Radha's Diet Therapy: Part I

Radha’s Soul Food

Radha is sick, but it is no ordinary malady. She feels a strange chill at dawn, but without any fever. Kabiraj has felt her nadi and said, ‘You got viraha jvara – fever of separation. There’s no jadibuti – medication - for that.’

Radha is hungry, but racked with nausea she can’t eat. She bares her heart, and shares her agony with Dooti, her trusted companion. The song is Radha’s anguished plea to Dooti to fetch the only remedy that comes to her mind – pathi, a diet for her tormented soul and body. Radha needs soul food, and suggests a detailed menu, each of which resonates with the colour and fragrance and touch and feel of her love of life – Krishna Kanhaiya.

The cuisine she lists is fascinating in its variety, spread, texture, aroma, flavour, taste, colour, touch, feel, and its palliative power.

O Dooti, fetch me this special Krishna pathi, pleads Radha –

1.   Krishna khichdi with diced dumplings of ginger fried in ghee while recalling Krishna’s name, and seasoned with jeera, methi, hing, and salt

2.   Green banana rounds fried on a tawa

3.   Fresh pakhala (rice in water)

4.   Kanji ambila, a sour and soupy vegetable dish for which the necessary ingredients are – saru, kakharu, baigan, bhendi, and kardi

5.   Black moong dal curry

6.   Soft, supple arua rice

7.   A bitter curry (bitter gourd or neem flower with baigan and badi, maybe)

8.   Tender cucumber with curd, chili and salt

9.   Mildly seasoned leutia (a delicious green leaf) saag

How would this pathi restore Radha and save her life? Because each dish, ingredient, and flavour remind her of Krishna, and the entire cuisine is Krishnamrut for her. Radha is no longer separate or separable from Krishna. She has merged with her loved one. She has found the remedy for her strange malady.

There may be other prayers where the devotee serves chappan bhog or a preferred dish to God; but this may be the only bhajan where the devotee plans a menu for herself, but can see nothing except her Krishna in every kernel of her pathi. This is prem bhakti – simple, unpretentious, soulful. A prayer like none other.

Danda Nacha

This Sambalpuri song was possibly composed by the lyricist for a Danda nacha performance where two male actors play Radha and Dooti and perform on the village street. Decades ago, these popular street plays enacted select stories and episodes from the puranas and were much enjoyed in the villages of Odisha. Alas, this folk-theatre tradition is nearly dead now.

Fakir Pattanaik’s rendition in rustic, racy rhythm produced a hit song for which the link is:

Radha is Sambalpurian

In this song, Radha is not from Gopa but very much a Sambalpurian for her dietary preference is unmistakably local. Only in western Odisha, ambila is made with kardi! Thus, the song is a prayer, and a celebration of the unique Sambalpuri cuisine with local ingredients.

Thus Sang Radha

(Sambalpuri Song: Lyricist – Govinda (?). Translation by Prasanna Dash)

Listen, O Dooti, listen;

At dawn, I got a strange chill, a shiver,

But without any fever;

Tortured am I with a splitting headache,

Vaid came, felt my pulse, and diagnosed –

It’s viraha jvara,

There’s no medicine for it, he said.

O Dooti, I’m hungry, but can’t eat a morsel,

Racked by nausea, I can’t taste a thing.

Only you know how to heal me,

Don’t you, O Dooti?

Hurry, fetch me the special Krishna pathi,

Prepare Krishna khichdi,

Remember to add ginger slices

Fried in ghee while remembering Ghanshyam’s name,

Season it with jeera, methi, hing,

While adding salt remember Nilamani,

In Kanhu’s name, fry raw banana rounds,

O, how I savour that;

Bring also a serving of fresh pakhala

In the name of Gopala,

Paired with

Kanji ambila in the name of Kunja Binodia

To which do not forget to add all necessary ingredients –

Saru, kakharu, baigan, bhendi, and kardi;

Also bring a black lentil curry,

Shining like my dark Lord;

I have resolved to sing for ever

My Ghanashyam’s leela, O Dutika,

Please bring a serving of soft, supple arua rice,

Rai’s heart is now pledged to Rasa Binodia;

In Pitambara’s name,

Make a bitter curry, too;

Bring a few tender cucumbers

Looking like Krishna with his garlands,

Crush it in a mix of curd, chili and salt,

Serve a dish of dark green leutia leaves

In the name of Krishna;

For my ailment,

That is the sure cure,

Says Govinda;

Krishna pathi will dissipate my distaste for food and life;

Fetch the dishes,

O Dooti,

Make haste,

Revive my taste,

Kindle my appetite,

Save my life;

Let us surrender,

 O Dootika,

To the lotus feet of Krishna.

***