112 
F. S. Growse —Mathura Notes. 
[No. 2, 
XI. “ The pavilion is a bright and charming spot; Radha and Hari 
are in glistening attire and the full-orbed autumnal moon is resplendent in 
the heaven. The dark-hued swain and nymph of golden sheen, as they toy 
together, shew like the lightning’s flash and sombre cloud. In saffron ves¬ 
ture he and she in scarlet ; their affection deep beyond compare ; and the 
air, cool, soft and laden with perfumes. Their couch is made of leaves and 
blossoms and he woos her in dulcet tones, while coyly the fair one repulses 
his every advance. Love tortures Mohan’s soul, as he touches her bosom, 
or waist-band, or wreath, and timorously she cries ( off off.’ Pleasant is 
the sporting of the glorious lord, close-locked in oft-repeated embrace, and 
like an earth-reviving river is the flood of his passion. 
XII. “ Come Radha, you knowing one, your paragon of lovers has 
started a dance on the bank of the Jamuna’s stream. Bevies of damsels 
are dancing in all the abandonment of delight; the joyous pipe gives forth 
a stirring sound. Near the Bansi-bat, a sweetly pretty spot, where the 
spicy air breathes with delicious softness, where the half-opened jasmine fills 
the world with overpowering fragrance, beneath the clear radiance of the 
autumnal full moon, the milkmaids with raptured eyes are gazing on your 
glorious lord, all beautiful from head to foot, quick to remove love’s every 
pain. Put your arms about his neck, fair dame, pride of the world, and 
lapped in the bosom of the Ocean of delight, disport yourself with Syam in 
his blooming bower.” 
If ever the language of the brothel was borrowed for temple use it has 
been so here. But, strange to say, the Gosains, who accept as their Gospel 
these nauseous ravings of a morbid imagination, are for the most part highly 
respectable married men, who contrast rather favourably both in sobriety 
of life and intellectual acquirements with the professors of rival sects that 
are based on more reputable authorities. Several of them have a good know¬ 
ledge of literary Hindi : but their proficiency in Sanskrit is not very high : 
the best informed among them being unable to resolve into its constituent 
elements and explain the not very recondite compound suduruha, which 
will be found in the second stanza of the Radha-sudha. 
To indicate the fervour of his passionate love for his divine mistress, 
Hari Yans assumed the title of Hit Ji and is popularly better known by 
this name than by the one which he received from his parents. His most 
famous disciple was Vyas Ji of Orchha, of whom various legends are repor¬ 
ted. On his first visit to the Swami he found him busy cooking, but at 
once propounded some knotty theological problem. The sage without any 
hesitation solved the difficulty, but first threw away the whole of the food 
he had prepared, with the remark that no man could attend properly to two 
things at once. Vyas was so struck by this procedure that he then and 
there enrolled himself as his disciple, and in a short space of time conceived 
