We have seen how during his infancy Krishna’s pranks have already made him the darling of the women.  As he grows up, he acquires a more adult charm.  In years he is still a boy but we are suddenly confronted with what is to prove the very heart of the story—­his romances with the cowgirls.  Although all of them are married, the cowgirls find his presence irresistible and despite the warnings of morality and the existence of their husbands, each falls utterly in love with him.  As Krishna wanders in the forest, the cowgirls can talk of nothing but his charms.  They do their work but their thoughts are on him.  They stay at home but all the time each is filled with desperate longing.  One day Krishna plays on his flute in the forest.  Playing the flute is the cowherds’ special art and Krishna has, therefore, learnt it in his childhood.  But, as in everything else, his skill is quite exceptional and Krishna’s playing has thus a beauty all its own.  From where they are working the cowgirls hear it and at once are plunged in agitation.  They gather on the road and say to each other, ’Krishna is dancing and singing in the forest and will not be home till evening.  Only then shall we see him and be happy.’

One cowgirl says, ’That happy flute to be played on by Krishna!  Little wonder that having drunk the nectar of his lips the flute should trill like the clouds.  Alas!  Krishna’s flute is dearer to him than we are for he keeps it with him night and day.  The flute is our rival.  Never is Krishna parted from it.’  A second cowgirl speaks.  ’It is because the flute continually thought of Krishna that it gained this bliss.’  And a third says, ’Oh! why has Krishna not made us into flutes that we might stay with him day and night?’ The situation in fact has changed overnight for far from merely appealing to the cowgirls’ maternal instincts, Krishna is now the darling object of their most intense passion.

Faced with this situation, the cowgirls discuss how best to gain Krishna as their lover.  They recall that bathing in the early winter is believed to wipe out sin and fulfil the heart’s desires.  They accordingly go to the river Jumna, bathe in its waters and after making clay images of Parvati, Siva’s consort, pray to her to make Krishna theirs.  They go on doing this for many days.

One day they choose a part of the river where there is a steep bank.  Taking off their clothes they leave them on the grass verge, enter the water and swim around calling out their love for Krishna.  Unknown to them, Krishna is in the vicinity and is grazing the cows.  He steals quietly up, sees them in the river, makes their clothes into a bundle and then climbs up with it into a tree.  When the cowgirls come out of the water, they cannot find their clothes until at last one of them spies Krishna sitting in the tree.  The cowgirls hurriedly squat down in the water entreating Krishna to return their clothes.  Krishna, however, tells them to come