towards
her is not all that real and in fact, it is Rukmini (the first wife of Krishna) who has real
control over his heart. Unable to bear this, Satyabhama challenged Narada to prove it.
Narada, with his way with words, tricked her into accepting a Vrata (ritual) where she
has to give Krishna away in charity to Narada and reclaim him by giving the weight of
Krishna in wealth. Narada lured her into accepting this vrata by telling her that Krishna’s
love for her will increase many folds if she succeeds in performing this Tulabharam. He
also instigated her ego by hinting that her wealth may not be sufficient to equal the
weight of Krishna. With Satyabhama’s ego duly raised, she told Narada that she can
mobilize so much wealth that it is a child’s play for her to outweigh Krishna. Narada
warned her that if she is not able to do this, Krishna will become his slave to be done
with as he pleases.

The scene was soon set for the vrata. Satyabhama gave Krishna away in charity (Dana)
in spite of the other wives’ pleadings. Krishna, always the mischievous cowherd, meekly
submitted to this drama. After donating Krishna to Narada, Satyabhama arranged for a
big scale to be put up and sends with all assurance for her huge treasure of gold and
jewelry. All that she has is soon put on the scale, but it didn’t budge. Narada started

18
taunting her and threatening her that if she can’t put enough gold or diamonds, he will
be forced to auction Krishna as a slave to someone else. Satyabhama, in frantic panic,
swallowed her pride and begged all the other wives to give their jewels. They agreed
out of love for Krishna but alas, it was of no use.

Krishna remained a mute witness to all this drama and rubbed salt into the open
wounds of Satyabhama’s ego that he has now to become a slave to some cowherd and
will have to suffer the separation from his dear wife. Narada suggested to Satyabhama
that Rukmini may be able to get her out of the predicament. She finally swallowed her
pride and appealed to Rukmini, the devoted first wife of Krishna. Rukmini came and with
a prayer to her husband and put a single leaf of the sacred Tulasi on the scale (Tula).
Lo and behold, the scales became all at once so heavy that even after removing all the
jewels, the scales were weighed down on the side of the Tulasi leaf.

Radha and Sita

The Radha-Krishna and Sita-Rama pairs represent two different personality sets, two
perspectives on dharma and lifestyles, both cherished in the way of life called Hinduism.
Sita is traditionally wedded: the dedicated and virtuous wife of Rama, an
introspective temperate paragon of a serious, virtuous man. Radha is a power potency
of Krishna, who is a playful adventurer.

Radha and Sita offer two templates within the Hindu tradition. If "Sita is a queen, aware
of her social responsibilities", states Pauwels, then "Radha is exclusively focused on her
romantic relationship with her lover", giving two contrasting role models from two ends
of the moral universe. Yet they share common elements as well. Both face life
challenges and are committed to their true love. They are both influential, adored and
beloved goddesses in the Hindu culture.

In worship of Rama, Sita is represented as a dutiful and loving wife, holding a position
entirely subordinate to Rama. However, in the worship of Radha Krishna, Radha is
often preferred over to Krishna, and in certain traditions, her name is elevated to a
higher position compared to Krishna's.

Radha in Hinduism, is revered as the goddess of love. She is mostly depicted along
with Krishna or gopis in the land of Braj. Various art forms based on Radha Krishna are
majorly inspired by Gita Govinda and Rasikapriya. In Rajput paintings, Radha
represents an ideal of beauty, wearing the traditional sari decorated extensively with
patterns and ornamented in jewelry with lighter skin tone and emphasized facial
features. In Kishangarh paintings, Radha is represented as beautifully dressed woman
in ghagra choli with pearl jewelry and a dark diaphanous veil over her head. The
famous Bani Thani portrait by artist Nihâl Chand was inspired by Radha's physical
features which includes sharp eyebrows, lotus-like elongated eyes, thin lips and a
pointed nose and chin.

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In religious art forms, Radha also appears as Ardhanari with Krishna, that is an
iconography where half of the image is Radha and the other half is Krishna forming the
combined masculine and feminine form of Ardhanarishvara.

A
statue of Radha as a child in Raval//ha Krishna idols at Iskcon Temple Pune/
Radha Krishna ardhanarishvara form
In Radha Krishna temples, Radha stands on the left of Krishna, with a garland in her
hand. She is often dressed in traditional sari or ghagra-choli along with a veil. Her
jewelry from top to bottom is either made of metals, pearls or flowers.

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The Sanskrit scripture Brahma Vaivarta Purana describes Radha as the beautiful and
youthful goddess having the molten golden complexion and wearing the garlands of
gems and flowers.

Radha in her human form is revered as the milkmaid (gopi) of Vrindavan who became
the beloved of Krishna. One of the basic traits of Radha is her unconditional love for
Krishna and her sufferings that forms the basis for Radha's exaltation as a model of
devotion.

Birth and early life

temple.

Radha was born to Vrishbhanu, who was the Yadava ruler of Barsana and his wife
Kirtida. Her birthplace is Raval which is a small town near Gokul in Uttar pradesh, but is
often said to be Barsana where she grew up. According to popular legend, Radha was
discovered by Vrishbhanu on an effulgent lotus floating in Yamuna river. Radha was
nine months older than Krishna. She didn't open her eyes until Krishna himself in his
child form appeared in front of her.

"Ashtasakhis" (translated to eight friends) are the integral part of Radha's childhood and
youth. It is believed that all the Ashtasakhis are the intimate friends of Radha Krishna
and also have descended from Goloka in Braj region. Out of all the eight
sakhis, Lalita and Vishakha are the prominent ones. According to Chaitanya
Charitamrita's Antya lila (2:6:116), Radha also received a boon from sage Durvasa in
her childhood that whatever she cooks would be better than the nectar.

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Radha Krishna's Raslila with gopis.

Stories of Radha's youth are filled with her divine pastimes with Krishna. Some of the
popular pastimes of Radha Krishna include: Raslila, pastimes of Radha
Kund, Gopashtami lila, Lathmar Holi, Seva Kunj lila in which Krishna did sringara of
Radha, Maan lila ( A special stage in divine love in which the devotee develops so much
love for God as to even attain the right of getting angry with him), Mor Kutir lila in which
Krishna performed a dance lila by dressing himself as a peacock to please Radha,
Gopadevi lila (Krishna took form of female to meet Radha) and Lilahava in which Radha
Krishna dressed in each other clothes.

Relationship with Krishna

Radha and Krishna share two kinds of relationships, Parakiya (Love without any social
limitation) and Svakiya (married relationship). Radha asked Krishna why he can't marry
her, the reply came "Marriage is a union of two souls. You and I are one soul, how can I
marry myself?" Several Hindu texts allude to these circumstances.

22
Radha Krishna's marriage is being performed by Brahma in Bhandirvan,
Vrindavan

The Sanskrit texts, Brahma Vaivarta Purana and the Garga Samhita mention that
Krishna secretly married Radha in the presence of Brahma in the Bhandirvan forest
before leaving Vrindavan. The place where Radha Krishna's marriage was conducted is
still present in the outskirts of Vrindavan, called Radha Krishna Vivah Sthali,
Bhandirvan.The story mentioned in Brahma Vaivarta Purana indicates that Radha has
always been Krishna's divine consort. But to give importance to Parakiya relationship
(love without any social foundation) over Svakiya's (married relationship), Radha
Krishna's marriage was kept hidden.

Life after Krishna left Vrindavan

According to Garga Samhita and Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Radha also left her home
post Krishna's departure and went to Kadli vann (forest) leaving behind her illusionary
form (also called Chaya Radha, her shadow) in Barsana. Radha with Ashtasakhi also
met Uddhava in this forest who delivered them Krishna's message.

Reuniting with Krishna

It is mentioned in Brahma Vaivarta Purana (Krishnajanma Khanda, Chapter 96) and
Garga Samhita (Ashvamedha Khanda, Chapter 41) that after the curse of 100 years of
separation ran out. Krishna revisited Braj and met Radha and gopis. After performing
the divine pastimes for sometime, Krishna summoned a huge divine chariot which took
the residents of Braj along with Radha and gopis back to their celestial abode Goloka
where the final reunion of Radha Krishna took place.

As Supreme Goddess
In Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Radha (or Rādhikā), who is inseparable from Krishna,
appears as the main goddess. She is mentioned as the personification of the
Mūlaprakriti, the "Root nature", that original seed from which all material forms evolved.
In the company of the Purusha ("Man", "Spirit", "Universal soul") Krishna, she is said to
inhabit the Goloka, which is a world of cows and cowherds far above
the Vishnu's Vaikuntha. In this divine world, Krishna and Radha relate to one another in

23
the way body relates to the soul. (4.6.216). According to Krishnaism, Radha is the chief
female deity and is associated with Krishna's maya (material energy)
and prakriti (feminine energy). At highest level Goloka, Radha is said to be united with
Krishna and abiding with him in the same body. The relationship between Radha
Krishna is that of substance and attribute: they are as inseparable as Milk and its
whiteness or Earth and its smell. This level of Radha's identity transcends her material
nature as prakriti and exits in the form of pure consciousness (Narada Purana, Uttara
Khana - 59.8). While Radha is identical to Krishna at this highest level, this merger of
identities seems to end when she separates from him. After separation she manifest
herself as the goddess Primordial prakriti (Mūlaprakriti) who is called the "Maker of
Universe" or "Mother of All" (Narada Purana, Purva-Khanda, 83.10-11, 83.44, 82.214).

In Nimbarkacharya's Vedanta Kamadhenu Dashashloki (verse 6), it is clearly stated

that:

Ange tu vaame vrishabhaanujaam The left portion of the body of the Supreme Lord is
mudaa viraajamaanaam Srimati Radha, seated blissfully, as beautiful as
anuruupasaubhagaam | the Lord Himself; who is served by thousands of
Sakhiisahasraih parisevitaam gopis: we meditate on the Supreme Goddess, the
sadaa smarema deviim fulfiller of all desires.
sakalestakaamadaam ||

In the hymnal Hita-Caurasi of Hith Harivansh Mahaprabhu, the 16th-century bhakti poet-
saint, founder of Radha Vallabh Sampradaya, Radharani is exalted to the status of the
only ultimate deity, while her consort Krishna is just her most intimate subordinate. As a
precursor to this view can be understand Jayadeva, in whose Gita Govinda (10.9)
Krishna is beneath Radha.

Radha is also considered as the personification of Krishna's love. According to doctrines

attributed to Vaishnavite saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, It is said that, Krishna has three
powers: the internal which is intelligence, the external which generates appearances
and the differentiated which forms the individual soul. His chief power is that which
creates dilatation of the heart or joy. This appears to be the power of love. When this
love becomes settled in the heart of the devotee, it constitutes Mahabhava, or the best
feeling. When love attains to the highest pitch, it constitutes itself into Radha, who is the
most lovable of all and full of all qualities. She was the object of the highest love of
Krishna and being idealized as love, some of the agreeable feelings of the heart are
considered her ornaments.

In Narada Pancharatra Samhita, Radha is mentioned as the feminine form of Krishna. It

is described that, the one single lord is represented to have become two—one a woman
and the other a man. Krishna retained his form of man while the female form became
Radha. Radha is said to have come out from primordial body of Krishna, forming his left
side, and is eternally associated with him in his amorous sports in this world as well as
the world of cows (Goloka).

24
Radha is often identified with the "sweet" aspect of goddess Lakshmi's essence and
thus also worshiped as an avatara of Lakshmi. In Shri Daivakrita Lakshmi Strotam,
Lakshmi is praised and glorified in her form of Radha .

In Goloka, you are the goddess more dear to Krishna than life itself, His own Radhika.
Deep in the Vrinda forest, you are the mistress of mesmerizing rasa dance.

— Shri Daivakrita Lakshmi Strotam

According to the Garga Samhita (Canto 2, chapter 22, verses 26–29), during
the rasa pastime, on the request of gopis, Radha and Krishna showed them their eight
armed forms and turned into their Lakshmi Narayan forms. (2.22.26)

In Skanda Purana (Vaishnava Khand, chapter 128), Yamuna describes Radha as the
soul of Krishna. She emphasis that "Radha is Krishna and Krishna is Radha" and all the
queens of Krishna including Rukmini are the expansion of Radha.

ROLES

As Krishna's lover consort (Parakiya rasa)

Radha is admired as an ideal of perfect lover. In Gita Govinda, it is not certain whether
Radha was married or if she was an unmarried maiden. But, the relationship
between Radha Krishna was unfolded in the secrecy of Vrindavan forest hinting at
the Parakiya rasa. This can be understood from the verse where Nanda, the father of
Krishna, who represents social authority and ideal of dharma ordered Radha Krishna to
go home as storm was approaching Vrindavan but the order was defied by the couple.
The translation of first verse of Gita Govinda is as follows:

Radha, you alone must take him home. This is Nanda's command.
But, Radha and Madhava (Krishna) stray to a tree in the grove by the
path and on the bank of the Yamuna their secret love games prevail.

— Jayadev, Gita Govinda

In the Gita govinda, Radha stands in relation to Krishna as his consort. She is neither a
wife nor a devoted rustic playmate. She is an intense, solitary, proud figure who is
addressed as Sri, Candi, Manini, Bhamini and Kaamini. She is portrayed as Krishna's
partner in a mature and exclusive love.[34]

In Vidyapati's work, Radha is depicted as a young girl barely twelve years old, while
Krishna is depicted slightly older than her and as an aggressive lover. In the work of
poet Chandidas, Radha is depicted as a bold woman who is unafraid of social
consequences. Radha abandons all social propriety in the name of her love for Krishna.
Excerpts of Chandidas's work showing Radha's boldness:

25
 Casting away all the ethics of caste, my heart dotes on Krishna day and night.
The custom of the clan is far away cry, and now I know that love adheres wholly
to its own laws.
I have blackened my golden skin longing for him. As the fire encircled me, my life
begins to wilt. And my heart brooding eternally, parched for my dark darling, My
Krishna.

— Chandidas
In loving Krishna, Radha violates the basis of caste, showing no care for the realities of
social structures. Love consumed her to extent that once having fair complexion, Radha
turned herself into Krishna's dark color. Chandidas used the word "fire" as synonym for
Radha's love towards Krishna. The Radha of Chandidas is favored by Gaudiya
Vaishnavas.

Rasikapriya, a Braj text on poetics depicts Radha as the married consort of Krishna. It is
a frequently illustrated text that deals with the Radha Krishna's romance and is written
by one of the most prominent writers of the Riti kavya tradition, Kesavdas. Changes in
the portrayal of Radha, as articulated in the Rasikapriya, have significant implications
for later literary traditions. In the Riti kavya literature, especially the Rasikapriya, Radha
is depicted as the archetypal heroine and is used to exemplify the ideal form of
connection to Krishna. Rather than depicting her as a parakiya heroine, Kesavdas, on
the whole, presents her as a svakiya heroine, the one to whom Krishna belongs
wholeheartedly. If she is separated from him, it is only temporarily, for as archetypal
lovers they are connected forever. The suggestion that Radha is Krishna's rightful wife
is clearly articulated in the first chapter in the exemplary verse for the manifest form of
union. Here, Kesavdas compares the union of Radha and Krishna with that
of Sita and Rama. Kesavdas compares the union of Radha and Krishna with that of Sita
and Rama:

Once Krishna sat with Radha on the same couch with pleasure, and in the mirror held,
as he looked to watch the splendor of her face, his eyes filled with tears. In her
reflections he saw the red gem on her forehead which seemed to glow like fire,
reminding him of Sita sitting in fire, adorned, with her husband's leave.

— Kesavdas, Rasikapriya (I,22)

26
As Krishna's married consort (Svakiya rasa)

Krishna painting feet of

Radha, 1760 art form based on Braj's Rasikapriya text.

In this verse, Kesavdas connects Radha with Krishna as his legitimate wife not only in
this lifetime but even in the previous one. Chapter 3 and verse 34 of Rasikapriya,
depicted Radha as Madhya arudhayovana nayika and is described as a beautiful
woman who looks like a heavenly damsel, with perfect features (forehead like the half
moon, arches like a perfect bow, etc.), golden body, and a beautiful body fragrance. In
chapter 3, verse 38, one attendant talks to another:

I have seen such an amazingly beautiful gopi, that I wonder if she really is a
cowherdess ! Such splendor shone from her body that my eyes remained
transfixed on her! No other beautiful women appeal any more; having seen her

27
 delicate walk once, I see the beauty of all three worlds. Who could be the
husband of such a beauty, Kamadeva or Kalanidhi [moon]? No, Krishna himself.

— Kesavdasa, Rasikapriya (III, 38)

In chapter 3, verse 38, Radha is very specifically described as the wife of Krishna. In
most of the verses, whenever she is mentioned by name, she is usually seen as a
virtuous court lady with utmost beauty and charm. Her husband Krishna is said to be in
control of her love. Kesavdasa in Rasikapriya mentioned that while it is common to see
women devoted to their husbands but it is not as common to see a husband as Krishna
who is so devoted to his wife Radha and considering her as goddess.(VII, 6).
In Sanskrit scripture Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Radha and Krishna are understood to be
eternally related to each other as husband and wife validating their Svakiya relationship.
[56]
The celebrated poets of Radha Vallabh Sampradaya, Dhruva Dasa and Rupalji
composed "Vyahulau Utsav ke Pad" or "Marriage Festival songs" which describe the
eternal wedding of Radha and Krishna with praise and adulation.[133] In the Indian state
of Maharashtra, Radha is often identified as Rahi, a regional form of Radha who is
worshiped as the married consort of Vithoba, a regional form of Krishna.

Radha Krishna-Worship and festivals

Worship of Radha Krishna at Bankey Bihari Temple, Vrindavan/ Radha-Krishna

Lalji Temple, Kalna, West Bengal
Friedhelm Hardy singles out such an offshoot of Krishnaism as Radha-centered stream
Radhaism. The main representative of which is the Radha Vallabh Sampradaya (lit.
"consort of Radha"), where goddess Radha is worshipped as the supreme deity, and
Krishna is in a subordinate position. During the 18th century at Kolkata existed the
Sakhībhāvakas community, whose members used to wear female dresses in order to
identify themselves with the gopis, companions of Radha.In some devotional
(bhakti) Krishnaite traditions of Vaishnavism that focus on Krishna, Radha represents
"the feeling of love towards Krishna".For some of the adherents of these traditions, her
importance approaches or even exceeds that of Krishna. Radha is worshipped along
with Krishna in Nepal and many Indian states including West

28
Bengal, Manipur, Assam, Himachal.
Uttarakhand, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. Elsewhere, she is a revered
deity.In Maharashtra region, Radha is worshipped in her regional form as Rahi.
[139]
Radha is considered as Krishna's original shakti, the supreme goddess in both
the Nimbarka Sampradaya and following the advent of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu also
within the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. Nimbarka was the first well
known Vaishnava scholar whose theology centered on goddess Radha.

Since 15th century in Bengal and Assam flourished Tantric Vaishnava-Sahajiya tradition
with related to it Bauls, where Krishna is the inner divine aspect of man and Radha is
the aspect of woman, what incorporated into their specific sexual Maithuna ritual.

Radha's connection to Krishna is of two types: svakiya-rasa (married relationship)

and parakiya-rasa (a relationship signified with eternal mental "love"). The Gaudiya
tradition focuses upon parakiya-rasa as the highest form of love, wherein Radha and
Krishna share thoughts even through separation. The love the gopis feel for Krishna is
also described in this esoteric manner as the highest platform of spontaneous love of
God, and not of a sexual nature.

Hymns

Radha Krishna painting inspired by Gita Govinda

List of prayers and hymns dedicated to Radha are:

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 Gita Govinda: This 12th century work of Jayadeva is dedicated to both Radha and
Krishna. Gita Govinda is still the part of temple songs of Jagannath Temple, Puri
 Radhe Krishna: The maha-mantra of Nimbarka Sampradaya is as follows:
Rādhe Kṛṣṇa Rādhe Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Rādhe Rādhe
Rādhe Shyām Rādhe Shyām
Shyām Shyām Rādhe Rādhe

 Radha Gayatri Mantra: "Om Vrashbhanujaye Vidmahe, Krishnapriyaye Dhimahi ,

Tanno Radha Prachodayat."
 Lakshmi Gayatri Mantra: "Samuddhrtayai vidmahe Vishnunaikena dhimahi | tan no
Radha prachodaydt || " (We think about her whom Vishnu himself supports, we
meditate on her. Then, let Radha inspire us). The mantra is mentioned in Linga
Purana (48.13) and invokes Lakshmi through Radha.
 Shri Radhika Krishnashtaka: It is also called Radhashtak. The prayer is composed
of eight verses and is popular in Swaminarayan Sampradaya.
 Shri Radha Saharsnama Strotam: The prayer has more than 1000 names of Radha
and is part of the Sanskrit scripture Narada Panchratra.
 Radha Kripa Kataksh Strotam: This is the most famous stotra in Vrindavana. It is
written in Ūrdhvāmnāya-tantra and is believed to be spoken by Śiva to Parvati. The
prayer is dedicated to Radha and has total 19 verses.[148][149]
 Yugalashtakam: This prayer is dedicated to Yugal (combined) form of Radha
Krishna. It is popular in Gaudiya Vaishnavism and was written by Jiva Goswami
 Radha Chalisa: A devotional hymn in praise of Radha. The prayer has 40 verses.
 Hare Krishna Mahamantra: In this mantra, "Hare" is the vocative form of both "Hari"
(Krishna) and "Hara" (Radha).[152] The mantra is mentioned in Kali Santarana
Upanishad.
Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa
Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare
Hare Rāma Hare Rāma
Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

 Hita-Caurasi: The eighty-four verses (hymns) in Braj Bhasha of the 16th-century

poet-sant Hith Harivansh Mahaprabhu, founder of Radha Vallabh Sampradaya, in
praise of Radha as the ultimate deity, the Queen, while Krishna depicted as her
servant
 Radhe Radhe: Greeting or salutation in Braj region dedicated to Radha.
Radha is one of the major and celebrated goddess in Hinduism. Following is the list of
festivals associated with her.

Radhashtami

30
 Radha Krishna
on Radhashtami

Radhashtami, also called Radha Jayanti is celebrated as the appearance anniversary of

Radha. In the Hindu calendar, Radhashtami is observed annually in the month of
the Bhadra, 15 days after Krishna Janmashtami, the birth anniversary of Krishna, which
suggests that Radha is very much an aspect of the cultural-religious faith system
governing social life. The festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm and fervor
especially in the Braj region. The festivities include fasting till afternoon (12 pm),
abhishek and aarti of Radharani, offering her flowers, sweets and food items, singing
songs, dancing and prayers dedicated to Radha. The Radha Rani
Temple in Barsana host this festival in a grand manner as Basana is also considered as
the birthplace of Radha. Apart from Barsana, this festival is celebrated in nearly all the
temples of Vrindavan and ISKCON temples across the world as it is one of the major
festival for many Vaishnavism sections

Holi
Holi, one of the major Hindu festival, also called festival of love and festival of
colors also celebrates the divine and eternal love of Radha and Krishna. Mathura and
Vrindavan are known for their Holi celebrations. According to popular legend associated
with Radha Krishna, as a child, Krishna would cry to his mother Yashoda about Radha
being fair while he had a dark complexion. His mother then advised him to smear colour
of his choice on Radha's face, thus giving birth to Braj ki Holi. It is said that every year,
Lord Krishna would travel from his village Nandgaon to Goddess Radha's village
Barsana, where Radha and the gopis would playfully beat him with sticks. present
times, Holi celebrations in Barsana begin one week before the actual date of the
festival, moving to Nandgaon the next day. In Mathura and Vrindavan, the festival is
31
celebrated in different forms like Lathmar Holi in Barsana and Nandgaon, where sticks
are used to create playful beats, to which young men and women dance; Phoolon wali
Holi in Gulaal Kund near the Govardhan Hill, during which Ras Leela is performed and
Holi is played with colourful flowers and Widow's Holi in Vrindavan.

Sharad Purnima
Sharad Purnima refers to the full moon of the autumn season. On this day, devotees
celebrate Krishna performing a beautiful dance called "rasa lila" with Radha and the
gopis—the cowherd damsels of Vrindavan. On this day, Radha Krishna in temples are
dressed in white outfits and are adorned with flower garlands and glittering ornaments.

Kartik Purnima
In Vaishnavism, the occasion of Kartik Purnima is considered as the most auspicious
day to worship goddess Radha. According to Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Krishna also
worshiped Radha on this day. In Radha Krishna temples, sacred vow is observed
throughout the Karthik month and performances of Raslila are organized to celebrate
this festival.

In Shaktism
In Shaktism section of Hinduism, Radha becomes an independent goddess Prakriti-
Padmini, who is the form of goddess Tripura Sundari while her consort Krishna is
associated with the masculine form of goddess Kali. Tantric text Radha Tantra,
portrayed Radha as the Shakta Radha who is also the spiritual mentor of Krishna. In
Shaktism, the Ashtasakhis of Radha Krishna are considered as the embodiment of
the Ashta Siddhis which are Aṇimā, Mahima, Garima, Laghima, Prāpti, Prākāmya,
Iṣiṭva, and Vaśitva.

32
Krishna Celebrates Holi with Radha and the Gopis by Nihal Chand, Kishangarh, 1750-
60

33
Influence

Radha's story has

inspired many paintings. Above: Radha in the moonlight by Raja Ravi Varma,
1890.

Radha and Krishna have inspired many forms of performance arts and literary works. [29]
[26]
Over the centuries, their love has been portrayed in thousands of exquisite paintings
which depicts the lover in separation and union, longing and abandonment.

Patta chitra, is one of the typical regional arts of the coastal state of Orissa. In this type
of painting, Krishna is depicted in blue or black color and is usually accompanied by his
fiancée Radha. Rajasthani art emerged as an amalgamation of folk art with
conventional and canonical ethos. Krishna and Radha have been the pivotal figures in
34
Rajasthani miniature paintings. Their love has been delineated aesthetically in this
composition. In Pahari paintings, often the nayaka (hero) is depicted as Krishna and the
nayika (heroine) is depicted as Radha. The legend of Krishna and Radha and their love
provided rich material to Pahari painters in general and to the artists of Garhwal in
particular. The central theme of Kangra painting is love inspired by Rasikapriya, popular
poetic work of Keshavdasa. A closely related theme of this art is lover looking at his
beloved who is unaware of his presence. Thus, Krishna is shown watching Radha who
is unaware of his presence. In Radha and Krishna, Kangra artists discovered highest
model of loving couple. The Radha-Krishna theme also served their devotional purpose
and provided an inherent symbolism. Madhubani paintings are charismatic art of Bihar.
Madhubani paintings are mostly based on religion and mythology. In the paintings,
Hindu Gods like Radha-Krishna and Shiva-Parvati are in center. Krishna and Radha are
one of the favorite subject in Rajput paintings because they portrayed a theme that
symbolized the desire of the soul to be united by god. In Rajput paintings, Radha is
always dressed in more elegant way. She was adorned with ornaments and is often
depicted holding a white garland when enthroned next to Krishna. [83] The Chamba
paintings of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab often depicts romantic ambiances of rainy
season with Radha Krishna as the lead couple.

1. Patta Chitra painting depicting love story of Radha and Krishna.

2. Rajasthani Painting with a love theme where Radha is getting ready and Krishna
admires her silently.
3. Pahari painting of Radha offering bowl of curd to Krishna.
4. Kangra painting, Radha dressed as Krishna and Krishna dressed as Radha.
5. Rajput painting (1760), Radha Krishna with gopis.
6. Kishangarh painting, Radha Krishna in pavilion.
7. Radha- Krishna, Kalighat Painting
The most famous Indian classical dance Manipuri Raas Leela was first introduced
by King Bhagyachandra around 1779. Inspired by Radha Krishna's raslila, the king
introduced three forms of rasa dance—Maha rasa, Kunj rasa and Basant rasa. Later
two more forms of rasa—Nitya rasa and Deba rasa was added by successive kings in
the art and culture of Manipur. In these dance forms, the dancers portray the role of
Radha, Krishna and gopis. The dance forms are still prevalent in the state of Manipur
and are performed on stage as well as on the auspicious occasions like Kartik
Purnima and Sharad Purnima (full moon nights).

35
 Artists depicting Radha Krishna's love story through
Manipuri classical dance Raslila.

Another Indian classical dance form, Kathakali was also influenced by Vaishnavism and
Radha Krishna based Gita Govinda tradition which along with other factors contributed
in the evolution of this dance form. The predominant theme of North Indian Kathak
dancing lies in the fleeting appearances and longer stories of Radha and Krishna. The
sacred love of Krishna and his beloved Radha, are woven into all aspects of the Kathak
dance and is clearly visible during the discussions of the music, costumes and finally
the role of the Kathak dancer.

Ashtapadis of Gita Govinda are also enacted in contemporary classical Odissi dance
form. This dance form was originated in the temples. It is centered on the celestial love
of Krishna and Radha. At one time, it was performed by the Devadasis but now it has
spread out to the homes and cultural institutions.[

Music

Rasiya is a popular genre of Indian folk music from Braj region, Uttar Pradesh. It is
commonly played and performed during the festivities in the villages and temples of Braj
area.[180] The traditional songs of Rasiya are based on the divine portrayal and love of
Radha and Krishna. They are frequently written from the female perspective of Radha
and portray Krishna and his flirtation with her.

The residents of Braj region still greet each other with salutations like "Radhe Radhe",
"Jai Shri Radhe" and "Radhe Shyam", directing their mind to Radha and ultimate
relationship she shares with Krishna. The image of Krishna rarely appears without
Radha by his side in the temples of Vrindavan. It is not the Krishna who is worshiped,

36
but Radha and Krishna together are worshiped. In culture of Odisha, Krishna is the
cultural hero and his form Jagannath, is the symbol of Oriya pride. His consort Radha is
celebrated as the energy of Krishna and symbolically the energy of the cosmos. She is
considered as the power of joy, the hladini shakti of Krishna and is often identified with
both Durga and Mahakali, the bright and dark forms of the cosmic energy. Krishna and
Radha have entered the Oriya psyche and have inspired the mythic imagination of the
Oriya poets in a big way. For the conscious and the informed, Krishna and Radha are
the Universe and its harmony, the Energy and its joyful articulation, the cosmic dance
and its rhythmic balance.In Indian culture, Radha serve as an exemplary model of
female-neutral subjectivity for all persons—an active, non-substantial, shared and
strong self that rationally embrace their (religious) passions.

Prem Mandir in Vrindavan, India, is a Hindu temple also known as the "Temple of Divine
Love". It was founded by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj and is maintained by the
Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat. The temple is situated on a 55-acre complex on the
outskirts of Vrindavan and is dedicated to Radha Krishna and Sita Ram.

37
Radha and Krishna are the focus of temples in the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu,
Vallabhacharya, Chandidas, and other traditions of Vaishnavism. Radha is typically
shown standing immediately next to Krishna.The important Radha Krishna temples are:

 Barsana and Vrindavan in Mathura District, Northern India contain many temples
dedicated to both Radha and Krishna.
 Vrindavan: Bankey Bihari Temple, Shri Radha Damodar Temple, Krishna Balram
Temple (Iskcon Vrindavan), Shri Radha Gokulananda Temple, Shri Radha Gopinath
Temple, Radha Raman Temple, Shahji Temple, Nidhivan, Radha Kund, Kusum
Sarovar, Seva kunj Temple, Pagal Baba Temple, Prem Mandir, Shri Radha Madan
Mohan Temple, Shri Ashtsakhi Temple, Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, Shri
Radha ShyamSundar ji Temple, Shri Jugal Kishore Temple, Shri Radha Govind Dev
ji Temple, Priyakant ju Temple and Shri Radha Vallabh Temple.
 Mathura: Shri Krishna Janamasthan Temple, Shri Dwarkadhish Temple.
 Barsana: Shri Radha Rani Temple (Shreeji Temple), Rangeeli Mahal (Kirti temple),
Maan temple (Maan Garh temple)
 Bhandirvan: Shri Radha Krishna Vivah Sthali.
 Rest of India: Shri Radha Govind Dev ji temple in Jaipur, Murlidhar Krishna temple
in Naggar, Shri Govindajee temple in Imphal, Madan Mohan
temple in Karauli, Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir in Nadia, Swaminarayan temple
Gadhada, Swaminarayan temple Vadtal, Swaminarayan Temple

38
 Bhuj, Swaminarayan Temple Dholera, Swaminarayan Temple Mumbai, Iskcon
Bangalore, Iskcon Chennai, Radha Damodar temple in Junagadh, Bhakti Mandir
Mangarh, Iskcon temple Patna, Radha Krishna temple, Baroh in Kangra, Hare
Krishna Golden Temple in Hyderabad, Temples in Bishnupur including Radha
Madhab Temple, Radha Shyam Temple, Rasmancha, Shyam Ray Temple and Lalji
Temple, Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi Mandir in Delhi.

 Outside India: There are multiple temples dedicated to Radha Krishna which are
established by Iskcon organization and Swaminarayan Sampradaya in all the
prominent cities of the world. The Shree Raseshwari Radha Rani Temple at Radha
Madhav Dham in Austin, Texas, USA, established by Kripalu Maharaj, is one of the
largest Hindu Temple complexes in the Western Hemisphere and the largest in
North America.

Radha meeting Krishna on a stormy night

Guru Gobind Singh, in his Dasam Grantha, describes Radha the sukl bhis rika thus:
"Radhika went out in the light of the white soft moon, wearing a white robe to meet her
Lord. It was white everywhere and hidden in it, she appeared like the light itself in
search of Him". in 7th century. Jain scholars like Somadeva Suri and Vikram Bhatta
continued mentioning Radha between 9th and 12th centuries in their literary works.

Radha-Krishna Prem Mandir (Love Temple) in Vrindavan, Uttar PradeshRadha

Rani Temple, Barsana, built by Kripalu Maharaj ji

39
 II
Who is Shri Radha?
By Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj

In Hindu mythology, Radha is often considered equal to Krishna because they are seen
as two aspects of the same divine entity, representing the feminine (Radha) and
masculine (Krishna) energies of love and devotion, essentially embodying the concept
of "Shakti" (divine power) and "Shaktimaan" (the one who possesses the power),
making them inseparable in their divine unity; their love story symbolizes the ultimate
spiritual union between the individual soul and the divine.

Key points to remember:

 Symbolic Representation:
Radha represents the pure love and devotion that is the essence of Krishna's divine
nature.
 No Separation in Divinity:
While appearing as separate entities, their love is considered a unified divine force.
 Feminine Aspect of Krishna:
Radha is often referred to as the feminine form of Krishna.
 Importance in Devotion:
In many traditions, worshipping Radha alongside Krishna is seen as a way to access
the highest form of divine love.

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 What is the difference between Radha and Krishna? -
For many- they are same…. they are equal…. Radha is described as the feminine form
of Krishna himself. She is the Feminine Side of God - Krishna.com
It may be said that they are simultaneously one and different. In Hinduism, Radha and
Krishna are often seen as divine counterparts, representing the highest form of love and
devotion...
“Radha and Krishna are one, but have assumed two forms for the purpose of
performing loving pastimes.” “Radha and Krishna have one intellect, one mind, one
soul, and even one face. They have one knowledge. This is why there is no difference
between these two.

Radha Ashtami is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Radha, the consort of Lord
Krishna. It is celebrated on the eighth day of the bright half of the lunar month of
Bhadrapada, which usually falls in August or September. In 2024, Radha Ashtami will
be celebrated on September 11.

Significance:

 Radha Ashtami is a significant festival in Hinduism.

 Radha is worshipped for her devotion and unconditional love for Krishna.

 Radha is believed to be an incarnation of Goddess Laxmi.

 Her worship is considered to complete the reverence for Krishna.

Celebration:

 Radha Ashtami is celebrated in Barsana, Radha's birthplace, and the entire Braj region.

 It is celebrated 15 days after Krishna Janmashtami.

1. Who is the entity called Radha?

2. Where does She stand in relation to Krishna?
3. Why does Her name always come before Krishna’s?
4. Why should we celebrate Her Birthday?

Radha, the Supreme Goddess, incarnated some 5,000 years ago in the village of
Barsana. She is often called “Barsane Vari,” (the one from Barsana), “Bhanudulari”
(Daughter of King Vrishabhanu), and Keertikumari (Daughter of Mother Keerti). She is a
Friend to the gopis, the milkmaids of Vrindavan. However, She is not to be mistaken as
one of them. She is indeed worshipped by the gopis.

Radhopanishad states that the personality, whom Shree Krishna worships, is known as
Radha. And the personality, whom Radha worships, is known as Krishna. Both worship
one another.The Radhaopanishad states:

41
ye yaṁ rādhā yaśhcha kṛiṣhṇo rasābdhirdeheśhchaikaḥ
krīḍanārthaṁ dvidhā bhoo
“Radha and Krishna are one, but have assumed two forms for the purpose of
performing loving pastimes.”

Again, the Radhopanishad states:

rādhā kṛiṣhṇayora ekāsanaṁ ekā buddhiḥ ekam manaḥ ekam jñānaṁ ekam
padam eka ātmā ekā ākṛitiḥ
“Radha and Krishna have one intellect, one mind, one soul, and even one face. They
have one knowledge. This is why there is no difference between these two. If someone
thinks there to be a difference, it is an offence.” It is altogether a different matter that
someone may it from the point of view of the experience of the Bliss of devotion. But to
actually think that Radha is greater, or Krishna is greater, leads one to a hell named
“Kalasutra,” for as long as the sun and the moon are in existence, in other words, till the
dissolution of the universe. Differentiating between Radha and Krishna is such a serious
offence. So, both are the same.

Narad Pancharatra, an ancient scripture says:

devī kṛiṣhṇamayī proktā rādhikā paradevatā

“She is the Supreme Personality, beyond whom there is no other.”

vṛiṣhabhānu sutā devī moola prakṛiti rīśhvarī

Vrishbhanu’s daughter, Radha, is the primordial nature, from whom everything came
into being.

yato vā imāni bhootāni jāyante yena jātāni jīvantiyatprayantyabhisam viśhanti tad

brahmeti uttarajane rā śhabdo dhārane poṣhaṇe cha dhā
‘Ra’ and ‘Dha’ means, one who creates, one who preserves, and one in whom creation
merges.

Narad Pancharatra again states:

harerardha tanu rādhā tādhikārdhatanu hariḥ

Shree Krishna’s half part is Radha, and Radha’s half part is Krishna. Shree Krishna
says, “I have assumed the form of Radha.” Radha ji says, “I have assumed the form of
Krishna.”

mamaiva pauruṣhaṁ roopam gopikā jana mohanṁ

42
Radha says, “The form of Krishna is none other than Myself. When I assumed the male
form, people started calling me Shree Krishna.” So, again, Narad Pancharatra says that
just as milk and its whiteness are the same, likewise Radha and Krishna are the same.
The whiteness of milk cannot and should not be separated from milk itself. In the same
way, no one can separate the moon from its moonshine. Both are the same.
Again, Narad Pancharatra says that Mahalakshmi, the consort of Mahavishnu, the
creator of countless universes, was manifested from Radha’s left side. Durga, Jayanti,
Kali, Bhadrakali, Kapalini, Durga, Kshama, Shivadhatri, Svaha, Tvadha, and Vaishnavi
are all born from fractions of Radharani. Countless Vishnus are born from the toenails of
Radharani, not just one.
Ved Vyas Ji explained the meaning of the name ‘Radha’:
rādhnoti sakalān kāmān tasmāt rādheti kīrtitaḥ
The one who fulfills desires of any individual who sheds a few tears is known as Radha.
This is in the Brahma Vaivarta Puran.
The Vedas say that God is one. For the sake of convenience we refer to God as ‘He,’
but in fact God assumes both male and female forms. The Vedas glorify God,
“Sometimes You appear in the female form, sometimes in the male form. At times, You
come as a young boy, at times as a young girl.” Radha is one of God’s female forms. In
Brahmavaivarta Puran, Radha Rani says, “The one who is known as the Beloved of the
gopis is My male form.” The Vedas say that Radha and Krishna are one, but have
assumed two forms for the purpose of performing loving pastimes. They who are known
as Sita and Ram in the Age of Treta, are known as Radha and Krishna in the Age of
Dvapar.
Some people ask: If Radha and Krishna are one and the same, then why is Radha
always mentioned before Krishna? Why do we always hear Radha-Krishna, never
Krishna-Radha? Why is She so dear to Him that He says, “I see Radha everywhere: at
home, in the forest when I go to graze cows, in the food I eat. I see Her at night, I see
Her in the daytime. Radha pervades every pore of My being.” He says in Brahmanda
Puran, “I am devoted to Radha.” Why should He who is worshipped and adored by all,
worship Radha?
Devi Bhagavat Puran says:
ādau rādhām samuchārya paśhchāta kṛiṣhṇamparātparaṁ seva panḍito yogī
golokam yāti līlayā
First utter the name of Radha; then Krishna. One who does keertan in this manner,
attains Golok. Radha’s name is uttered first. No one says KRISHNA RADHA. Everyone
says RADHA KRISHNA or SHYAMA SHYAM.
The Vedas explain that Radha is the soul of Krishna. We are also a combination of body
and soul, and the soul is always being served and adored by the body. All the parts of
the body are constantly engaged in rendering service to the soul. The eyes see for the
sake of pleasing the soul; the ears hear for the same reason. The tongue tastes only for
the purpose of making the soul happy. All are servants of the soul. Radha is the soul of
Krishna, so say the Vedas. Shree Krishna is the soul of all souls, and He also has a
soul, which is Radha. Our body is constantly trying to serve the soul. The soul is ever
occupied in serving the Supreme Soul, and the Supreme Soul is always busy trying to
please His soul, Radha.

43
But does this mean that Shree Radha is superior to Shree Krishna? It would seem so,
for the soul is greater than the body. However, this is not so. Although for ordinary
material people it is true that the soul is superior to the body, yet in God there is no
difference between body and soul. Since God’s body and soul are one and the same,
there is no difference between Radha and Krishna.
So, the word Radha is described in many places. Rasik saints have spoken so much on
Radha that there is no end to what they have said. In our Braj there came great
Jagadgurus, great Acharyas, like Vallabhacharaya and Nimbarkacharya, Gaurang
Mahaprabhu, Ramanujacharya, Madhavacharya. Madhvacharya and Raanujacharya,
these two Jagadgurus, were devotees of Lakshmi-Narayan. The remaining saints and
acharyas of Braj were all devoted to Radha-Krishna. Madhvacharya was a devotee of
Lakshmi-Narayan. His disciple Madhavendra Puri was a devotee of Radha Krishna. His
disciple Ishvar Puri was a devotee of Radha-Krishna, and his disciple Gaurang
Mahaprabhu was also a devotee of Radha-Krishna.
Only Vallabhacharya said that Radha is not equal to God, and that She is God Herself.
She is Brahm Herself. And Nimbarkacharya says that Radha is the energy, and Krishna
is the energetic one. According to him, energy and the energetic are non-different but
also different from one another. This is why both are one and also two. Gaurang
Mahaprabhu says that Radha and Krishna are eternally two, and eternally one and the
same. This illustrates that all Acharyas are accepting Radha and Krishna to be one and
the same. Even Ramanujacharya and Madhvacharya, who are devotees of Lakshmi-
Narayan, also write in their respective philosophies that Mahalakshmi is worshipped as
Radha also.
Hence, we must not think Radha and Krishna to be two separate entities.

Rukmini dvaravatye tu Radhika vrindavane vane. ~Matsya puran

Trans: O Supreme Goddess Rukmini of Dwarika, You are Radhika in the grooves
of Vrindavan.

But people don't even touch shaastras these days, they love controversies so much So
let me tell you,

Just like in kaliyug, Narayan incarnated as Venkateshawar prabhu in Venkatgiri and

Mahalakshmi took for of Sridevi(Padmavathi) and Bhudevi, in the same way Shree
Krishna, incarnation of dwaparyug is the whole Narayan whereas Mahalakshmi
incarnated as Sridevi (Radha in vrindavan, Rukmini in Dwarika), Bhudevi (Satyabhama
and Rukmini in Dwarika and Radha in Vrindavan), Niladevi (Kalindi/Yamuna and
Rukmini in Dwarika and Radha in Vrindavan). Radha and Rukmini are the mulavatar
of Mahalakshmi(Sri, bhu, nila), they both are same yet took two forms to perform
different leelas. All the 16100 junior queens of dwarika and 108 gopis of vrindavan
were anshavatar of Lakshmidevi.

So, it doesnot matter whether one is worshiping Radha Maharani with Krishna or
Rukmini Maharani with Krishna, it goes to the same goddess as Radha and
Rakhumai are not different they are the same person.

44
Whoever talks ill about either of Radha, Rukmini are never a true devotee of any
god/goddess and are worth spending their afterlife in Naraka.

Remember that Krishna wouldn't even cast a glance at you no matter what
tapasya you're doing, but on the other hand you're insulting his Prandhika
Radha/Rukmini.

Krishna left Radharani and went away in a chariot…

.…He came to take her again in a chariot as Rukminidevi.

45
RUKMINI

46
Rukmini (Sanskrit: रुक्मिणी), is a Hindu goddess and the first queen of Krishna. She
is described as the chief of Krishna's wives in Dvārakā. Rukmini is revered as
the avatar of Lakshmi and is venerated primarily in Warkari, and Haridasa tradition, and
additionally in Sri Vaishnavism. Rukmini is mainly worshipped
in Maharashtra and South India. The people of Maharashtra venerate her
with Vithoba (a regional form of Krishna) and call her Rakhumai. In South India, she is
worshipped along with Krishna and his and his other primary consort Satyabhama. Her
birthday is celebrated every year on the occasion of Rukmini Ashtami.

Radha and Rukmini are both considered to be consorts of Lord Krishna, and some
believe they are the same person. However, some say that Radha represented
Krishna's divine love, while Rukmini represented his human love.
 Some say Radha was discovered by Vrishbhanu on a lotus in the Yamuna river
 Radha's birthplace is said to be Raval, a small town near Gokul in Uttar Pradesh
 Radha's love is said to represent the highest form of devotion
Rukmini
 Rukmini is said to be the daughter of King Bhishmaka in the kingdom of
Vidarbha
 Rukmini is said to be an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi
 Rukmini's love is said to symbolize the balance between human emotions and
spiritual devotion
 Rukmini is said to be the goddess of fortune
Krishna's choice
 Some say that Krishna's decision to marry Rukmini instead of Radha was guided
by divine will
 Rukmini is traditionally considered to be Krishna's primary wife

Shri Radha and Shri Rukmini are not same but both are different. Shri Rukmini is the
incarnation of Godess Maha Laxmi. Shri Radha is the incarnation of Aadi Parashakti.
Rukmini never meet to Shri Krishna before her marriage.
The name Rukmini is derived from the Sanskrit word Rukma which means 'Radiant',
'Clear' or 'Bright'. The name can also mean 'decorated with gold ornaments'.Other
names and epithets include:

 Shree – Lakshmi, Mother Goddess of the universe

 Ruciranana – One Who Has A Beautiful Face, Expanding Like A Lotus Flower
 Vaidarbhi – She Who Is From The Kingdom Of Vidarbha
 Bhaishmi – Daughter of Bhishmaka
 Rakhumai – Mother Rukmini
 Chiryauvana – One Who Is Forever Young
 Pradyumna Janani – Mother of Pradyumna
47
Legends
According to the epic Mahabharata and other Puranic scriptures, Princess Rukmini was
born to Bhishmaka—the king of Vidarbha kingdom, belonging to the Bhoja dynasty. She
had five elder brothers—Rukmi, Rukmaratha, Rukmabahu, Rukmakesa and
Rukmanetra. Puranas such as Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, and Padma
Purana praise her as an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi, the wife of God Vishnu.

Marriage to Krishna

A painting depicting Rukmini eloping with Krishna from a temple of Ambika (Parvati).

The Bhagavata Purana narrates that Rukmini once heard about Krishna and his heroic
deeds, such as slaying the tyrant king Kamsa, and opposing the evil king Jarasandha.
She fell in love with him and desired to marry him. The episode of Rukmini
Kalyanam, and the devotion of Rukmini towards her desired husband is narrated by the
sage Shuka to King Parikshit.

Rukmini's parents rejoiced and gave their permission, but Rukmi – who was an ally of
Jarasandha – strongly opposed it. Instead, he proposed that she marry his
friend Shishupala— the crown prince of Chedi Kingdom, and a cousin of
Krishna. Bhishmaka agreed, and a distressed Rukmini immediately sent for a
trusted Brahmin and asked him to deliver a message to Krishna. In the message, she
wrote to Krishna about her love and asked him to abduct her when she visited the
temple of Goddess Ambika (Parvati) before her wedding. Krishna, having received the
message in Dvaraka, told the messenger to inform Rukmini that he had received her
letter and would come to make her his wife. Krishna then immediately set out for
Vidarbha with Balarama, his elder brother.

Meanwhile, in Vidarbha's capital Kundina, Bhishmaka had prepared for Rukmini's

marriage. Rukmini grew anxious as she observed the host of kings, wondering if the
48
Brahmin she had dispatched had not reached safely or not, and if the Almighty would
assist her in her efforts. Her face grew pale and her thoughts grew distressed as she
shunned herself from the rest of the world. Her sorrow of Krishna not having yet arrived
to marry her yet was so immense that she refused to eat, sing to her parrot, or play her
lyre. Shishupala, along with his allies including Jarasandha had arrived. Krishna and
Balarama had also arrived, and Bhishmaka welcomed them. At the palace, Rukmini had
lost all hope, but the messenger turned up and informed that Krishna had accepted her
request. The next day, she went to the temple to offer her prayers to Ambika. As she
proceeded towards the wedding venue, she saw Krishna and he soon swept her into
his chariot with him. All of Jarasandha's forces quickly started chasing them, but they
were repulsed by Balarama and his army. Rukmi chased after Krishna and Rukmini.
[30]
He challenged Krishna to a fight, but was easily overpowered by the former. Rukmini
begged Krishna to spare her brother's life, and the latter agreed. However, he shaved
Rukmi's hair and moustache as a mark of punishment, and let him go free. Krishna and
Rukmini reached Dvaraka, where they were welcomed with great pomp and ceremony,
followed by a wedding.

Late 18th century painting of the wedding of Krishna and Rukmini

According to the Skanda Purana, Rukmini was 8 years old when she married Krishna. It
is stated in the Brahma Vaivarta Purana (Krishna Janma Khanda, Chapter 105, Verses
9–14) she had reached puberty and was ready for marriage according to her father.In
the Bhagavata Purana (Dasama Skandha, Chapter 53, Verse 51), she has been
described as having budding breasts.In the Harivamsa, a supplement to Mahabharata,
(Vishnu Parva, Chapter 59, Verse 35-40), it is stated about Rukmini that "her lips, eyes
and the corners were coppery, thighs, hips and breast were plump, her body was tall
but thin and beautiful; her countenance was like the moon, her nails were red; eye-
brows were charming, hairs were curling and black and her beauty was highly
picturesque. Her face was beautified by rows of equal and white teeth."

Krishna's ruse
The Bhagavata Purana describes an episode through the sage Shuka where the yet
unwed Rukmini takes a bejewelled whisk and starts fanning her prospective husband
Krishna, wearing an expensive girdle and a dazzling necklace. Even though he is
pleased, Krishna points to the fact that the princess had been desired by a number of
handsome and energetic monarchs and states that he was not their equal, and that he
had also almost lost his realm rescuing her. He remarks that she had not been far-
sighted in choosing him as her groom and that she must now instead choose a
Kshatriya like her. Rukmini's heart shuddered, her red nails scratched the floor, and
tears flowed from her eyes that were decorated with collyrium. She fell to the floor, her
hair dishevelled. Krishna swiftly raised her back to her feet and assures her that he was
merely joking, as householders do with their beloved. Her fear of abandonment seeping
away from her, the princess eulogises him, praising his glories and addressing him as
her atman, her sense of self. Krishna praises her single-minded devotion to him.

49
Married life and children

Statue of Vittala Rakhumai, Thennangur

Though Krishna married many other women, Rukmini remained his chief consort and
the queen of Dvaraka. When she longed for a child, Krishna flew to Kailash upon his
mount Garuda, and expressed his wife's desire to Shiva. Obliging, Shiva blessed
Rukmini to be the bearer of the new incarnation of Kamadeva, whom he had previously
immolated with his third eye. Thus was Pradyumna born. Many scriptures have
mentioned that Rukmini and other wives of Krishna lived like sisters.The Bhagavata
Purana and Vishnu Purana states that Rukmini and Krishna had ten sons—Pradyumna,
Charudeshna, Sudeshna, Charudeha, Sucharu, Charugupta, Bhadracharu,
Charuchandra, Vicharu, and Charu. In the Harivamsa, Rukmini's sons are Pradyumna,
Charudeshna, Charuchandra, Charugarbha, Sudangstra, Druma, Sushena,
Charugupta, Charuvinda, and Chharuvahu. A different listing is found in Anushasana
Parva of the Mahabharata, where Pradyumna, Charudeshna, Sucharu, Charuvesa,
Yasodhana, Charusravas, Charuyasas, and Sambhu are Rukmini's sons. Vishnu Puran
also mentioned that Rukmini had a daughter named Charumati.

Tale of the scales

According to a folktale of Odisha, the divine sage Narada once arrived in Dvaraka and
asked for Krishna to be given to him as alms. Krishna's 8 queens requested him to take
anything else and Narada asked them to give wealth equal to Krishna's weight. They
arranged for a big scale (Tulabharama) to be put up. Satyabhama put all of her coins,
gems and jewellery on the scale, but it doesn't budge. Other wives gave their jewels, but
it was of no use. At last, Rukmini came and put a single leaf of Tulasi on the scale and
chanted that it represented her love for Krishna. The scales then became balanced.
Though this story is absent in the main scriptures pertaining to Krishna's life, it is often
repeated to enunciate the worth of Rukmini's love over Satyabhama's material wealth.
[48]
The only known versions of this story are from Padma Purana and Devi Bhagvata
Purana, where Satyabhama succeeds in weighing Krishna normally with gold items.

50
Meeting Sudama
In the Bhagavata Purana, another well-known incident in Rukmini's married life is
narrated. When Krishna's childhood friend, Sudama, visited Dvaraka, Rukmini
welcomed Sudama and gave him food. She and Krishna fanned him as he rested from
his long journey. This type of devotion is a characteristic of Rukmini, an attribute of her
that is prevalent.

Durvasa's curse
According to the Skanda Purana, the famously short-tempered sage Durvasa met
Krishna and Rukmini when he was on a pilgrimage. Durvasa asked the couple to be
yoked onto his chariot while he held the reins. In the process of pulling the chariot
forward, Rukmini grew exhausted and requested Krishna for water. Krishna struck his
foot against the ground causing a spring of the Ganga river to appear. Observing her
quench her thirst without seeking his permission, the infuriated Durvasa cursed her to
be separated from her beloved Krishna. Rukmini grew perturbed and started to cry. To
pacify her, Krishna blessed her with the boon that if his devotees were to only see him
and not her, they would receive only half the merit.

Despite this consolation, Rukmini grew distressed due to her separation from her
consort and fell unconscious. The sea-god and the sage Narada arrived to comfort her.
Narada informed her that her husband - a manifestation of Vishnu - was the Supreme
Being himself, he rhetorically wondered how she could expect to keep his company in
an exclusive garden. The sea affirmed the divine sage's words, promising her that as
the companion of Vishnu, she would always retain her permanence in his being. The
goddess Bhagirathi, the personification of the Ganga, produced a richly-endowed forest
on the spot, laden with fruits and flowers, quickly to be frequented by the inhabitants of
Dvaraka. Durvasa vengefully burnt the forest with his powers. Rukmini grew depressed
and contemplated giving up her human form. Krishna arrived and stopped her. She felt
ashamed and furious with herself even as her husband reassured her of his devotion.
The repentant Durvasa begged Krishna to reunite with Rukmini, and the deity
consented, blessing the sage with virtue as well as saluting the river Ganga, who then
became the liberator of sorrows.

After the disappearance of Krishna following the Yadu massacre in the Mausala Parva,
Rukmini, along with Jambavati, self-immolated herself on the funeral pyre.[55][56]

51
Vithoba (left) with his consort Rakhumai at the Sion Vitthal
temple, Mumbai/Krishna and Rukmini at Temple Sri Sanatan, Montreal. Rukmini
always appears on the left side of Krishna./Rukmini with shanka, chakra and gada
in Rukmini Temple, Dwaraka

In many texts, the Brahman dispatched by Rukmini to request Krishna to elope with her
on her svayamvara describes the princess poetically as bearing beautiful hands,
braided tresses, and a face that resembles the moon. She is consistently described as
beautiful in other accounts.[57]

Rukmini as mentioned in Hindu traditions, stands for the majesty and wealth of
Krishna. Vadiraja Tirtha in Rukminisha Vijaya, describes her as Krishna's supreme
beloved consort.[58] In south Indian iconographic tradition, Rukmini, along
with Satyabhama, appear as the primary consorts of Krishna.

According to the Vaikhanasagama, Rukmini should be depicted on the right side of

Krishna, her image golden-yellow in complexion. Her hair is supposed to be tied up in a
fashionable knot, and should also be adorned with flowers. Her right arm should be
hanging down, and she should hold a lotus in her left hand. She is supposed to be
adorned with various ornaments. Rukmini in Hinduism, is revered as the goddess of
fortune, and mostly appears alongside her husband Krishna. An avtara of Lakshmi, she
is the chief and most beloved consort of Krishna, in various scriptures and text of Hindu
traditions.

Rukmini finds her mention in Gopala Tapani Upanishad (as Krishna's other consort), in
the Garga Samhita (as Queen of Dvaraka), in Bhagavata Purana (as Krishna's chief
queen), in Brahma Vaivarta Purana, in Harivaṃśa that centres upon Dvaraka, and
in Mahabharata, mainly in the Adi Parva and the Mausala Parva.Rukmini is the central
character of the text, Rukminisha Vijaya, that talks about her and Krishna's life before
marriage and ends with their marriage. She also appears in the Vishnu
Purana and Padma Purana (as an avatar of Lakshmi).

52
The Brihad Bhagavatamrita offers the following adulations to Rukmini, identifying her
with Lakshmi and Krishna as the Supreme God, the source of all avatars. It states that
she assumes partial avatars to accompany Krishna's avatars like Vamana and serves
Krishna as his "perfectly complete divine consort".The Narada Purana instructs a
devotee on the manner of offering worship to Krishna, offering precedence to the role of
Rukmini in his devotion. Rukmini is worshipped with Krishna on his left-hand side; she is
equated with Rajas. The Skanda Purana describes the process of the worship of the
goddess with Krishna. A devotee is said to acquire wish fulfillment, male progeny and
physical beauty by pleasing Rukmini.

Rukmini's worship as the consort of Krishna precedes his association with his other
consorts Radha. According to D.C. Sircar, a sculpture from Paharpur in northern
Bengal, attributed to the sixth or seventh century, represents Krishna and his consort,
which he concludes is likely Rukmini. Her identification with Radha is rendered unlikely
by the historian, since, "we have no undoubted reference to Radha in genuine
epigraphic or literary records of an early date".

Rukmini is mainly worshipped in west and south Indian states such

as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu,
and Kerala. Her kingdom, Vidarbha, is believed to be located in present-day
Maharashtra. Along with Vithoba (a regional form of Krishna), Rukmini is worshipped as
"Rakhumai" in the Pandharpur region.[80][29][81] Rukmini is worshipped as the chief
goddess in Divya Desam temples like Pandava Thoothar Perumal
[82]
Temple, Parthasarathy Temple; with Krishna being the primary deity. She is also
worshipped with her co-wife Satyabhama in temples
like Thirukkavalampadi, Venugopalaswamy Temple and Rajagopalaswamy Temple.

Rukmini Ashtami is the occasion that celebrates the birth anniversary of Rukmini. It is
observed on the eighth day of the waning moon in the Hindu lunar month
of Pausha (December—January on the Common Era calendar). Rukmini is
acknowledged with special pujas and rituals in all of the temples dedicated to Krishna,
especially those in those parts of India, especially associated with him such as Mathura
and Vrindavan.

Vasanthotsavam
Vasanthotsavam is an annual Seva celebrated in Tirumala to celebrate the arrival of
spring season. Abhishekam - specifically called Snapana Thirumanjanam (Holy
bathing), is performed to the utsava murthy and his consorts on all the three days. On
the third day, abhishekam is performed to the idols
of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanumana along with Krishna and Rukmini. Procession
of the consecrated idols are taken in a procession in the evening on all the three days.

53
Temples

Rukmini Devi Temple, Dwaraka

 Rukmini Devi Temple, Dwaraka, Gujarat.

 Kantajew Temple, Bangladesh
 Vitthal Rukhmini Temple, Kaundanyapur, Maharashtra
 Tirumala Venkateswara Temple, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.
 Vithoba Temple, Pandharpur, Maharashtra.
 Pandava Thoothar Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu.
 Thennangur Sri Rakhumai Sametha Panduranga Temple, Thiruvannamalai, Tamil
Nadu
 Sri Vittal Rakhumai Mandir, Dahisar, Maharashtra.
 Shri Vitthal Rukmini Temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.
 Sri Rukmini Panduranga Swamy Temple, Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
 Vijaya Vitthala Mandhira, Hampi, Karnataka.
 ISKCON Temple - Iskcon Kaundanyapur, Iskcon Los Angeles, Iskcon
Amravati, Iskcon Dwarka.
 Kantajew Temple, Dinajpur, Bangladesh.
 Sri Krishnan Temple, Singapore.
 Lakhubai Mandir Temple Dindiravan, Pandharpur, Indi
 Vitthal Rukmini Mandir, New Jersey USA
 Rukmini Panduranga Temple, Long Beach, CA

54
Influence

Rukmini at the New Dwarka Hare

Krishna temple, Los Angeles

The Mishmi people of Arunachal Pradesh believe that Rukmini belonged to their tribe.
The plays and dances on 'Rukmini Haran' are common. There is a legend that Krishna
asked the Mishmi people to cut their hair as a form of punishment for not allowing him to
marry Rukmini. Due to this Idu-Mishmi people are also called "chulikata" (chuli-hair,
kata- cut).Rukmini's marriage to Krishna and related events have been depicted in
the Kangra painting and Mandi painting.

55
 III
Laxmi Narayan Inspired Radha Krishna

Lakshmi Narayana (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी-नारायण) or Lakshmi Narayan is the dual

representation of the Hindu deities Vishnu, also known as Narayana, and his
consort, Lakshmi, traditionally featured in their abode, Vaikuntha. The goddess of
wealth and prosperity, Lakshmi, is depicted as standing next to Vishnu, who holds
the Panchajanya, Kaumodaki, Padma, and the Sudarshana Chakra. Another depiction
of Lakshmi Narayana portrays Lakshmi in service of Narayana, who reclines on the
cosmic serpent Shesha, floating in the Kshira Sagara, ocean of milk.
The most significant Lakshmi Narayana myth that appears in various Puranas is
the Samudra Manthana, where Vishnu assumes his Kurma avatar to assist
the devas and the asuras in the churning the Ocean of Milk. Lakshmi emerges as one of
the many treasures that are the product of the churning. The devas request Vishnu to
marry her, and hence her auspiciousness is wed to his divinity, restoring the cosmic
order.

56
The Vishnu Purana describes this legend thus:

The goddess Sri of vibrant beauty rose from this milk, standing in a blossoming lotus
with a lotus in her hand ... Wearing celestial garlands and garments, bathed and
adorned with ornaments, with all the gods looking on, she went to Hari's chest. While
resting on Hari's chest, Lakshmi made the gods know immediate supreme bliss, O
Maitreya, just by looking at them.

— Vishnu Purana, Verses 1.9.100; 106; 107

Painting of the wedding of

Vishnu and Lakshmi, Koodal Alagar Temple, Madurai
In the Legend of Tirumala, the sage Bhrigu is selected to choose the deity to whom
a yajna shall be dedicated towards. After rejecting Brahma, Indra, and Shiva, he arrives
at Vaikuntha, where he observes Lakshmi massaging the feet of Vishnu who is reclined
on Shesha. Bhrigu is angered by this and kicks the chest of Vishnu with his foot. A calm
Vishnu is concerned for the sage, and receives him with honour. Pleased, Bhrigu
decides that the yajna should be offered to Vishnu. But Lakshmi is greatly enraged, the
chest being the region of Vishnu most associated with her, and because her consort

57
had not risen to the insult. She descends upon the earth as Padmavati, the daughter of
a Chola king, and her consort assumes the form of Srinivasa. Srinivasa finds
Padmavati, marries her once more and is hailed as the primary deity of Tirumala.

In literature, Lakshmi and Narayana are often offered epithets stemming from their
relationship - Vishnu is hailed as Lakshmipati, the husband of Lakshmi, while Lakshmi is
called Vishnupriya, the favourite of Vishnu, as well as Vaishnavi and Narayani, the
greatest female devotee, and Shakti of Vishnu.

In the Prapanna Parijata, Lakshmi declares that the duality of her consort and herself
represents Brahman:

God, Narayana, is the essence of existence; and I, the Supreme Lakshmi, am the
attribute (be-ness) of it. Hence what is known as Lakshmìnârâyana is the
Brahman which is the eternal One.

— Prapanna Parijata
Interpretations
The dual representation of the deities Lakshmi Narayana has many historic roots, and is
sometimes interpreted differently by different traditions. The
goddess Lakshmi incarnates on earth with her beloved consort, following Narayana's
wishes, and mode of incarnation. When Vishnu descended upon the world
as Parashurama, the goddess incarnated herself as Dharani; when he was born
as Rama, Lakshmi appeared as Sita; and when he was Krishna, she appeared
as Radha and Rukmini. In Vishnu's next incarnation as Kalki that will spell the end of
the present Kali Yuga, he will wed Padmavati, who will also be an incarnation of
Lakshmi.[12] This dual manifestation of the supreme deities of Vaishnavism is explored in
the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Brahma Vaivarta
Purana, Skanda Purana, and in other scriptures. The Purushottama
Mahatmya of Skanda Purana (13th century CE) and of Vishnurahasya (16th century
CE) referred to the female wooden image
between Jagannath and Balabhadra, Subhadra, as Lakshmi.

Traditions-Sri Vaishnavism

The Tenkalai Sri Vaishnava urdhva pundra, a

representation of Lakshmi Narayana
In Sri Vaishnavism, the deity Narayana is worshipped as the supreme deity, and his
consort Lakshmi as the supreme goddess. Lakshmi is regarded to be the source of
salvation, Narayana, and is hence revered by adherents in order to reach God. The

58
origin of the tradition's name is sometimes associated with the goddess herself, who is
also called Sri.[15] In various sub-divisions of this tradition, devotees worship specific
forms of Vishnu or Lakshmi or together, such as Narayana or Lakshmi, Lakshmi
Narayana, Rama or Sita, Sita Rama, and others. The Urdhva Pundra, the sacred mark
they wear on their bodies, is conceived to be a combination of the white feet of Vishnu,
and the red streak in between represents Lakshmi.

Swaminarayan Sampradaya
In the Vaishnava tradition of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, a flute-bearing Krishna is
worshipped with his consort Radha, and together the deity is referred as Radha
Krishna, while Krishna in his four-hands form is identified with Narayana in the
text Shikshapatri, and is worshipped with his consort, Lakshmi. The deity is referred as
Lakshmi Narayana.[18] The founder of the sect, Swaminarayan, installed the murtis of
Radha Krishna and Lakshmi Narayana at the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir,
Vadtal and Swaminarayan Mandir, Gadhada in Gujarat

Worship
Lakshmi Narayana worship is popular among Vaishnavas, who pray to the divine couple
at their homes and in temples. There are many sampradayas (sects), that regard
Lakshmi Narayana as the ultimate divinity, and grand and exquisite temples have been
erected for their veneration. It is believed that worshipping Lakshmi Narayana can get
for the devotees the complete blessings of the divine couple and shall bestow welfare,
success, prosperity and a fulfilled life for the devotees and their families. In Tamil
tradition, Narayana is often represented with three aspects of

 Madhavi Madhava
 Keshavi Keshava
 Shyamā Shyama
 Kishori Kishora
 Gopi Gopinatha
 Gaurangi Gauranga

Radha-Krishna (IAST rādhā-kṛṣṇa, Sanskrit: राधा कृष्ण) is the combined form of the
Hindu god Krishna with his chief consort and shakti Radha. They are regarded as the
feminine as well as the masculine realities of God, in several Krishnaite traditions

59
of Vaishnavism. In Krishnaism, Krishna is referred to as Svayam Bhagavan and Radha
is illustrated as the primeval potency of the three main potencies of
God, Hladini (immense spiritual bliss), Sandhini (eternality), and Samvit (existential
consciousness), of which Radha is an embodiment of the feeling of love towards
Krishna (Hladini).

With Krishna, Radha is acknowledged as the Supreme Goddess. [14] Krishna is said to be
satiated only by devotional service in loving servitude, personified by Radha. Various
devotees worship her to attain Krishna via her. Radha is also depicted to be Krishna
himself, split into two for the purpose of his enjoyment. As per scriptures, Radha is
considered as the complete incarnation of Mahalakshmi. It is believed that Krishna
enchants the world, but Radha enchants even him. Therefore, she is the supreme
goddess of all, and together they are called Radha-Krishna. [18] In many Vaishnava
sections, Radha Krishna are often identified as the avatars of Lakshmi Narayana.[19]

Names and epithets

14th-century CE fresco of Radha Krishna in Udaipur,

Rajasthan
Radha Krishna can be broken into two:

1. Krishna (Devanagari: कृष्ण), the incarnation of Vishnu, which means, "all

attractive" or "dark blue"[ and his
2. shakti Radha (Devanagari: राधा), the incarnation of Lakshmi, which means "the
pleasing one".

Many significant epithets accorded to Krishna including - Radha Ramana and Radha
Vallabh, which means "the lover and the beloved of Radha" are directly derived from the
name of his consort, Radha. Similarly, epithets of Radha including - Krishna
Kanta, which means "the consort of Krishna" and Krishna Vallabha, which means "the
eternal companion of Krishna", are directly associated with the name of Krishna.

60
Literature
Radha Krishna's first literary mention was found in King Hala's Prakrit text Gatha
Saptasati which is composed of 700 verses and was written in the 1st century CE. [24][25]
[26]
Later, the popular Gita Govinda written by Jayadeva in 12th century CE widely
depicted Radha and Krishna as a couple.

According to scriptures like Brahma Vaivarta Purana and Garga Samhita, Radha-
Krishna are the supreme deities. Content of both the scriptures are majorly based on
the divine pastimes of Radha Krishna in Vrindavan and Goloka. The other relevant texts
mentioning Radha Krishna are the Radhopnishad, Radhika Tapani Upanishad, Gopala
Tapani Upanishad,[32] Shiva Purana, Brahmanda Purana, Skanda Purana, Padma
Purana, Matsya Purana, Devi-Bhagavata Purana, Narad Purana, Narada
Pancharatra, Radha Tantra, Brahma Samhita and Chaitanya Charitamrita.[33][34][35] Radha
is also indirectly mentioned in Bhagavata Purana along with Krishna under many
different names like "Aradhika" and "Gopi". Adi Shankracharya also mentioned Radha
under the name of Radhika in his work called "Achyuta Ashtakam" which is dedicated to
the Achyuta form of Krishna.

The devotional works of Jayadeva, Nimbarkacharya, Rasik saints like Chaitanya

Mahaprabhu along with his six disciple goswamis, Bhakti poet-saints Narsinh
Mehta, Vidyapati, Chandidas, Meera Bai, Surdas and Swami Haridas played pivotal role
in spreading devotion to the divine couple. According to several Hindu
denominations including Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Nimbarka Sampradaya, Pushtimarg,
and Swaminarayan Sampradaya, it is believed that Radha is not just one cowherd
maiden, but the origin of all the Ashtasakhi, Gopis, or divine personalities that
participate in the rasa dance

Shakti and Shaktiman

The common derivation of shakti and shaktiman, that is, female and male principle in a
god implies that shakti and shaktiman are the same. [41] Each and every god has its
partner, or Shakti, and without this Shakti, is sometimes viewed being without essential
power. It is a not uncommon feature of Hinduism when worship of a pair rather than one
personality constitutes worship of God, such is worship of Radha Krishna. Traditions
worshiping Krishna, as svayam bhagavan, who is male, include reference and
veneration to his Radha, who is worshiped as supreme. A view that exists of orthodox
Krishnaism, the sect of the worship of Krishna, is that Radha is shakti and Krishna is
shaktiman and are always found without any tinge of materialistic attributes or cause.

Theology and philosophy

From the Vaishnava point of view the divine feminine energy (shakti) implies a divine
source of energy, God or shaktiman. "Sita relates to Rama; Lakshmi belongs
to Narayana; Radha has her Krishna." As Krishna is believed to be the source of all
manifestations of God, "Radha, his consort, is the original source of all shaktis" or
feminine manifestation of divine energy. The first theologo-philosophical justification for
worshiping Radha-Krishna was given by Nimbarkacharya, a founder of the Nimbarka
Sampradaya in 12th or 13th century CE. In accordance with the Sahitya

61
Akademi Encyclopaedia, he more than any other acharyas gave Radha a place as a
deity. A number of interpretations according to traditions possess a common root of
personalism in the understanding of worship. Specifically Chaitanyaite Gaudiya
Vaishnava doctrine and mission is fiercely "personalistic," proclaiming the supremacy of
Krishna, the identification of Chaitanya as Radha-Krishna, the reality and eternality of
individual selves, and a method for approaching the absolute reality and the Deity as a
person first and foremost.

Jiva Goswami in his Priti Sandarbha states that each of the Gopis exhibits a different
level of intensity of passion, among which Radha's is the greatest.

In his famous dialogs Ramananda Raya describes Radha to Chaitanya and quotes,
among other texts, a verse from Chaitanya Charitamrta 2.8.100, before he goes on to
describe her role in the pastimes of Vrindavana.

The central pivot point of the theology is related to the word rasa. The theological use of
the word can be found very early, about two thousand years before the Nimbarka or
Chaitanya schools, in a phrase that the tradition frequently quotes: "Truly, the Lord
is rasa" (raso vai sah) from the Brahma sutras. This statement expresses the view that
God is the one who enjoys the ultimate rasa or spiritual rapture, emotions.

According to Swami Krishnananda, between the two incarnations

of Vishnu, Rama signifies human perfection, whereas Krishna represents divine
perfection; Rama establishes the ideals of "discipline, law, conduct and righteousness"
and hence is called Maryada-Purushottama, and Krishna represents "God playing the
divine sport of his transcendent and supermental magnificence, glory and perfection in
the world of mortals", and hence is called Lila-Purushottama.

In traditions
Radha Krishna are worshiped in the following Hindu denominations:

Bhagavata
In Vedic and Puranic literature, Radha and other forms of the root word Radh have
meaning of ‘perfection’, ‘success’ and even ‘wealth’. Lord of Success, Indra was
referred to as Radhaspati. In references to Mahavishnu as the Lord of Fortune and
freely used by Jayadeva as Jaya Jayadeva Hare – the victorious Hari, and ‘Radhaspati’
all found in many places. The word Radha occurs in the Atharva Veda, Taittiriya
Brahmana and Taittiriya Samhita

Charlotte Vaudeville, in the article Evolution of Love Symbolism in Bhagavatism draws

some parallel to Nappinnai, appearing in Godha's magnum opus Thiruppavai and
in Nammalwar's references to Nappinnani, the daughter-in-law of Nandagopa.
Nappinnai is believed to be the source of Radha's conception
in Prakrit and Sanskrit literature although their characteristic relations with Krishna are
different. In the ritual dance called Kuravai, Krishna dances with his wife Nappinnai. "It
is a complex relationship, for the devotee is the ‘same as and yet different from’ the
Lord, and so even in the joy of union there is the pain of separation. Indeed, the highest
62
form of devotion, according to Yamunacarya, comes not in union but after the union, in
the ‘fear of new separation’."]

Yasastilaka Champukavya (959 CE) and Gaha Sattasai make references to Radha and
Krishna well before Jayadeva's period. There are elaborate references of Radha and
Krishna in Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Garga Samhita and Padma Purana.

Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya

Gaudiya Vaishnava, as the name suggests, usually refers to the region of Bengal.
Early Bengali literature gives a vivid description of the depiction and evolution of
understanding of Radha and Krishna.
In this Bengali tradition, metaphysical status and Radha-worship are considered to have
been established by Krsnadasa in his Chaitanya Charitamrta, where he represents the
doctrine that prevailed among the Vrindavan Caitanyaites following Caitanya's demise
in 1533. It is believed that Krishna, desiring to experience fully what it is like to love
Krishna as Radha does, appeared as Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And what Radha
(appearing as Caitanya) does in her longing for Krishna is to chant his names. One of
the self manifested Deities established by Gopala Bhatta Goswami is called Radha
Ramana. Since Chaityana Mahaprabhu is seen as combined form of Radha-Krishna,
Radha Ramana is viewed not only as Krishna, but as a unified form of Radha-Krishna.
[56]
And worship in his temple, located in the centre of Vrindavana is a perpetual daily
affair, involving several prescribed events throughout the day,[57] with the goal of being
theoretical and remote, but with aspiration of the possibility to attend and associate
directly with Radha and Krishna.

Manipuri Vaishnavism
The Manipuri Vaishnavism is a regional variant of Gaudiya Vaishnavism with a culture-
forming role among the Meitei people in the north-eastern Indian state
of Manipur. There, after a short period of Ramaism penetration, Gaudiya Vaishnavism
spread in the early 18th century, especially from beginning its second quarter.
Raja Gharib Nawaz (Pamheiba) under the influence of Natottama Thakura's disciples
was initiated into the Chaitanya tradition with worship of Radha-Krishna as the supreme
deity. Every village there has a Thakur-ghat and a temple. [63] Manipuri Raas Leela and
other dances are a feature of the regional folk and religious tradition and often, for
example, a female dancer will portray both Krishna and his consort, Radha, in the same
piece.

Haridasi Sampradaya

The Haridasi tradition was founded by Vrindavan saint and musician, Swami Haridas, in
the 16th century in Vrindavan. The theology of Haridasi tradition revolves around the
divine couple Radha Krishna and the cowherd maidens who serve them. In Haridasi
tradition, Radha is considered as the supreme deity, even above Krishna.

Nimbarka Sampradaya

63
 The
Shankha-Chakra-Tilaka emblems of the Sri Nimbarka Sampradaya.
The Nimbarka Sampradaya worship the youthful form of Krishna, alone or with his
consort Radha, is one of the earliest dating at least to the 12th century CE, just
as Rudra Sampradaya does. According to Nimbarkacharya, a founder of the
sampradaya, Radha is the eternal consort and wedded wife of Krishna, who lives
forever with him in Goloka. Nimbarka's philosophical position is dualistic monism and
he centered all his devotion to Krishna and his consort Radha.

The Nimbarka Sampradaya is one of the four bona fide Vaishnavite traditions. Lack of
evidence due to the destruction of Mathura and Vrindavan in the 13th century and 14th
century has meant that the true dates and origins of this tradition are shrouded in
mystery and await investigation.

64
Jayadeva worshipping of Radha Krishna. Radha-Krishna ardhanari—depicted as half-
male and half-female
Nimbarka, who is widely held by scholars such as Satyanand Joseph, Prof. Rasik Bihari
Joshi, Prof. M. M. Aggrawal etc., to be at least of the same time or before the
appearance of Shankaracharya, was the first acharya to worship Radha along with
Krishna in Sakhi Bhava Upasana method of worship. ] In his Vedanta Kamadhenu
Dashashloki (verse 6), it is clearly stated that:

ange tu vaame vrishabhaanujaam The left portion of the body of the Supreme Lord is
mudaa viraajamaanaam Shrimati Radha, seated blissfully, as beautiful as
anuruupasaubhagaam. the Lord Himself; who is served by thousands of
sakhiisahasraih parisevitaam gopis: we meditate on the Supreme Goddess, the
sadaa smarema deviim fulfiller of all desires.
sakalestakaamadaam

This theme was taken up by Jayadeva Goswami and other poets of the time who saw
the inherent beauty and bliss which constitute this philosophy In his Gita
Govinda Krishna speaks to Radha:

O woman with desire, place on this patch of flower-strewn floor your lotus foot,
And let your foot through beauty win,
To me who am the Lord of All, O be attached, now always yours.
O follow me, my little Radha.

— Jayadeva, Gita Govinda

It is believed, however, that the source of Jayadeva's heroine in his poem remains a
puzzle of the Sanskrit Literature. At the same time there are well documented
references to works earlier than Gita Govinda, which some count to be more than
twenty. The figure of Radha is one of the most elusive in the literature of Sanskrit; she is
described only in a few selected passages of Prakrit or Sanskrit poetry, a few
inscriptions and a few works on grammar, poetry and drama. Jayadeva has referred to
them and created an exquisite lyrical poem of passionate devotion in the 12th century
CE, and from this poetic beginning a huge movement specific to Bengal began.

In this sampradaya, the significance of Radha is not less than the significance of Sri
Krsna. Both are conjointly the object to be worshiped in this school of Nimbarka who is
also one of the first commentators on Brahma Sutras under the name Vedanta-Parijata-
Saurabha. The later acharyas of the Nimbarka Sampradaya in the 13th and 14th
centuries in Vrindavana composed much literature on the Divine Couple. Swami Sri
Sribhatta, the elder god-brother of Jayadeva composed the Yugala Shataka for the
Dhrupada style of musical presentation like Jayadeva, however unlike Jayadeva who
composed his work in Sanskrit, Swami Shribhatta's compositions are in Vraja language,
a Hindi vernacular which was understood by all inhabitants of Vraja. Indeed, the rest of
the acharyas of this tradition wrote in Vraja language and due to the lack of prevalence
of this language in modern times, very little research has been done, even though these

65
Acharyas predate the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan by centuries. Rare exception was
Vijay Ramnarace's PhD thesis in 2014.

In any case, the sole object of worship in the Nimbarka Sampradaya is the unified
Divine Couple of Shri Radha Krishna. According to the 16th century Mahavani written
by Jagadguru Swami Sri Harivyasa Devacharya -

"radhaamkrsnasvaroopaam vai, krishnam raadhaasvarupinam; kalaatmaanam

nikunjastham gururoopam sadaa bhaje"

Radha Krishna looking into the mirror

(1800 CE painting)
which means "I ceaselessly praise Radha who is none other than Krishna, and Sri
Krishna who is none other than Radha, whose unity is represented by the Kaamabeeja
and who are forever resident in Nikunja Goloka Vrindavana.

The contribution from the Nimbarka Sampradaya to the philosophy of Radha Krishna is
undeniable, as the philosophy and theology originate in it.

Pranami Sampradaya

66
The Pranami Sampradaya (Pranami Panth) emerged in the 17th century in Gujarat,
based on the Radha-Krishna-focussed syncretic Hindu-Islamic teachings of Devchandra
Maharaj and his famous successor, Mahamati Prannath.[

Pushtimarg Sampradaya
Vallabhacharya, founder of Pushtimarg tradition even before Chaitanya, worshipped
Radha, where according to some sects, the devotees identify mainly with the female
companion (sakhis) of Radha who are privileged to arrange intimate pastimes for
RadhaKrishna.

One of the prominent poets of this tradition, which also called Radhavallabhi, named
Dhruvadasa was notable for being principally concerned with the private relationships of
Radha and Krishna. In his poetry Caurasi Pad and in the commentaries of his followers,
the concentration is in meditation on the unique benefits of constant reflection on
the eternal lila.

Radhavallabhis share with their Vaishnava co-religionists a great regard for Bhagavata
Purana, but some of the pastimes that are outside the scope of relationships with
Radha and gopis do not feature in the concept of this school. Emphasis is placed on the
sweetness of the relationship, or rasa.

Radha Vallabh Sampradaya

The Radha-centered Radha Vallabh Sampradaya founded by Hith Harivansh
Mahaprabhu in the 16th century occupies a special position among other traditions. In
its theology, Radha is worshiped as the supreme deity, and Krishna is in a subordinate
position

Swaminarayan Sampradaya
Radha-Krishna Dev has a special place in the Swaminarayan
Sampradaya as Swaminarayan himself referred to Radha Krishna in
the Shikshapatri he wrote. Further, he himself ordered the construction of temples in
which Radha Krishna have been installed as deities. Swaminarayan "explained that
Krishna appears in many forms. When he is together with Radha, he is regarded as
supreme lord under the name of Radha-Krishna; with Rukmini he is known as Lakshmi-
Narayana."[ The first temple constructed in the sect, built in Ahmedabad in 1822,
houses the images of Nara Narayana, forms of Arjuna and Krishna, in the central
shrine. The shrine on the left of the hall has murtis of Radha Krishna. According to the
philosophy of the tradition there were many female companions of Krishna, gopis, but
out of all of them Radha was considered to be the perfect devotee. Those who wish to
come close to Krishna must cultivate the devotional qualities of Radha. According to
theory the sect has set aside Goloka as the supreme heaven or abode (in fact, in some
of their temples, such as the Mumbai Temple, the murtis installed are those of Shri
Gaulokvihari and Radhikaji), because there Krishna is supposed to be enjoying himself
with his Gopis, who according to the Swaminarayana sampradaya the milkmaids with
whom Krishna danced; his relations with them symbolize the relation of God with the
devotee in reciprocation.

67
Vaishnava-Sahajiya
Since the 15th century CE, the Tantric Vaishnava-Sahajiya tradition flourished in Bengal
and Assam, inspired by Bengali spiritual poet Chandidas, where Krishna is the inner
divine aspect of man and Radha is the aspect of woman.

The date of Chandidas poem Srikrsnakirtana is still under question however the text
remains one of the most important evidences of early portrayal of the popular story of
"Lord Krishna's love for the cowherd girl Radha" in Bengali literature and religion. The
412 songs of Srikrsnakirtana are divided into thirteen sections that represent the core of
the Radha-Krishna legendary cycle, with many variants providing excellent comparative
material. The manuscript clearly suggests that the songs were meant to be song, and
implies particular ragas for the recitation. There is considerable debate as to the
authenticity of the text that has significant religious meaning.

Warkari Tradition
In Warkari tradition which is majorly based in the region of Maharashtra, Radha and
Krishna are often venerated in their regional forms of Rahi and Vithoba, also called
Vithala. According to the local legends, Rahi (Radha) is the wife of Vithala (Krishna). [86]
[87]

Outside Hinduism

Radha Krishna art inspired by Gita Govinda

Outside Hinduism, Radha and Krishna are mentioned in the scriptures and
commentaries of Jainism and Sikhism.

Guru Gobind Singh, in his Dasam Grantha, describes Radha the, sukl bhis rika, thus :
"Radhika went out in the light of the white soft moon, wearing a white robe to meet her
Lord. It was white everywhere and hidden in it, she appeared like the light itself in
search of Him".

In many Jain commentaries including the popular Venisamhara by Narayana

Bhatta and Dhvanyaloka by Anandavardhana written in 7th century Radha and Krishna
are mentioned. Jain scholars like Somadeva Suri and Vikram Bhatta continued
mentioning Radha-Krishna between 9th-12th century in their literary works.

68
In India

Temples of Shri Radha Krishna are prevalent throughout India and the world.
However, Braj region including Vrindavan, Barsana, Gokul, Nandgaon, and Mathura are
considered to be the centers of Radha Krishna worship. Some of the important temples
of Radha Krishna in Braj region are -

In Vrindavan — Shri Radha Madan Mohan temple, Shri Govind Dev ji temple, Shri
Radha Raman temple, Shri Radha Gokulananda temple, Shri Radha Damodar
temple, Shri Bankey Bihari temple, Shri Jugal Kishore temple, Shri Radha Gopinath
temple, Shri Radha Shyamasundar temple, Prem Mandir, Shahji temple, ISKCON
temple,[90] Nidhivan temple, Seva Kunj temple, Shri Radha Vallabh temple, Kusum
Sarovar, Radha Kund, Pagal Baba temple, Shri Radha Raas Bihari Ashtsakhi Temple,
Priyakant ju temple, and Shri Vrindavan Chandrodaya temple.

In Mathura - Shri Krishna Janambhoomi temple and Shri Dwarkadhish temple

In Barsana - Shri Radha Rani Temple (Shreeji temple), Rangeeli Mahal (Kirti Mandir),
Shri Maan Mandir (Maan Garh)

In Nandgaon - Shri NandBaba temple

In Gokul - Shri Nand Yashoda Bhawan, Raman Reti temple

In Bhandirvan - Shri Radha Krishna Vivah Sthali, Shri Radha Bhandirbihari temple

Some other important Radha Krishna temples across India are - Shri Radha Govind
Dev ji temple in Jaipur, Lalji Temple in Kalna, Hare Krishna Golden
Temple in Hyderabad, Murlidhar Krishna Temple in Naggar, Shri Govindajee
temple in Imphal, Madan Mohan temple in Karauli, Mayapur Chandrodaya
Mandir in Nadia, Swaminarayan temple Gadhada in Botad, Swaminarayan temple
Vadtal in Kheda, Iskcon Bangalore, Iskcon Chennai, Iskcon Delhi, Radha Damodar
Temple, Junagadh, Bhakti Mandir Mangarh, Swaminarayan temple Mumbai, Iskcon
temple Mumbai, Iskcon temple Ujjain, Swaminarayan temple Bhuj, Iskcon temple
Patna, Swaminarayan temple Dholera near Ahmedabad, Radha Krishna temple
of Baroh in Kangra, historical temples in Bishnupur of Bankura
district including Rasmancha, Radha Shyam Temple, Shyam Ray Temple, Jor Bangla,
and Radha Madhab Temple.

There are many Vaishnavism traditions that spread the worship of Radha Krishna
across the world. There are around 850 Iskcon temples spread across the world which
promotes the worship of Radha Krishna. Similarly, Swaminarayan Sampradaya has
also established multiple temples outside India in which Radha Krishna Dev are
worshipped. Radha Madhav Dham in Austin, Texas built by Jagadguru Kripalu
Parishat is one of the biggest Radha Krishna temple in the Western hemisphere. In
Malaysia, Shri Kunj Bihari temple is one of the historic temple of Radha-Krishna
established in 1835.[93]

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Hymns
The Shri Radhika Krishnastaka (also called the Radhashtak) is a hymn. It is said that
the reciter can get to Krishna via Radha by chanting it. The other popular songs and
prayers include — Yugalashtakam written by Jiva Goswami which glorifies the love and
inseparability of the divine couple Radha Krishna and Jayadeva's much acclaimed
work Gita Govinda which was written in the 12th century and is still the part of temple
songs of Jagannath temple, Puri. Radhe Krishna — the maha-mantra of Nimbarka
Sampradaya is as follows:

Rādhe Kṛṣṇa Rādhe Kṛṣṇa

Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Rādhe Rādhe
Rādhe Shyām Rādhe Shyām
Shyām Shyām Rādhe Rādhe

PART II
70
 Krishna in
Cambodia
but no Radha
While Angkor Wat is primarily dedicated to Vishnu and has Buddhist influences, Radha,
a key figure in Vaishnavism, is not directly represented in the temple's original
iconography. However, the complex does incorporate Hindu elements and is a
testament to the religious landscape of the Khmer Empire, which included
both Hinduism and Buddhism. Angkor Wat, originally a Hindu temple, was later
converted to a Buddhist site.

Angkor Wat and Hinduism:

 Dedicated to Vishnu:
Angkor Wat was initially built as a temple for Vishnu, a major Hindu deity.
 Hindu Cosmology:
The temple's structure, with its five towers representing Mount Meru, is a
representation of the Hindu universe.
 Religious Art:
Angkor Wat features a vast collection of religious art, including depictions of
Hindu gods and mythological scenes.
Radha's Absence and Vaishnavism:

 Not a Primary Deity:

71
 Radha, while a central figure in Vaishnavism, is not one of the main deities
associated with Angkor Wat's original design.

 Later Influences:
While Angkor Wat is primarily dedicated to Vishnu, it later saw Buddhist
influences and conversions.
 Vaishnava History:
There is a focus on the Vaishnava history at Angkor Wat, with discussions on
how the temple reflects the religious and cultural landscape of the Khmer
Empire.
Angkor Thom and Buddhist Influence:
 Buddhist Cosmology:
Angkor Thom, while also part of the Angkor complex, is considered a three-
dimensional representation of Buddhist cosmology.
 Temple Conversions:
Angkor Wat, after its initial construction, was gradually converted to a Buddhist
site, with some Hindu sculptures being replaced by Buddhist art.
From
https://www.radha.name/news/general-news/cambodian-vaishnava-history-at-angkor-
watIn essence, while Angkor Wat is a site with deep Hindu roots and connections to
Vaishnavism, Radha is not directly represented in its original iconography, which is
primarily dedicated to Vishnu. The complex also reflects the later influence of Buddhism

72
The Angkor temple may be 900 years old, but the message it sets out to convey is
timeless: Angkor Wat is all about glory. The temple is one of hundreds built by kings of
the Khmer Empire to commemorate themselves and their empire, as well as to worship
their gods. But Angkor Wat stands out from the rest — in artistry, in scale and in popular
imagery.

One of the largest religious structures in the world, and the only religious monument to
appear on a national flag, Angkor Wat has become synonymous with Cambodia at its
most powerful — when it was the seat of the Khmer Empire, stretching from the South
China Sea to the Bay of Bengal. The monumental scale of the temple has the same
effect on visitors today as when it was first built. Angkor Wat has but a single approach:
a wide stone causeway more than a third of a mile long (that’s as long as six football
fields end-to-end). The entry walkway crosses a moat 600 feet wide (my guide assures
me it used to be filled with crocodiles) and ends at a wall and gates leading into the
center of the compound. The central compound covers about 400 acres and once
supported a town of about 100,000 people.

With one central tower more than 130 feet high surrounded by four shorter towers, the
center of the temple imitates the five peaks of Mount Mehru, the mythical mountain at
the center of the Hindu universe. The temple walls (three concentric rectangles that
demarcate the progressively higher levels of the temple), garden grounds and moat
represent the soil and seas of the earth.

73
Reaching Mount Mehru is no easy chore: The temple’s stone steps are dizzyingly steep
— more like a stone ladder than a staircase — as a reminder of the effort it takes for
humans to get closer to heaven. And, as if to drive home the point, the inner sanctuaries
of the central tower were accessible only to the king and a select handful of priests.

When Angkor Wat was built, Cambodia was primarily Hindu and Khmer culture drew
much of its inspiration from India. Most of the inscriptions at Angkor are in Sanskrit, and
the nymph-like apsaras, or celestial dancers, that grace the walls derive from Hindu
mythology. Later, however, the Khmer kings became interested in Buddhism, and
Angkor Wat was converted into a Buddhist monastery between the 12th and 15th
centuries. The central statue of the innermost sanctuary — likely a statue of Vishnu —
was removed and a Buddhist image erected in its place. For several centuries, the
Khmer empire practiced a syncretic faith that combined Buddhism and Hinduism.

In many ways Angkor Wat is so much larger than life that the details of the temple get
overlooked amid the legends that surround it. It’s easy to forget that it contains nearly
2,000 feet of the finest Khmer bas reliefs in the world. Its nearly 2,000 celestial apsaras
represent the apogee of Cambodia’s apsara-carving tradition and provide a detailed
account of court dress and female fashions during the period of its creation, the
elaborate headdresses, heavy jewelry worn on the arms and neck, and flowing skirts.
Traditional Cambodian dance to this day imitates the apsaras’ poses and costumes.

One of the most intricate reliefs decorating the walls of the temple’s first gallery depicts
the Churning of the Sea of Milk, a key event in Hindu cosmology in which the world was
created by an epic tug-of-war between gods and demons. Each side pulled on a giant
five-headed snake wrapped around Mount Mehru, and the subsequent twisting of the
mountain and churning of the seas gave birth to the apsaras that grace the walls of
Angkor Wat, as well as an elixir of immortality over which the gods and demons
subsequently dueled. In this story, Mount Mehru is not only the center of the universe,
but also the birthplace of the known world.

The Khmer empire included modern-day Burma, Thailand and Vietnam — the largest
area ever covered by Cambodia — and laid the foundations for Cambodian culture and
art for centuries to come. In a sign of the temple’s importance, the king’s palace was
most likely on the temple grounds, although nothing of it remains today. About one
million men, women and children populated the Angkor area, according to an estimate
by French archaeologist Bernard-Philippe Groslier, making it the largest settlement in
the preindustrial world.

All this manpower was necessary to build the temples, which were painstakingly erected
from giant sandstone monoliths hewed out of a quarry more than 37 miles away. Rather
than having foundations that sink into the ground, most Angkorean temples are built on
huge mounds of earth that give them their pyramid shape, the soil excavated from a
moat or from one of the lakes. Some historians theorize that the blitz of building during
the Khmer Empire could have been accomplished only through a mandatory labor
requirement levied on all citizens, or perhaps even through slavery.

74
The grandeur that marked the Khmer Empire was not to last, however. The royal city of
Angkor was repeatedly sacked by the Thai army during the 14th century, and in 1431
the capital was relocated farther away from Thailand. Angkor Wat itself — by that time
converted to a Buddhist temple — continued to function, and for centuries it was home
to a flourishing monastery that attracted pilgrims from as far away as Japan, even while
the former capital city nearby was gradually overtaken by the jungle. Although the
Buddhists occupying the temple removed most of the original Hindu art, Angkor Wat’s
habitation and its continuous maintenance helped the temple remain relatively intact
while many other Angkorean temples now lie in ruins.

Even after surviving the removal of its Hindu art, Angkor Wat did not entirely escape the
turbulence of Cambodia’s recent history. The Western part of Cambodia in which
Angkor Wat is located was a Khmer Rouge stronghold through the 1990s (the Khmer
Rouge were ousted from the capital city, Phnom Penh, in 1979). Restoration work on
the temples took a forced, decades-long hiatus during the wars that wracked Cambodia
through the later half of the 20th century. The area was unsafe for tourists until about 10
years ago, when the Khmer Rouge signed a peace treaty that formally ended
Cambodia’s civil war. There was relatively little physical damage to the temple as a
result of the wars, but they did irreparable damage by destroying almost all of the
remaining written records pertaining to the Angkorean period. Khmer archaeology
scholar Christophe Pottier of the French Research School of the Far East estimates that
95% of the relevant documents have been destroyed in the past three decades, an
irreplaceable loss.

In the years since peace has come to Cambodia the opportunities for looting have also
increased, and many of the finest sculptures have been spirited out of the country and
sold to buyers abroad. Tourism also poses its own set of dangers, with some temples
suffering from overexposure to footsteps or curious hands. But despite this — even as
the physical structures of the temples inevitably decay — Angkor will continue to
symbolize something greater than itself. The memory of the Khmer Empire, and with it
Cambodia’s full potential, is unlikely to fade anytime soon.(Ms. Hook is an editorial page
writer for The Wall Street Journal Asia. )

V
Temples of Krishna- in Cambodia?

75
There are around 4000 temples in Cambodia, out of which most of them are located
at Siem Reap, Battambang, Preah Vihar, and Kampong Thom. Cambodia's many
striking temples. Most dedicated to God Vishnu of the Hindu Pantheam. Vishnu is the
preserver and protector of the universe. His role is to return to the earth in troubled
times and restore the balance of good and evil. So far, he has been incarnated nine
times, but Hindus believe that he will be reincarnated one last time close to the end of
this world.were commissioned by the kings of the Khmer Empire. From the 800s to the
1400s, this empire stretched across Southeast Asia. ... There was a widespread shift
from Hinduism to Buddhism in the latter half of the empire, so you'll find some temples
have symbolism from both religions.Originally dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu,
Angkor Wat became a Buddhist temple by the end of the 12th century. Who destroyed
Hindu temples in Cambodia?

Standing Shiva (?) 11th century. This figure is the most intact metal image
surviving from Angkor. It belongs to a small group of metal sculptures of Hindu
deities associated with royal cult practices that was discovered in Khmer
territories in Cambodia and northeastern Thailand.(ABOVE RIGHT PIC)

In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked
by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Since then, Hinduism slowly
declined in Cambodia, and finally being replaced by Theravadan Buddhist as the major
faith in the kingdom.

Angkor was was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the first half of the 12th
century, around the year 1110-1150, making Angkor Wat almost 900 years old. The

76
temple complex, built in the capital of the Khmer Empire, took approximately 30 years to
build. Angkor Wat is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia. It is the largest religious
monument in the world, on a site measuring 162.6 hectares (1,626,000 m 2; 402 acres)
which was built by a Khmer king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state
temple and capital city. Khmer temples were typically enclosed by a concentric series of
walls, with the central sanctuary in the middle; this arrangement represented the
mountain ranges surrounding Mount Meru, the mythical home of the gods. Enclosures
are the spaces between these walls, and between the innermost wall and the temple
itself.

Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan in 2017 (left) and 2021 (right)

Krishna’s torso is moved into alignment with the upper section of the sculpture in the
new reconstruction, 2021

Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan, carved around 600 for the temple site of Phnom
Da - According to Sanskrit texts, Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, once
hoisted a mountain overhead to shelter people and cattle from a mighty storm brought
upon them by Indra, the god of rain and lightning, whom Krishna had angered. At the
time, the dark-skinned god was just eight years old, and after this feat, his fellow villagers
came to recognize him as a divinity.

Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan, carved around 600 for the temple site of Phnom Da in
southern Cambodia, is one of the central works of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s
Southeast Asian sculpture collection. The sculpture depicts the boy god, standing larger

77
than life within an integral stone niche, pressing the weight of the mountain overhead
with his left hand.

This sculpture was on view for decades at the CMA, as standing securely on complete
stone legs and feet, with his arm raised into thin air. Today, after seven-plus years of
research, international collaboration, and conservation treatment, the sculpture looks
very different. In a dramatic change, the lower base and parts of the legs have been
removed and a large upper section, showing the top of the stone niche and the figure’s
left hand, has been added.

The new reconstruction is based on scholarship and analysis that illuminated the
complex history of this sculpture and seven others that were found on the sacred twin-
peaked mountain, Phnom Da, in southern Cambodia.
Wat Ek Phnom is an angkorian temple located on the left side of the Sangkae River at
the small creek of Prek Daun Taev northwest the G Peam Aek spot approximately 9 km
north of the city of Battambang in north western Cambodia. It is a Hindu temple built in
the 11th century under the rule of king Suryavarman I. Although partly collapsed and
looted it is famous for its well-carved lintels and pediments.
An enormous white-stone sitting Buddha statue leads to the modern Buddhist pagoda
Ek Phnom surrounded by 18 Bodhi Trees. The site is deemed as a very popular picnic
and pilgrimage destination for Khmers at celebration times. The pagoda opens the way
to the ruins of the ancient hinduist temple. The ancient temple, built of sandstone blocks
and enclosed by the remains of a laterite outer wall and a Baray, consists of small
temples or prasats on a platform and measures 52m by 49m. Mostly reduced to ruins
today only the main towers of the temple remain standing whose upper flanks hold
some fine bas-reliefs.

The bas-reliefs depict events of Hindu mythology mostly referring to Krishna. In the
same way as Krishna, Suryavarman I carried out institutional reforms of the state [

78
1. Buddha statue/modern Wat Ek Phnom/ancient temple
2. Lintel of the central tower: Krishna, lifting Govardhana hill and fighting
the Kaliya snake, whilst standing on a kala

Lintel above the north door: Krishna taming horses whilst standing on
kala/Lintel with pediment

79
80
 A red
sandstone fragment of a lintel with Krishna, with Krishna at center and his left arm
raised surrounded by leafy scrolls. With his hand raised to present his flat palm
upwards, it is likely this frieze represents the moment when Krishna lifts Mount
Govardhan to shield the villagers from the monsoon.
Khmer, Angkor period, Baphuon style, 11th century (45 cm high).

81
 KRISHNA IN ANGKOR

North Gallery, East Section: Krishna’s Victory over Banasura

The scenes depicted on the bas-relief carved on the eastern section of the north gallery
is based on Krishna’s Victory over Banasura story, which appears in Mahabharata and
Vishnu Purana. This story is about Krishna, who is an avatar of Vishnu, fighting Shiva
and becoming victorious. It is not a well-known story but chosen deliberately to show
the dominance of Vishnu because King Suryavarman II broke the Shaiva tradition of his
predecessors and made Vishnu the dominant god of the Hindu Trinity.

Legend of Banasura

According to the story, Banasura, an asura king with thousand arms, is an ardent
devotee of Shiva whom he tried to please by doing tapasu (austerity and meditation) for
many years. Pleased with his devotion, Shiva confers upon him with
many varas (boons), one of which was to be his ally in future fights. Once he gets
these varas, Banasura becomes arrogant and starts ill-treating his subjects. When his
daughter Usha reaches the marriageable age, many suitors approach her with an
intention to marry. Banasura gets angry at the suitors and builds a fortress called

82
Agnigraha (house of fire in Sanskrit) and imprisons her there to keep her away from
them.

Krishna riding Vishnu’s vehicle Garuda and fighting Banasura

83
Garuda entering Agnigraha (house of fire) built by Bansaura (The image shows Garuda
facing Agnigraha (house of fire) built by Bansaura to keep his daughter Usha.)

One day, Usha dreams of a young man and falls in love with him. When she mentions
this to her maid Chitraleka, who realizes that the young man is Aniruddha, one of the
grandsons of Krishna. Chitraleka with her superpowers summons Aniruddha to Usha’s
quarters. When he sees Usha, he falls in love with her too. Meanwhile, Banasura comes
to know of Aniruddha’s presence in Usha’s quarters. He captures and imprisons him.
When Krishna comes to know about his grandson’s imprisonment, he wages war
against Banasura. At the request of Banasura, Shiva keeps his promise and starts
fighting against Krishna. Realizing this, Krishna tricks Shiva by firing a weapon that puts
Shiva to sleep. Krishna then severs all but four arms of Banasura. Shiva then wakes up
and begs Krishna not to kill Banasura. Meanwhile, Banasura realizing his mistakes begs
forgiveness and allows his daughter to marry Aniruddha.

84
Baphuon bas-relief illustrating the legend of Krishna (second level, gopura II/N,
south face, east section)

Copyright
Statement=Palgen-Maissoneuve, Mimi, 1918-1995 (Photographer)

85
 VI

Krishna lifting Govardhan at ANGKOR

THE STORY OF SHRI KRISHNA LIFTING GOVARDHAN HILL

86
There is an interesting story in the Bhagwata and other Puranas about Shri Krishna
lifting the ‘Govardhan Parvat’ or Govardhan Hill when he was only a small child. The
story goes like this:

Once, when the elder people of Braj including Nanda Maharaj were planning for the
Puja of Lord Indra, Shri Krishna, a child then, questioned them as to why they were
doing so. Nanda Maharaj explained to Krishna that this was done every year to please
Lord Indra so that he continued to grace the people of Braj by providing rain as and
when required. But little Krishna debated that they were farmers and they should only
do their duty or ‘Karma’ to the best of their abilities, by concentrating on farming and
protecting their cattle, rather than performing pujas or conduct sacrifices like this for any
natural phenomenon. Finally convinced by Krishna, the villagers did not perform with
the puja.

Furious with the inhabitants of Braj for listening to the little child Krishna and
worshipping the Govardhan Hill instead of him, lndra, the King of Heaven, decided to
punish them by sending terrible rain clouds to flood the land of Vrindavan. Calling the
Samavartaka clouds of devastation, lndra ordered them to lash upon Vrindavan with
torrents of rain and thunderstorms and cause extensive floods that would destroy the
livelihood of the inhabitants.

87
As terrible rains and thunderstorms ravaged the land and submerged it under water, the
frightened and helpless inhabitants of Vrindavan approached Lord Krishna for help.
Krishna, who understood the situation perfectly well, lifted up the entire Govardhan Hill
at once with His left hand, and held it up like an umbrella. One by one all the inhabitants
of Vrindavan, along with their cows and other household possessions, took shelter
under Govardhan Hill. For seven days they stayed under the hill, safe from the terrible
rains and surprisingly undisturbed by hunger or thirst. They were also astounded to see
the huge Govardhan Hill resting perfectly balanced on Krishna’s little finger.

Stunned and mystified with the order of events, King Indra called back the clouds of
devastation, thus stopping the thunderstorms and the rains. The sky became clear
again and the sun shone brightly over Vrindavan. Little Krishna asked the inhabitants to
return home without any fear, and gently placed the Govardhan Hill back to exactly
where it was. All the inhabitants of Braj including Nanda Maharaj, Yasoda and Balarama
hailed Krishna and embraced Him with happiness.

This was how the false pride of King Indra was shattered to pieces. He came to Lord
Krishna with folded hands and prayed to Him for forgiveness. Shri Krishna, being the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, bestowed his grace on Indra and also enlightened
him about his ‘Dharma’ and duties.

Krishna in BAPHUON
TEMPLE
Built in the mid-11th century, it is a three-tiered temple mountain built as the state
temple of Udayadityavarman II dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. It is the archetype of
the Baphuon style with intricate carvings covering every available surface. The temple
adjoins the southern enclosure of the royal palace and measures 120 metres east-west
by 100 metres north-south at its base and stands 34 meters tall without its tower, which
would have made it roughly 50 meters tall. Its appearance apparently impressed Temür
Khan's late 13th century envoy Zhou Daguan during his visit from 1296 to 1297, who
said it was 'the Tower of Bronze...a truly astonishing spectacle, with more than ten
chambers at its base.'

In the late 15th century, the Baphuon was converted to a Buddhist temple. A 9-meter
tall by 70 meter long statue of a reclining Buddha was built on the west side's second
level, which probably required the demolition of the 8-meter tower above to supply
stones for the statue, thus explaining its current absence. The temple was built on land
filled with sand, and due to its immense size the site was unstable throughout its history.
Large portions had probably already collapsed by the time the Buddha was added.
Surrounded by a wall 125 by 425 m the central tower was probably gilded wood, which
has not survived.

88
By the 20th century, much of the temple had largely collapsed, and restoration efforts
took on an epic quality. A large-scale project to dismantle the temple so that its core
could be re-enforced before the whole is re-constructed again—a process known
as anastylosis—was abandoned after civil war broke out in 1970. The workers and
archaeologists were forced to leave 300,000 carefully labelled and numbered blocks
organized across 10 hectares surrounding the temple. However, the plans identifying
the pieces were lost during the decade of conflict and the Khmer Rouge that followed.
Krishna in Preah Vihear

Cambodia lays a temple of such splendor that it was finally selected as a World
Heritage monument by the World Heritage Committee in 2008. The architects who
planned and built Preah Vihear, but at the time of the temples construction Preah Vihear
was known as Shikhareshvara. Sahai’s extensive knowledge of temples built in India
reveals that this is the only temple where Lord Shiva is attributed to being the called
"Lord of the Peak". This said, the mystery of uncovering what this temple served within
the Khmer Empire takes on a new understanding to what exactly was the intent of
Shikhareshvara.

Krishna Subduing Kaliya

Each level of the temple was built on a North South axis, which classifies the temple as
an axial temple similar to Vat Phu and Phnom Rung. However, the temple may have
been considered from a much wider context suggesting that both East and West
developments of the temple also served the purposes of the temple priests and royal
monarchs. The depth of devotion which existed around Lord Shiva between the tenth
and twelfth centuries and how through analyzing the inscriptions one can also see how
the sacred foot prints of Lord Shiva were placed at key locations in the empire. This act

89
alone is the key referent to the holiness of the land which the high priest
Divakarapandita, the most powerful high priest at the royal court of Angkor, initiated
through the kindom and especially at Preah Vihear.

Krishna and his friend Balaram Angkor

Krishna Kills Two Enemies-Central Tower, south face-Angkor Wat

The enemies subdued by Krishna in this scene have not been definitely
identified. According to Roveda (p.212) they might be Canura and Mushtika
(two wrestlers sent to kill Krishna), or perhaps Madhu and Kaitabha (two
demons slain by Vishnu).

90
A naga head is also visible at the right side of the photo.

91
Krishna Kills Kansa. Bantey Sarei

A popular scene from the Mahabharata is depicted at Banteay Srei: Krishna and Arjuna
attempt to burn down the Kandhava forest, which was home to all sorts of evil
creatures. But Indra, the protector of the forest, sends down heavy rains to put out the
fire. Arjuna, the world’s most skilled archer, then shoots a barrage of arrows in the sky
to prevent any rain from hitting the ground. Afterward, Arjuna holds his own in a battle
against Indra, who, despite being a god, is actually Arjuna’s biological father!

92
 VII

KRISHNA, quincunx and the temple mountains of

Phnom Bakheng

How Hinduism reached S.E. Asian countries is a mystery that is speculated upon. Be as
it may, the Funan and Champa and then later on Khmer kingdoms from the time of
Jayavarman II were all steeped deep into Hinduism.

The concept of a holy mountain surrounded by various circles was incorporated into
ancient Hindu temple architecture with a Shikhara (Śikhara) — a Sanskrit word
translating literally to "mountain peak." Early examples of this style can be found at
the Harshat Mata Temple and Harshnath Temple from the 8th century CE
in Rajasthan, Western India. This concept also continued outside India, such as in Bali,
where temples feature Meru towers. Scholars believe that placing the temple on an
island in the middle of a body of water or nearby served to identify it symbolically
with Mount Meru, home of the gods, which in Hindu mythology is surrounded by the
world oceans.
Yasovarman I (889 - 910 A.D.): After succeeding the throne in 889 A.D, Yasovarman I
built a new Angkor capital called Yasodharapura, located not far away from Roluos on
the vast plain of Siemreap and about eight kilometers north of the the Great Lake Tonle
Sap. At the center of this capital was the Phnom Bakeng Hill on top of which a temple
was built with its galleries branching out in four directions to represent the heavenly
residence of Hindu gods with the central Mount Meru and the other four sacred peaks.
One of the earliest of the Temple Mountains and-quincunx
The Mountains that Reflet Mount Meru

Mount Mandara (Sanskrit: मन्दर, मन्दार; mandara, mandāra) is the name of the
mountain that appears in the Samudra manthan episode in the Hindu Puranas, where it
was used as a churning rod to churn the ocean of milk. Mahadev's serpent, Vasuki,
offered to serve as the rope pulled on one side by a team of asuras, and on the other,
by a team of devas. The Puranas refer to various sacred places on the hill that are also
believed to be the abode of god Krishna as Madhusudana or the destroyer of the
demon called Madhu who was killed by Krishna and then covered by the Mount
Mandara.
Some legends identify Mandar Parvat, a hill in Banka district (near Bhagalpur district) in
Bihar with Mount Mandara. The Mandar Parvat has the sculpture of what is believed to
be of Demon Madhu.
Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava refers to foot marks of Lord Vishnu on the slopes of
Mandara. The hill is replete with relics of bygone ages. Besides inscriptions and statues
there are numerous rock cut sculptures depicting various Brahmanical images. The hill

93
is equally revered by the Jains who believe that their
12th Tirthankara Shri Vasupujya attained nirvana here on the summit of the hill.

Mandar Parvat
The depiction of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk became very popular in Khmer art,
perhaps because their creation myth involved a Nāga ancestor. It is a popular motif in
both Khmer and Thai art; one of the most dramatic depictions is one of the eight friezes
that can be seen around the inner wall of Angkor Wat--the others being the Battle
of Kurukshetra, Suryavarman's Military Review, scenes from Heaven and Hell, the
battle between Vishnu and the asuras, the Battle between Krishna and Banasura, a
battle between the gods and asuras, and the Battle of Lanka.The Mount Olympus of the
Hindu gods and goddesses, Mount Meru, or sometimes Mandara, is, according to the
Mahabharata, a golden mass of intense energy. It is the axis mundi, the world center.

94
THE STORY OF SHRI KRISHNA LIFTING GOVARDHAN HILL

There is an interesting story in the Bhagwata and other Puranas about Shri Krishna
lifting the ‘Govardhan Parvat’ or Govardhan Hill when he was only a small child. The
story goes like this:

Once, when the elder people of Braj including Nanda Maharaj were planning for the
Puja of Lord Indra, Shri Krishna, a child then, questioned them as to why they were
doing so. Nanda Maharaj explained to Krishna that this was done every year to please
Lord Indra so that he continued to grace the people of Braj by providing rain as and
when required. But little Krishna debated that they were farmers and they should only
do their duty or ‘Karma’ to the best of their abilities, by concentrating on farming and
protecting their cattle, rather than performing pujas or conduct sacrifices like this for any
natural phenomenon. Finally convinced by Krishna, the villagers did not perform with
the puja.

Furious with the inhabitants of Braj for listening to the little child Krishna and
worshipping the Govardhan Hill instead of him, lndra, the King of Heaven, decided to
punish them by sending terrible rain clouds to flood the land of Vrindavan. Calling the
Samavartaka clouds of devastation, lndra ordered them to lash upon Vrindavan with
torrents of rain and thunderstorms and cause extensive floods that would destroy the
livelihood of the inhabitants.

As terrible rains and thunderstorms ravaged the land and submerged it under water, the
frightened and helpless inhabitants of Vrindavan approached Lord Krishna for help.
Krishna, who understood the situation perfectly well, lifted up the entire Govardhan Hill
at once with His left hand, and held it up like an umbrella. One by one all the inhabitants
of Vrindavan, along with their cows and other household possessions, took shelter

95
under Govardhan Hill. For seven days they stayed under the hill, safe from the terrible
rains and surprisingly undisturbed by hunger or thirst. They were also astounded to see
the huge Govardhan Hill resting perfectly balanced on Krishna’s little finger.

Stunned and mystified with the order of events, King Indra called back the clouds of
devastation, thus stopping the thunderstorms and the rains. The sky became clear
again and the sun shone brightly over Vrindavan. Little Krishna asked the inhabitants to
return home without any fear, and gently placed the Govardhan Hill back to exactly
where it was. All the inhabitants of Braj including Nanda Maharaj, Yasoda and Balarama
hailed Krishna and embraced Him with happiness.

This was how the false pride of King Indra was shattered to pieces. He came to Lord
Krishna with folded hands and prayed to Him for forgiveness. Shri Krishna, being the
Supreme Personality of Godhead, bestowed his grace on Indra and also enlightened
him about his ‘Dharma’ and duties.

Sonya Rhie Mace and Bertrand Porte in their book Revealing Krishna: Essays on the
History, Context, and Conservation of Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan from Phnom Da
2021 talk about an over life-size sculpture of Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, in one
of the earliest sculptural representations from Cambodia. The sculpture depicts him
lifting Mount Govardhan. Dating from c 600 CE, it is a depictions of the story of Krishna
and the mountain in the art of India and Southeast Asia. It is a reference to images of
the ideal ruler, protector of the realm, and clan hero. It has been installed in the cave
sanctuary of Angkor Borei amid the delta floodplains, and its connections with the
nearby royal center..

In 1973, the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) acquired a fragmentary masterpiece of

pre-Angkorian Khmer sculpture of Krishna Govardhana. Carved from a monolithic block

96
of sandstone about 1,500 years ago, it depicts the young Hindu god Krishna in the
superhuman act of holding aloft a low mountain. It comes from a cave at the top of a
small granite outcrop, Phnom Da (Stone Mountain), in southern Cambodia near the
ancient capital of Angkor Borei.

The Sanctuaries of Phnom Da

The sanctuaries of Phnom Da are recorded as the earliest monumental Hindu temple
complex in Cambodia from surviving Khmer and Sanskrit inscriptions during the reign of
King Rudravarman (514-539). The site also houses the earliest surviving Khmer stone
temple dating to the 6th century. The caves on Phnom Da seem to have been first
visited in the 1880s by a French civil servant. The next record comes from the
archaeologist Henri Parmentier (1871-1949) of the École française d’Extrême-Orient
(EFEO) in the report of his visit in June 1911.

The extensive sculptural finds from Angkor Borei and the nearby sacred sites of Phnom
Da depict a wide range of Hindu and Buddhist imagery, probably based on descriptions
in texts brought from India with Hindu priests and Buddhist monks. Sandstone as a
medium for sculpture rose to prominence in the 500s, and within a century, Cambodian
artists in Angkor Borei developed exceptional stone-carving skills and a local style
widely celebrated for its power and sensitivity.

Adolphe Stoclet and Khmer Art

However, this particular story begins in 1920 with Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949) and his
wife Suzanne. They purchased many Khmer fragments, including the limbless head and
torso section of a Krishna Govardhana sculpture from Phnom Da, as part of the frenzy
of collecting to fill their new grand residence in Brussels, designed by Josef Hoffman
and the Wiener Werkstatte. By 1937, many more Khmer fragments entered the Stoclet
Collection via a French architect and conservator, Henri Mauger, who was then working
in Cambodia, including what has become CMA’s Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan.

Installed in their mansion, the Stoclet Palace, it achieved renown throughout the art
world as a masterpiece of early Cambodian art. In 1935, Henri Mauger (1903-?) of the
(EFEO) found 14 further sandstone fragments of arms, legs, feet, and a hand near the
caves on Phnom Da. Believing that they included the pieces to complete their statue,
the Stoclets arranged for the fragments to be shipped to Brussels. Dissatisfied with the
appearance after multiple attempts to attach limb fragments to the torso at the home of
their neighbour, sculptor Marcel Wolfers (1886-1976), the Stoclets abandoned the
project. When new owners moved into the Wolfers’s villa, they used the stone
fragments to support a new underground cistern and to edge the flower bed, where they
remained unnoticed until the 1970s.

The Cleveland Krishna

Back in the US, in 1973, the Cleveland Museum of Art purchased the head and torso
section of the Krishna Govardhana sculpture from the Stoclet estate. The Cleveland
Krishna, an incarnation of Vishnu, is believed to be from a cave temple halfway up the

97
northern slope of Phnom Da and is one of the five two-armed heroic figures of Phnom
Da and one of two depicting his elevation of Mount Govardhan

Four years later, CMA curator Stanislaw Czuma managed to locate the buried
fragments and transfer them to Cleveland. Conservators used eight of the pieces to
create as complete a figure of the Krishna Govardhana as possible, and this elegantly
restored sculpture was a centrepiece in the CMA galleries for nearly 40 years. In 2005,
the Cleveland Museum of Art transferred the nine unused pieces to the National
Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh. Conservators there attached six of the pieces to
another limbless Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan figure that was brought from Phnom
Da in 1944.

From 2014 to 2018, following increased communications between curators and

conservators in Cleveland and Phnom Penh, Bertrand Porte with the EFEO and SOK
Soda of the National Museum of Cambodia recognised that the disposition of the
fragments required further adjustments. Using 3-D modelling, CT scanning, and
extensive analysis of stone samples, a team of scholars and specialists from Cambodia,
France, and the US worked cooperatively to determine which fragments belonged with
which sculpture.

This latest exhibition aims to reveal the context, history, and myth of the Cleveland
Krishna Govardhana as understood today. Four digital galleries present the riverine
landscape where it was made, its global travels and restorations – and life-size three-
dimensional projections of all eight monumental stone sculptures from Phnom Da, and
the role of geopolitics and museums in their discovery and conservation are in the
show. In two sculpture galleries, the Cleveland Krishna is reunited with
contemporaneous works from the same region for the first time in centuries (there are
eight main sculptures and main sanctuaries at Phnom Da).

As revealed in these many years of examination, two of the pieces that were in Phnom
Penh actually belonged with the Cleveland Krishna, and six of the pieces that were in
Cleveland belonged to the Phnom Penh Krishna. Cleveland conservators then
completed the arduous, delicate process of disassembling the 1978/79 restoration.

In 2020, the unprecedented exchange of sculptural fragments between the US and the
Cambodia led to the latest reconstruction of both Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan
sculptures in 2021. Though neither sculpture is complete, they are now reunited with
their correct fragments.

98
Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan, circa 600, after 2020 restoration,
Southern Cambodia, Takeo Province, Phnom Da, sandstone, overall
203.1 x 68 x 55.5 cm, The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L Severance
Fund 1973

Krishna of Cambodia in the Cleaveland Museum of Art before its relocation to

Cambodia

99
 HTTPS://ASIANARTNEWSPAPER.COM/KRISHNA-
GOVARDHANA-JOURNEY-TO-CAMBODIA/
The above discoveries show that the concept of Mountains as vehicles to represent the
Hindu Gods, Vishnu and his incarnation KRISHNA was well entranched in the domain
of Hinduism as practiced in the Khmer Empire and its antecedents.
Phnom Bakheng or Prasat Phnum Bakhêng as Mount Mandara and Govardhan
Phnom Bakheng or Prasat Phnum Bakhêng, is a Hindu and Buddhist temple in the
form of a temple mountain in Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. Dedicated to Shiva, it
was built at the end of the 9th century, during the reign of King Yasovarman (889-910).
Located atop a hill, it is nowadays a popular tourist spot for sunset views of the much
bigger temple Angkor Wat, which lies amid the jungle about 1.5 km to the southeast.
The large number of visitors makes Phnom Bakheng one of the most threatened
monuments of Angkor. Since 2004, World Monuments Fund has been working to
conserve the temple in partnership with APSARA.
Constructed more than two centuries before Angkor Wat, Phnom Bakheng was in its
day the principal temple of the Angkor region, historians believe. It was the architectural
centerpiece of a new capital, Yasodharapura, that Yasovarman built when he moved
the court from the capital Hariharalaya in the Roluos area located to the southeast.
An inscription dated 1052 AD and found at the Sdok Kak Thom temple in present-
day Thailand states in Sanskrit: "When Sri Yasovardhana became king under the name
of Yasovarman, the able Vamasiva continued as his guru. By the king's order, he set up
a linga on Sri Yasodharagiri, a mountain equal in beauty to the king of mountains.”
Scholars believe that this passage refers to the consecration of the Phnom Bakheng
temple approximately a century and a half earlier.Phnom Bakheng is one of 3 hilltop
temples in the Angkor region that are attributed to Yasovarman's reign. The other two
are Phnom Krom to the south near the Tonle Sap lake, and Phnom Bok, northeast of
the East Baray reservoir.
Surrounding the mount and temple, labor teams built an outer moat. Avenues radiated
out in the four cardinal directions from the mount. A causeway ran in a northwest–
southeast orientation from the old capital area to the east section of the new capital's
outer moat and then, turning to an east–west orientation, connected directly to the east
entrance of the temple.
Phnom Bakheng is a symbolic representation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods,
a status emphasized by the temple's location atop a steep hill 65 m above the
surrounding plain. The temple is built in a pyramid form of seven levels, representing
the seven heavens.
At the top level, five sandstone sanctuaries, in various states of repair, stand in
a quincunx pattern—one in the center and one at each corner of the level's square.
Originally, 108 small towers were arrayed around the temple at ground level and on
various of its tiers; most of them have collapsed. A quincunx (/ˈkwɪn.kʌŋks/) is
a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them

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forming a square or rectangle and a fifth at its center. It forms the arrangement of five
units in the pattern corresponding to the five-spot on six-sided dice, playing cards,
and dominoes. It is represented in Unicode as U+2059 ⁙ FIVE DOT PUNCTUATION or
(for the die pattern) U+2684 ⚄ DIE FACE-5.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------https://www.wmf.org/
sites/default/files/article/pdfs/Phnom_Bakheng_Conservation_Master_Plan_Vol_1.pdf
ORIGIN

A quincunx coin////Portuguese shield

The quincunx was originally a coin issued by the Roman Republic c. 211–200 BC,
whose value was five twelfths (quinque and uncia) of an as, the Roman
standard bronze coin. On the Roman quincunx coins, the value was sometimes
indicated by a pattern of five dots or pellets. However, these dots were not always
arranged in a quincunx pattern.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) dates the first appearances of the Latin word in
English as 1545 and 1574 ("in the sense 'five-twelfths of a pound or as'"; i.e. 100 old
pence). The first citation for a geometric meaning, as "a pattern used for planting trees",
dates from 1606. The OED also cites a 1647 reference to the German
astronomer Kepler for an astronomical/astrological meaning, an angle of 5/12 of a
whole circle. Jackson (1821) states that the word refers to the pattern of trees in an
orchard, but then uses it more abstractly for a version of the orchard-planting
problem involving patterns of points and lines in the plane (for which the quincunx
pattern provides the optimal solution for five points).

Quincunx patterns occur in many contexts:

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The flag of the Solomon Islands features a quincunx of stars./A quincuncial
map/12th-century Cosmatesque mosaic in the Cappella Palatina, Palermo, Sicily

Drawn by Timothy M Ciccone following Claude Jacques, Michael Freeman, and

Jean Laur.of thr Bakeng

Phnom Bakheng as a quincunx

 In heraldry, groups of five elements (charges) are often arranged in a quincunx

pattern, called in saltire in heraldic terminology. The flag of the Solomon
Islands features this pattern, with its five stars representing the five main island
groups in the Solomon Islands. Another instance of this pattern occurred in the flag

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 of the 19th-century Republic of Yucatán, where it signified the five departments into
which the republic was divided.
 Quincunxes are used in modern computer graphics as a pattern for multisample
anti-aliasing. Quincunx antialiasing samples scenes at the corners and centers of
each pixel. These five sample points, in the shape of a quincunx, are combined to
produce each displayed pixel. However, samples at the corner points are shared
with adjacent pixels, so the number of samples needed is only twice the number of
displayed pixels.
 In numerical analysis, the quincunx pattern describes the two-dimensional five-point
stencil, a sampling pattern used to derive finite difference approximations
to derivatives.
 In architecture, a quincuncial plan, also defined as a "cross-in-square", is the plan of
an edifice composed of nine bays. The central and the four angular ones are
covered with domes or groin vaults so that the pattern of these domes forms a
quincunx; the other four bays are surmounted by barrel vaults. In Khmer
architecture, the towers of a temple, such as Angkor Wat, are sometimes arranged
in a quincunx to represent the five peaks of Mount Meru
 A quincunx is one of the quintessential designs of Cosmatesque inlay stonework.
 A quincuncial map is a conformal map projection that maps the poles of the sphere
to the centre and four corners of a square, thus forming a quincunx.
 The points on each face of a unit cell of a face-centred cubic lattice form a quincunx.
 The quincunx as a tattoo is known as the five dots tattoo. It has been variously
interpreted as a fertility symbol, a reminder of sayings on how to treat women or
police, a recognition symbol among the Romani people, a group of close
friends, standing alone in the world, or time spent in prison (with the outer four dots
representing the prison walls and the inner dot representing the prisoner). Thomas
Edison, whose many inventions included an electric pen which later became the
basis of a tattooing machine created by Samuel O'Reilly, had this pattern tattooed
on his forearm.
 The first two stages of the Saturn V super heavy-lift rocket had engines in a
quincunx arrangement.
 A baseball diamond forms a quincunx with the four bases and the pitcher's mound.
 Early African American scientist Benjamin Banneker describes a dream in which he
is asked to measure the shape of the soul after death. The answer is "quincunx".
Research locates his ancestry in Senegal, where the quincunx is a common
religious symbol.
 Place des Quinconces in Bordeaux, France, one of the largest public squares in
Europe, is named for its trees, which were formerly arranged in quincunx patterns.
Various literary works use or refer to the quincunx pattern for its symbolic value:
 The English physician Sir Thomas Browne in his philosophical discourse The
Garden of Cyrus (1658) elaborates upon evidence of the quincunx pattern in art,
nature and mystically as evidence of "the wisdom of God". Although Browne wrote
about quincunx in its geometric meaning, he may have been influenced by
English astrology, as the astrological meaning of "quincunx" (unrelated to the
pattern) was introduced by the astronomer Kepler in 1604.

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 James Joyce uses the term in "Grace", a short story in Dubliners of 1914, to
describe the seating arrangement of five men in a church service. Lobnerargues that
in this context the pattern serves as a symbol both of the wounds of Christ and of
the Greek cross.

 Lawrence Durrell's novel sequence The Avignon Quintet is arranged in the form of a
quincunx, according to the author; the final novel in the sequence is called Quinx,
the plot of which includes the discovery of a quincunx of stones.

 The Quincunx is the title of a lengthy and elaborate novel by Charles Palliser set in
19th-century England, published in 1989; the pattern appears in the text as
a heraldic device, and is also reflected in the structure of the book.

 In the first chapter of The Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald's narrator cites Browne's
writing on the quincunx. The quincunx in turn becomes a model for the way in which
the rest of the novel unfolds.

 Séamus Heaney describes Ireland's historical provinces as together forming a

quincunx, as the Irish word for province cúige (literally: "fifth part") also explicates.
The five provinces of Ireland
were Ulster (north), Leinster (east), Connacht (west), Munster (south)
and Meath (center, and now a county within Leinster). More specifically, in his
essay Frontiers of Writing, Heaney creates an image of five towers forming a
quincunx pattern within Ireland, one tower for each of the five provinces, each
having literary significance.

 The Polish historian Feliks Koneczny used the term 'quincunx' to describe five
categories of human life which define civilisations, these categories
including truth and good on the spiritual side, well-being and health on the physical
side and beauty encompassing both sides.

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Bhutanese thangka of Mount Meru and the Buddhist universe, 19th century, Trongsa
Dzong, Trongsa, Bhutan//The MahaBodhi Temple, a famous Buddhist temple
at Bodhgaya, India, representing Mount Meru
Mount Meru : मेरु, also recognized as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred
five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be
the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.
Many famous Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples have been built as symbolic
representations of this mountain. The "Sumeru Throne" 須彌座 xūmízuò style base is a
common feature of Chinese pagodas. The highest point (the finial bud) on the pyatthat,
a Burmese-style multi-tiered roof, represents Mount Meru.
Etymologically, the proper name of the mountain is Meru (Pāli Meru), to which is added
the approbatory prefix su-, resulting in the meaning "excellent Meru" or "wonderful
Meru". Meru is also the name of the central bead in a mālā.
In other languages, Mount Meru is pronounced:

1. Burmese: ([mjɪ̰ ɴ mò tàʊɰ̃ ])

2. Chinese: 須彌山 (Xūmíshān)
3. Japanese: 須弥山 (Shumisen)
4. Javanese: ꦱꦼꦩꦺꦫꦸ (Semeru)
5. Kannada: ಮೇರು ಪರ್ವತ
6. Khmer: ភ្នំព្រះសុមេរុ (Phnom Preah Someru) or (Phnom Preah Somae)
7. Korean: 수미산 (Sumisan)
8. Malayalam: മഹാമേരു പർവ്വതം (Mahameru Parvatham)
9. Pāli: Sineru
10. Tamil: மகா மேரு மலை

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 11. Telugu: మేరు పర్వతం
12. Tibetan: ཪི་རྒྱལ་པོ་རི་རབ་
13. Thai: เขาพระสุเมรุ (Khao phra sumen)
14. Vietnamese: Núi Tu-di

GEOGRAPHY; The dimensions attributed to Mount Meru — which all refer to it as a

part of the Cosmic Ocean, along with several other statements that describe it in
geographically vague terms (e.g., "the Sun along with all the planets circle the
mountain") — make the determination of its location most difficult, according to most
scholars.
Some researchers identify Mount Meru or Sumeru with the Pamirs, northwest
of Kashmir.
The Suryasiddhanta mentions that Mt. Meru lies in the middle of the Earth ("bhuva-
madhya") in the land of the Jambunad (Jampudvīpa). Narapatijayacharyasvarodaya, a
ninth-century text, based on mostly unpublished texts of Yāmal Tantr, mentions:
"Sumeruḥ Prithvī-madhye shrūyate drishyate na tu"
(Su-meru is heard to be in the middle of the Earth, but is not seen there).
Several versions of cosmology can be found in existing Hindu texts. In one of them,
cosmologically, the Meru mountain was also described as being surrounded by
Mandrachala Mountain to the east, Suparshva Mountain to the west, Kumuda Mountain
to the north and Kailasa to the south

Yuan dynasty 1271–1368) Chinese mandala depicting Mount Meru as an

inverted pyramid topped by a lotus.
According to Buddhist cosmology, Mount Meru (or Sumeru) is at the centre of the
world, and Jambūdvīpa is south of it. It is 80,000 yojanas wide and 80,000 yojanas high
according to the Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam and 84,000 yojanas high according to
the Long Āgama Sutra. Trāyastriṃśa is on its peak, where Śakra resides. The Sun and
the Moon revolve around Mount Meru, and as the Sun passes behind it, it becomes
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nighttime. The mountain has four faces — each one made of a different material; the
northern face is made of gold, the eastern one is made of crystal, the southern one is
made of lapis lazuli, and the western one is made of ruby.
According to Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam (philosophical writings), Sumeru
is 80,000 yojanas tall. The exact measure of one yojana is uncertain, but some
accounts put it at about 24,000 feet, or approximately 4-1/2 miles, but other accounts
put it at about 7-9 miles. It also descends beneath the surface of the surrounding waters
to a depth of 80,000 yojanas, being founded upon the basal layer of Earth. Sumeru is
often used as a simile for both size and stability in Buddhist texts.
Sumeru is said to be shaped like an hourglass, with a top and base of 80,000 yojanas
square, but narrowing in the middle (i.e., at a height of 40,000 yojanas) to 20,000
yojanas square.
Sumeru is the polar center of a mandala-like complex of seas and mountains. The
square base of Sumeru is surrounded by a square moat-like ocean, which is in turn
surrounded by a ring (or rather square) wall of mountains, which is in turn surrounded
by a sea, each diminishing in width and height from the one closer to Sumeru. There
are seven seas and seven surrounding mountain-walls, until one comes to the vast
outer sea which forms most of the surface of the world, in which the known continents
are merely small islands. The known world, which is on the continent of Jambudvipa, is
directly south of Sumeru.
The dimensions stated in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam are shown in the table below:

Name Width Height/Depth

80,000
Sumeru (Sineru) mountain 80,000 yojanas
yojanas

80,000
Sea 80,000 yojanas
yojanas

40,000
Yugandhara mountains 40,000 yojanas
yojanas

40,000
Sea 40,000 yojanas
yojanas

Iṣadhara (Isadhara) mountains 20,000 20,000 yojanas

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 yojanas

20,000
Sea 20,000 yojanas
yojanas

10,000
Khadiraka (Karavīka) mountains 10,000 yojanas
yojanas

10,000
Sea 10,000 yojanas
yojanas

Sudarśana (Sudassana) mountains 5,000 yojanas 5,000 yojanas

Sea 5,000 yojanas 5,000 yojanas

Aśvakarṇa (Assakaṇṇa) mountains 2,500 yojanas 2,500 yojanas

Sea 2,500 yojanas 2,500 yojanas

Vinadhara (Vinataka) mountains 1,250 yojanas 1,250 yojanas

Sea 1,250 yojanas 1,250 yojanas

Nimindhara (Nemindhara)
625 yojanas 625 yojanas
mountains

32,000
Outer Sea relatively shallow
yojanas

312.5 yojanas 312.5 yojanas

Cakravāḍa (Cakkavāḷa) mountains

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 (circular edge of the world)

The 80,000 yojana square top of Sumeru constitutes the Trāyastriṃśa "heaven"
(devaloka), which is the highest plane in direct physical contact with the earth. The next
40,000 yojanas below this heaven consist of sheer precipice, narrowing in like an
inverted mountain until it is 20,000 yojanas square at a heigh of 40,000 yojanas above
the sea.
From this point Sumeru expands again, going down in four terraced ledges, each
broader than the one above. The first terrace constitutes the "heaven" of the Four Great
Kings and is divided into four parts, facing north, south, east and west. Each section is
governed by one of the Four Great Kings, who faces outward toward the quarter of the
world that he supervises.
40,000 yojanas is also the height at which the Sun and Moon circle Sumeru in a
clockwise direction. This rotation explains the alteration of day and night; when the Sun
is north of Sumeru, the shadow of the mountain is cast over the continent of
Jambudvīpa, and it is night there; at the same time it is noon in the opposing northern
continent of Uttarakuru, dawn in the eastern continent of Pūrvavideha, and dusk in the
western continent of Aparagodānīya. Half a day later, when the Sun has moved to the
south, it is noon in Jambudvīpa, dusk in Pūrvavideha, dawn in Aparagodānīya, and
midnight in Uttarakuru.
The next three terraces down the slopes of Sumeru are each longer and broader by a
factor of two. They contain the followers of the Four Great Kings,
namely nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, and kumbhāṇḍas.
The names and dimensions of the terraces on the lower slopes of Sumeru are given
below:

Height above the

Name Breadth Length (on one side)
sea

Cāturmahārājik
40,000 yojanas 2,000 yojanas 24,000 yojanas
a

Sadāmada 30,000 yojanas 4,000 yojanas 32,000 yojanas

Mālādhara 20,000 yojanas 8,000 yojanas 48,000 yojanas

Karoṭapāni 10,000 yojanas 16,000 80,000 yojanas

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 yojanas

Below Sumeru, in the seas around it, is the abode of the Asuras who are at war with
the Trāyastriṃśa gods.
Certain traditional Buddhist ideas about the world are incompatible with modern science
and have been abandoned by numerous modern Buddhists. One of the most well
known of these ideas is Mount Meru. According to Donald S. Lopez Jr., "the human
realm that Buddhist texts describe is a flat earth, or perhaps more accurately a flat
ocean, its waters contained by a ring of iron mountains. In that ocean is a great central
mountain, surrounded in the four cardinal directions by island continents."
As Lopez notes, as early as the 18th century, Buddhist scholars like Tominaga
Nakamoto (1715–1746) began to question this classical Buddhist cosmography, holding
that they were adopted by the Buddha from Indian theories, but that they were
incidental and thus not at the heart of Buddha's teaching. While some traditional
Buddhists did defend the traditional cosmology, others like Shimaji Mokurai (1838–
1911) argued that it was not foundational to Buddhism and was merely an element of
Indian mythology. Others like Kimura Taiken (1881–1930), went further and argued that
this traditional cosmography was not part of original Buddhism.

In Vajrayāna, maṇḍala offerings often include Mount Meru, as they in part represent the
entire universe.It is also believed that Mount Meru is the home of
the buddha Cakrasaṃvara

Tibetan Cakrasaṃvara sand mandala with Mount Meru in the centre. /

Tibetan Buddhist embroidery representing Mount Sumeru.

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 Hindu cosmology

The cosmic tortoise, and Mount Meru

Mount Meru of Hindu traditions is described as 84,000 yojanas high, about
1,082,000 km (672,000 mi), which would be 85 times the Earth's diameter. The Sun,
along with all the planets in the Solar System, revolve around Mt. Meru as one unit.
One yojana can be taken to mean about 11.5 km (9 miles), though its magnitude seems
to differ over time periods — e.g., the Earth's circumference is 3,200 yojanas according
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to Varahamihira and slightly less so in the Aryabhatiya, but is said to be 5,026.5 yojanas
in the Suryasiddhānta. The Matsya Purana and the Bhagvata Purana, along with some
other Hindu texts, consistently give the height of 84,000 yojanas to Mount Meru, which
translates into 672,000 miles or 1,082,000 kilometers.
Mount Meru was said to be the residence of King Padamja Brahma in antiquity.
According to Charles Allen, Mount Kailash is identified with Mount Meru. One
description in the Vishnu Purana of the mountain states that its four faces are made
of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis lazuli.[23] It is a pillar of the world and is located at the
heart of six mountain ranges symbolizing a lotus.[23]

Javanese Legends: This mythical mountain of gods was mentioned in the Tantu
Pagelaran, an Old Javanese manuscript written in the 15th-century Majapahit period.
The manuscript describes the mythical origin of the island of Java, as well as the
legendary movement of portions of Mount Meru to Java. The manuscript explains that
Batara Guru (Shiva) ordered the gods Brahma and Vishnu to fill Java with human
beings. However, at that time, Java island was floating freely on the ocean, always
tumbling and shaking. To stop the island's movement, the gods decided to nail it to the
Earth by moving the part of Mahameru in Jambudvipa (India) and attaching it to
Java. The resulting mountain is Mount Semeru, the tallest mountain on Java.
Mount Semeru, a large active volcano on Java, is named after the mount.

The five central towers of Angkor Wat, before a Hindu and later a Buddhist temple
in Siem Reap, Cambodia, symbolize the peaks of Mount Meru.

Architectural Element of Mount Meru

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The concept of a holy mountain surrounded by various circles was incorporated into
ancient Hindu temple architecture with a Shikhara (Śikhara) — a Sanskrit word
translating literally to "mountain peak." Early examples of this style can be found at
the Harshat Mata Temple and Harshnath Temple from the 8th century CE
in Rajasthan, Western India. This concept also continued outside India, such as in Bali,
where temples feature Meru towers.
In Buddhist temples, the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya is the earliest example of the
5th- to 6th-century depiction. Many other Buddhist temples took on this form, such as
the Wat Arun in Thailand and the Hsinbyume Pagoda in Myanmar.

1. Prang of Wat Phutthaisawan, a Buddhist temple in Samphao Lom, Thailand,

representing Mount Meru
2. A Buddhist prang in Wat Arun, Bangkok, representing Mount Sumeru
3. Hsinbyume Pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar, representing Mount Sumeru
4. The meru of Pura Ulun Danu Bratan is dedicated to Shiva and his
consort Parvathi

Depiction of Mount Meru at Jambudweep, a Jain temple in Uttar Pradesh

Jean Filliozat of the Ecole Francaise, a leading western authority on Indian cosmology
and astronomy, interpreted the symbolism of the temple. The temple sits on a
rectangular base and rises in five levels and is crowned by five main towers. One
hundred four smaller towers are distributed over the lower four levels, placed so
symmetrically that only 33 can be seen from the center of any side. Thirty-three is the

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number of gods who dwelt on Mount Meru. Phnom Bakheng's total number of towers is
also significant. The center one represents the axis of the world and the 108 smaller
ones represent the four lunar phases, each with 27 days. The seven levels of the
monument represent the seven heavens and each terrace contains 12 towers which
represent the 12-year cycle of Jupiter. According to University of Chicago scholar Paul
Wheatley, it is "an astronomical calendar in stone."[
Following Angkor's rediscovery by the outside world in the mid-19th century, decades
passed before archeologists grasped Phnom Bakheng's historical significance. For
many years, scholars' consensus view was that the Bayon, the temple located at the
center of Angkor Thom city, was the edifice to which the Sdok Kak Thom inscription
referred. Later work identified the Bayon as a Buddhist site, built almost three centuries
later than originally thought, in the late 12th century, and Phnom Bakheng as King
Yasovarman's state temple
Sun set of Phnom Bakheng
The view of the Angkor Wat from the top of Phnom Bakheng is featured in the movie
Tomb Raider (when Lara Croft looks through the binoculars upon arriving in Cambodia).

Phnom Bakheng/Angkor Wat seen from Phnom Bakheng at sunset

1. General view
2. Upper terrace

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 3. Stone tower and Angkor Wat far afield

Bas-relief in Phnom Bakheng

What was Phnom bakheng used for?

Phnom Bakheng is a symbolic representation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu

gods, a status emphasized by the temple's location atop a steep hill 65 m above the
surrounding plain. The temple is built in a pyramid form of seven levels, representing
the seven heavens. Who built bakheng?

King Yasovarman
It is possible to see: the five towers of Angkor Wat in the west, Phnom Krom to the
southwest near the Grand Lake, Phnom Bok in the northeast, Phnom Kulen in the east,
and the West Baray. Phnom Bakheng was built in late ninth to early tenth century
by King Yasovarman dedicated to Siva (Hindi). Why is Prasat kravan unusual?

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Kravan is an unusual arrangement of five towers in a row on one terrace. They are
built of brick; the lintels and columns are of sandstone. This is the only tower with
recessed tiers intact, which are visible on the interior. The columns are octagonal, with
four bare sides and sandstone rings.

Phnom Bakheng (Bhnaṃ Pākhaeṅ):

These sources of the inscriptions have indicated the place name vakoṅ, which is
located around the Siem Reap province, and possibly make sense with regard to the
origin of the modern name Bakong. On the other hand, the old Khmer place name
vakoṅ is now still the name of the village near the Bakong temple, namely “Phum
Vakong.” This temple, which not long ago was called by the local inhabitants “Bayon,”
has the same name as the Bayon located at the center of Angkor Thom.

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In sum, the modern name of Phnom Bakheng used to be Vnaṃ Kanṭāl (Phnom Kandal,
Central Mountain) in the ancient period, which mountain was located in the center of
Yaśodharapura (the city of Yaśovarman). It was also called Yaśodharagiri (the mountain
of Yaśovarman) wherein was installed the linga on the top of the mountain, named
Yaśodhareśvara (the lord of king Yaśovarman).
Hence, the meaning of the modern name Bakheng has the same sense as installing the
Royal Linga,and it means “force, power, or the male reproductive organ.” It was also a
symbol of the king’s power at that time.
This temple is located on the top of the natural mountain ‘Phnom Bakheng,’ along the
road between Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. It was built in the beginning of the 10th
century, during the reign of king Yashovarman I, who accepted Brahmanism under the
posthumous name Paramaśivaloka.
The present name of Bakheng is a Khmer word meaning “force, or power,” and it also
means the “male reproductive organ that is effective.” Perhaps this word indicates the
Shiva Linga, which was adapted by the local people in memory of the 10th century royal
Linga of Yaśodharapura, namely Yaśodhareśvara (the lord of Yaśovarman).

The word “Kheng, or Khaeṅ” has rarely been used in the Khmer language, but it is
currently used in the Thai language. However, the word Kheng is found in the Khmer
Rāmakerti, in the scene of the giant Kūkhan, “ri Kūkhan khaeṅ mohhimā rūp rū
pabbatā”, “Kūkhan force, colossal, form similar to a mountain…” and “khluon khloh
khlāmṅ kheṅ beñ bāl, “youthful, force, power.” Bakheng could be equivalent to the old
Khmer vraḥ kheṅ, if the two particles braḥ and pā are interchanged for writing as place
names. We can say that braḥ which is equivalent to pā, indicates a sacred vocabulary,
and it could be equal to the word “khaeṅ”, or it may have the meaning of the Linga.

There are several names of Phnom Bakheng in the ancient period, which are found in
the inscriptions. In the inscription of Sdok Kak Thom, it is clearly affirmed that
Yaśodharapura (the name of the ancient city of Angkor) was established on the top of
Phnom Bakheng by the king Yashovarman I (889-910 AD). The name of this mountain
was also Yaśodharagiri (mountain ofYaśovarman), Indrādri, and Madhyādri in the 12th
century, and it was also called by the old Khmer name Vnaṃ Kanṭāl (central mountain).

The inscription of Sdok Kak Thom mentioned the following: “ … vraḥ pāda
paramaśivaloka oy vraḥ liṅga dvihasta saṃnal=ti sthāpanā āy vnaṃ kanṭāl gi [t]i
sthāpanā āy bhadrapattana… which mean “The majesty king-Paramashivaloka gives
(him) two cubits high of unused (stone) from construction at Vnaṃ Kanṭāl for
establishing royal Linga at Bhadrapattana.” Paramashivaloka established the royal city
of Śri Yaśodharapura, and took the Devarāja from Hariharālaya to this city, and he
subsequently established the Vnaṃ Kanṭāl (Central Mountain) and installed a Linga in
the center.56 The Phnom Bakheng inscription, K. 684,57 informs us of the purchase of
a piece of land for two people (loñ) who were the devotees (pādamūla) of Vnaṃ Kanṭāl:
“ (8) loñ prāṇa pādamūla kamrateṅ (9) jagat vnaṃ kanṭāl ti vraḥ kamrateṅ” The name
of Vnaṃ Kanṭāl (Central Mountain) moreover clearly indicates the representative Mount
Meru, if we study the Sanskrit text. The temple itself that was built on the top of the

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mountain (Phnom), presents the symbol of the mountain in the center of the world, Meru
or Sumeru of Indian cosmology.

The issue of Mount Meru was also discussed by modern Buddhist intellectuals
like Gendun Chopel and the 14th Dalai Lama. According to Choepel, the Meru
cosmology is a provisional teaching taught in accord with the ideas of ancient India, but
not appropriate for the modern era. Similarly, the 14th Dalai Lama writes that "my own
view is that Buddhism must abandon many aspects of the Abhidharma cosmology". The
Dalai Lama sees the falsehood of this traditional cosmology as not affecting the core of
Buddhism (the teaching of the four noble truths and liberation) since it is "secondary to
the account of the nature and origins of sentient beings

BAUPHON as MOUNT MERU

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Just northwest of Bayon Temple lies an elevated platform connected to a walkway
leading to the Baphuon Temple. The platform sits next to the Elephant Terrace and both
the Temple and its elevated 200-meter sandstone causeway lie just outside the royal
enclosure of Angkor Thom. Baphuon Temple was located on the cardinal axis of the
ancient city of Yasodharapura, sacked by the Chams in 1177. When Angkor Thom was
rebuilt, Baphuon was located just south of the Royal Enclosure, as can be seen on the
map. Originally built as a temple to Shiva in the 11th Century, it was the most imposing
structure of the ancient city -- renowned for its bronze tower that earned it the title of the
“Tower of Gold. At 120 metres long, 100 metres wide and 34 metres tall, the main
temple structure is roughly the same size as its famous neighbour, but in a
worse state of repair, which may partially explain the comparative lack of
popularity. Being at the end of a 225-metre-long elevated walkway – entirely
exposed to the hot Cambodian sun – may also be a factor, putting off temple
explorers who have already been worn out by The Bayon.

Baphuon Temple - one of the highlights of 5 Great Angkor Temples in 3

Days and 10 Must-See Temples in Siem Reap (Read all about Siem Reap here)
”The temple sits within 3 successive enclosures and is constructed of 5 levels of equal
size, giving it the appearance of a mountain -- in this case, the sacred Hindu Mt. Meru.
This top of the tower held a Shiva linga. In the 15th century, it was converted into a
Buddhist temple, and the tower was disassembled, with many of the stones used to
begin construction of an unfinished, reclining Buddha on the west side of the
rectangular structure. History of Baphuon Temple.

3 tier of BAPUON

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The triple-tiered temple mountain of the Baphuon Temple was the state temple
of King Udayadityavarman II. Its pyramid shape represents the mythical Hindu
Mount Meru and marks the centre of the city that was here before Angkor Thom.
It is immediately to the south of the royal palace of Phimeanakas, and the old
walls of the palace can be seen in the shade of the trees north of the temple,
making for a pleasant route to walk back towards the main road along.

Contemporary sources say that a striking 8-metre-tall tower once stood on top of
the temple, probably made of wood gilded with bronze. This is thought to have
been demolished in the late-15th century when the temple was converted from
being dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva to Buddha.
A reclining Buddha statue – 9 metres tall and 70 metres long – was added to the
second tier on the west-facing side. Sadly, even by this time, it is thought that
much of the temple’s structure had already collapsed, due to the fact that it was
hastily built on land filled with sand.

You can find Baphuon Temple slightly northwest of Bayon Temple.

Photographing it in the morning will give you the best light on the temple.

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Ta Keo called 'Hemasringagiri' or 'the mountain with golden peaks,' meaning Mount
Meru—is enormous, rising over 21.6 meters, making it one of the tallest buildings at
Angkor with a base of 122 by 106 meters, while the outer moat stretched 255 by 195
meters. It was the state temple of Jayavarman V, who ruled from 968 to 1001. Around
the year 975, work was begun on Ta Keo temple in the center of the new capital. Where
the kinghad taken up residence on the east side of the East Baray. It is unfinished as
the king was subjugated in year 1001.

Later in its history, Phnom Bakheng was converted into a Buddhist temple. A
monumental Sitting Buddha, now lost, was created on its upper tier. Across its west
side, a Reclining Buddha of similar scale was crafted in stone. The outlines of this figure
are still visible.
The Temple Mountain of Prasat Lolei

The picturesque island temple, Prasat Lolei, situated in the centre of the baray, was completed by the king's son
and successor, Yasovarman I.Once an island temple, Lolei was located on an island slightly north of centre in the
now dry Indratataka baray, construction of which had nearly been completed under Yasovarman's father and
predecessor Indravarman I. It is the northernmost temple of the Roluos group of three late 9th
century Hindu temples at Angkor, Cambodia, the others members of which are Preah Ko and the Bakong. Lolei
was the last of the three temples to be built as part of the city of Hariharalaya that once flourished at Roluos, and
in 893 the Khmer king Yasovarman I dedicated it to Shiva and to members of the royal family. The name "Lolei" is
thought to be a modern corruption of the ancient name "Hariharalaya," which means "the city of Harihara."
Scholars believe that placing the temple on an island in the middle of a body of water served to identify it
symbolically with Mount Meru, home of the gods, which in Hindu mythology is surrounded by the world oceans.

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Lolei consists of four brick temple towers grouped together on a terrace. The king build
Lolei for his ancestors. The front two towers are for the males while the two towers at
the back are for the females. One for his grandfather, one for his grandmother, one for
his father, and one for his mother. The two taller towers are for his grandparents while
the two shorter towers are for his parents. Originally, the towers were enclosed by an
outer wall access through which was through a gopura, but neither wall nor gopura have
survived to the present. Today, the temple is next to a monastery, just as in the 9th
century it was next to an ashrama.
The temple towers are known for their decorative elements, including their false doors,
their carved lintels, and their carved devatas and dvarapalas who flank both real and
false doors. Some of the motifs represented in the lintels and other sandstone carvings
are the sky-god Indra mounted on the elephant Airavata, serpent-like monsters
called makaras, and multi-headed nagas.

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This sandstone carving at Lolei shows a fanged dvarapala armed with a trident
standing in an arched doorway. At the level of his elbows, two makara heads face
outward.

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Angkor Site Index
Monument Date (A.D.)

Preah Ko,
879
Roluos

Bakong, Roluos 881

Lolei, Roluos 893

Prasat Kravan 921

East Mebon 953

Pre Rup 961

Ta Keo late 10th c.

Angkor Wat first half of 12th

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 c.

Ta Prohm 1186

Preah Khan 1191

Ta Som late 12th c.

Hospital Chapel late 12th c.

early 11th - late

Angkor Thom
12th c.

Spean Thma 16th c.

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