Radha

Radha is the beloved of Krishna and, in many Vaishnava traditions, the supreme embodiment of devotion. She is shown beside Krishna, fair and adorned, and is honoured as the divine feminine of the pair Radha-Krishna. In Odisha her story is carried by the Gita Govinda of the poet Jayadeva, sung in the Jagannath temple at Puri as part of daily service. Dola Purnima, with its swing and colours, and Radhashtami are the main occasions on which she is worshipped.

Radha does not appear by name in the Bhagavata Purana, which speaks of a favoured gopi. She is named and celebrated in later texts such as the Brahma Vaivarta Purana and the Padma Purana, and above all in the Gita Govinda, composed in the twelfth century by Jayadeva, who is held by Odia tradition...