Shamila Bhattacharya

The mythical cowherdess Radha and poet-saint Meera vie for the attention of their blue-skinned paramour-god Krishna. Singled out by the poet Jayadeva as Lord Krishna’s favourite inamorata in his twelfth century epic love poem Gita Govinda, Radha is often characterised by feelings of jealousy and heartbreak at Krishna’s eternal fickleness. Meera, on the other hand, was a sixteenth century poet-saint whose relationship to Krishna was one of constant devotion and unfulfilled yearning, sentiments immortalised in her poems that continue to be sung today as musical compositions.