Devalok
Legend · 2 tellings · North India, Pan-India

The girl who would not open her eyes

Vrishabhanu finds a baby girl on a lotus in the Yamuna at Raval; she keeps her eyes shut until the infant Krishna is brought before her; the Brahma Vaivarta Purana adds that she came from Krishna's own left side in Goloka and was born on earth through a curse.

Who is in it

Places: Raval, Barsana · Texts: Bhagavata Purana

The story, beat by beat

  1. Vrishabhanu finds a girl on a lotus in the river.
  2. She will not open her eyes.
  3. When Krishna is brought to her she looks at him first.
  4. In Goloka she came from Krishna's left side.
  5. A quarrel with Sridama brings curses: she is born a cowherd's daughter, to be parted from Krishna.

birth devotion curse Braj

How it is told, place by place

Base telling · Temple tradition

As Braj tells it (Raval and Barsana)

North India · Raval and Barsana, Braj Vaishnava

Vrishabhanu, a cowherd chief, goes down to the Yamuna at Raval and finds a baby girl on a lotus. He and his wife raise her, but she keeps her eyes shut, and they fear she is blind. When Nanda's family visits with their own baby, Krishna, the girl opens her eyes for the first time, and the first thing she sees is him. The family later moves to Barsana, where her temple stands on the hill and Radhashtami is kept.

Raval (tirthayatra.org); Radha (Wikipedia); Acknowledge Rawal as real birthplace of Radha (Hindustan Times, 2019); Radhashtami (Wikipedia)

Primary text (translation)

Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Prakriti Khanda 48 to 49

Pan-India Vaishnava

In Goloka Krishna, wishing for love, divides himself: the right side stays Krishna and the left becomes Radhika, and the cowherd women come from her. A quarrel with Krishna's companion Sridama ends in curses; he is to be born a demon, and she a cowherd's daughter on earth, parted from Krishna for a hundred years. So she is born to Vrishabhanu and Kalavati, her mother having carried nothing but wind.

Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Prakriti Khanda 48 to 49 (vedicpeople.com rendering)

Sources: Raval (tirthayatra.org); Radha (Wikipedia); Acknowledge Rawal as real birthplace of Radha (Hindustan Times, 2019); Radhashtami (Wikipedia); Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Prakriti Khanda 48 to 49 (vedicpeople.com rendering)

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