,'i@g. RELIGIOUS SECTS 



to the Brahma Vaivertia Furdna, as the chief authority of a classical charac 

 ter, on which the pretensions of Radha are founded ; a circumstance which 

 is of itself sufficient to indicate the comparatively modern date of the 



Purdna. 



According to this work, the primeval being having divided himself into 

 two parts, the right side became Krishna, and the left Radha, and from their 

 union, the vital airs and mundane egg were generated. Radh\ being, in fact, 

 the Ich'chd Sakti, the will or wish of the deity, the manifestation of which 

 was the universe. 



Radha continued to reside with Krishna in Goloka, where she gave 

 origin to the Gopis, or her female companions, and received the homage of all 

 the divinities. The Gopas, or male attendants of Krishna, as we have formerly 

 remarked, were in like manner produced from his person. The grossness of 

 Hindu personification ascribes to the Krishna of the heavenly Goioka, the 

 defects of the terrestial cowherd, and the Radha of that region is not more 

 exempt from the causes or effects of jealousy than the nymph of Viinddvan. 

 Being on one occasion offended with Krishna for his infidelity, she denied 

 him access to her palace, on which she was severely censured by Sudama, a 

 Gopa, and confidential adviser of Krishna. She therefore cursed him, and 

 doomed him to be born on earth as an Asura, and he accordingly appeared as 

 Sankhachura. He retaliated by a similar imprecation, in consequence 

 of which Radha was also obliged to quit her high station, and was 

 born at Vrinddvan on earth, as the daughter of a Vaisya, named VrishabhanUj 

 by his wife Kalavati. Krishna having, at the same time, become incarnate, 

 was married to her at Vrmddva?i, when he was fourteen, and she was twelve 

 years of age : as a further result of the imprecation, she was separated from 

 him after he attained maturity, until the close of his earthly career ; when 

 she preceded him to the celestial Goloka, and was there re-united with him. 



