{"id":62323,"date":"2025-01-21T03:26:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T21:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/?p=62323"},"modified":"2025-01-20T08:06:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T02:36:49","slug":"the-eight-varistha-sakhis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/the-eight-varistha-sakhis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Eight Varistha Sakhis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The eight varistha sakhis in Sri Mayapura Dhama<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1. Lalita-devi<\/span><\/h3>\n

Sri Lalita-devi is the foremost amongst these eight varistha sakhis. She is twenty-seven days older than her dear friend Sri Radha.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Lalita is renowned by the name Anuradha. She is decorated by the qualities of both a vama[1]<\/a> nayika and prakhara[2]<\/a> nayika[3]<\/a>. Lalita\u2019s bodily complexion resembles bright yellow gorocana and her attire has the colour of a peacock\u2019s tail.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Lalita\u2019s mother\u2019s name is Saradi and her father\u2019s is Visoka.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her husband, whose name is Bhairava, is a friend of Govardhana Gopa.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Visakha<\/span><\/h3>\n

The second of the varistha sakhis is Visakha.<\/span><\/p>\n

She is like Radharani in her conduct, good qualities and determination in serving Krishna.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visakha was born at exactly the same moment as Radharani.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visakha\u2019s attire resembles the sky embedded by stars, it is blue with white embroideries of flowers and leaves. Her complexion resembles lightning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her father, whose name is Pavana, is Mukhara\u2019s sister\u2019s son. Visakha\u2019s mother is Dakshina, a daughter of Jatila\u2019s sister.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visakha\u2019s husband is Vahika Gopa.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Campakalata<\/span><\/h3>\n

The third of the varistha sakhis is Campakalata.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her bodily lustre resembles that of a blooming campaka flower[4]<\/a>. She is one day younger than Sri Radhika. Her clothes are like the colour of the blue casha[5]<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campakalata\u2019s father is Arama and her mother is Vatika.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her husband\u2019s name is Candaksa. She is almost like Visakha by her qualities.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Citra<\/span><\/h3>\n

Of the varistha sakhis Citra[6]<\/a> is the fourth one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her complexion is golden like saffron and her attire resembles the colour of crystal. She is twenty-six days younger than Sri Radhika. She always rejoices in the happiness of Sri Krishna.<\/span><\/p>\n

The name of Citra\u2019s father is Catura, who is the paternal uncle of Suryamitra (Vrisabhanu Maharaja). Citra\u2019s mother is named Carcika and her husband is Pithara.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Tungavidya<\/span><\/h3>\n

Tungavidya is the fifth of the varistha sakhis.<\/span><\/p>\n

She is five days older than Sri Radhika. Her body emanates a fragrance of candra-candana[7]<\/a>, and her complexion resembles kunkuma[8]<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tungavidya\u2019s clothes are light yellow. She is decorated by the qualities of dakshina[9]<\/a> nayika and prakhara nayika.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her mother\u2019s name is Medha, her father\u2019s is Pushkara and her husband\u2019s is Balisa.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Indulekha<\/span><\/h3>\n

Indulekha is the sixth of the varistha sakhis. Her complexion is bright yellow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her attire is like the colour of the flowers of the pomegranate tree[10]<\/a>. She is three days younger than Srimati Radharani.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indulekha\u2019s mother is Bela and her father is Sagara.<\/span><\/p>\n

The qualities of a vama nayika and prakhara nayika decorate Indulekha. Her husband\u2019s name is Durvala.<\/span><\/p>\n

7. Rangadevi<\/span><\/h3>\n

The seventh of the varistha sakhis is Rangadevi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her complexion resembles the colour of lotus-pollen, and her clothes have the colour of the somewhat reddish java flower[11]<\/a>. She is seven days younger than Sri Radha and her qualities resemble those of Campakalata\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sri Rangadevi\u2019s father is Rangasara and her mother is Karuna.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her husband, whose name is Vakrekshana, is the younger brother of Bhairava.<\/span><\/p>\n

8. Sudevi<\/span><\/h3>\n

Sudevi is the eight of the varistha sakhis.<\/span><\/p>\n

She is the twin sister of Rangadevi and is of a mridu[12]<\/a> nature. She resembles her sister by beauty, good qualities, nature and so forth, and is therefore sometimes mistaken to be Rangadevi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sudevi is married to the younger brother of Vakrekshana, the husband of Rangadevi.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Vama is a gopi who is busily engaged in arousing jealous anger, or mana. She is angry when mana becomes weakened. The nayaka (hero) cannot control her and she uses harsh words.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Prakhara is a gopi who uses bold words. She brings forth her sorrow and anger in any topic whatsoever.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0 The word nayika means the protagonist or heroine of a story<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Magnolia<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> A jay bird<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Also called Sucitra<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Sandalwood mixed with camphor<\/span><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Yellow and red mixed together<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Daksina is a nayika who is unable to tolerate jealous anger, or mana. In their conversations she holds the same opinion as her beloved. She is controlled by her beloved’s appeasing words.<\/span><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Bright red<\/span><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Hibiscus<\/span><\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> A nayika (heroine) speaking in a sweet and gentle voice is a mridu.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is a section of the book \u201cSri Sri Radha Krishna Ganoddesa Dipika\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

To buy the complete book,<\/span>\u00a0click above<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Lalita-devi Sri Lalita-devi is the foremost amongst these eight varistha sakhis. She is twenty-seven days older than her dear friend Sri Radha. Sri Lalita is renowned by the name Anuradha. She is decorated by the … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":62346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,189],"tags":[208],"class_list":["post-62323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-kadacha-eng","tag-radha-krishna-ganoddesa-dipika-eng"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 04:30:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}