RĀdhĀ
RĀDHĀ. The cowherd woman (gopī) whose passionate love for the god Kṛṣṇa has been celebrated in song and story throughout the Indian subcontinent since medieval times, Rādhā has been revered by Vaiṣṇava devotees not only as Kṛṣṇa's earthly beloved but also as his eternal consort, as one half of the divine duality. Her name may be a feminine form of the Vedic rādhās ("desired object"). Epitomizing the ideal of prema bhakti ("loving devotion"), she has herself been an object of Vaiṣṇava worship, sometimes as a mediator but often as the highest reality, surpassing even Kṛṣṇa.
Origins and History
Despite the considerable scholarly attention that has been devoted to Rādhā's origins, the matter remains veiled in obscurity. Available evidence points to possible literary beginnings, perhaps in the songs of the Ᾱbhīrs, a cattle-herding community of North India. From the earliest source material—a succession of stray verses in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Apabhraṃṣa from roughly the third century ce that celebrate the love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa—it is clear that her association with him was established throughout much of the subcontinent by the close of the first millennium.
The transfiguration of Rādhā from literary heroine to object of religious devotion was a complex and gradual process.
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