Abstract
This article looks at confluence of rīti and bhakti and at the interface of the personal and the religious, in particular at the influence of the Rādhā-Krishna mythology in construing personal identities in 18th-century North India.
The article presents a case study of Sāvant Siṃh of Kishangarh (1699–1764), who wrote under the pen name Nāgarīdās. He was a prolific author of devotional verse as well as a patron of miniature paintings depicting Krishna and Rādhā. His work shows a tendency that could be termed a ‘royalization’ of Krishna poetry, and is instructive about how religious imagery became meaningful in construing personal lives in medieval India.
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