The temple tradition of Sāñjhī in Vrndavana describes the transformation of a folk tradition. Sāñjhī was originally a ritual worship undertaken by unmarried girls throughout northern India to obtain a suitable husband. It became a temple tradition in the seventeenth century when the devotional bhakti movement linked it to the games played by Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa  as children in Vraja, the cowherd camp where God was pleased to reside as Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the previous era. The devotional verses of the next two centuries describe these games and evoke Sāñjhī as a ritual design made with forest flowers in the autumn, after the rains. Thus, Rādhā, Kṛṣṇa’s āhlādinī śakti or joygoing potency, who is also prakṛti (nature), is engaged in her own beautification.

• Foreword
• Preface
• Content List
• Introduction
• Glimpses of Content