The precise date of composition is unknown, but we can infer that Muddupalani was at least a young woman when she wrote the work and that it was crafted while Maharaja Singh was still presiding over the royal court, we can reasonably assume that the work was mostly likely written sometime between 1757 and 1763.
Content
The work comprises four sections, between them consisting offive hundred and eighty-four poems, and belonged to the genre of śṛṅgāra-kāvya or śṛṅgāra-prabandham, 'a genre associated in the history of Telugu literature with the Thanjavur era' whose poems were mostly inventive retellings of the story of Radha and Krishna, evoking the rāsa of Sringara. It was probably influenced by the padams composed by the seventeenth-century poet Kṣetrayya and may have been influenced by the seventeenth-century Satyabhāma Sāntvanamu by Liṅganamakhi Śrīkāmeśvara Kavi. The poem is framed as a dialogue between two legendary wise men: Vyasa's son Maharishi Suka and the philosopher-king Janaka.
It tells the tale of Radha, Krishna's aunt, a woman in her prime who brings up Ila Devi from childhood and then gives her in marriage to Krishna. The poem describes in detail Ila Devi's puberty and the consummation of her marriage to Krishna. Radha advises the young bride on how she should respond to Krishna's lovemaking, and Krishna on handling his young bride tenderly. But the poem also captures at the same time the pain of a woman in her prime who must give up her own desire and yearning. At one point, unable to bear the grief of her own separation from Krishna, whom she desires herself, Radha breaks down and rages against Krishna for having abandoned her. Krishna gently appeases her and she is comforted by his loving embrace. It is from this section that the poem takes its title.
The poem is unique in Telugu literature for portraying a woman taking in initiative in trying to have sex witha man. This passage, spoken by Krishna, provides a convenient example of the poem's style and content:
Reception
The work was at the time 'considered a gem of Telugu literature', but never gained wider attention beyond Andhra Pradesh. However, it was later the subject of controversy. The Rādhikā-sāntvanam was first edited for print publication by Charles Phillip Brown, and annotated, bowdlerised, and seen through the presses by Paidipati Venkatanarasu in 1887, with a second edition in 1907. It was then re-edited in 1910 by the courtesan Bangalore Nagarathnamma to include the full text. In 1911 the British colonial authorities banned this and eight other titles by the same publisher ; the order was not rescinded until 1947.
