Muktā-carita

Autor: Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī

"The Tale of the Pearls" — Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī's prose story with verses. In Dvārakā Satyabhāmā asks Kṛṣṇa where the creepers grow that bear pearls, and Kṛṣṇa remembers Vraja: at the festival of lamps the cowherd girls refused him pearls for his beloved cows — so he sowed pearls in the earth and watered them with milk. Pearl creepers grew; the girls sowed their own pearls, but only thorns came up. There follows a merry haggling over the price of pearls, where Kṛṣṇa, Lalitā, Nāndīmukhī, Subala and Madhumaṅgala vie in wit, and behind the jokes stands the love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.