Vrajavihārastavaḥ
Introduction Among the lesser-known Sanskrit compositions attributed to Śrīdhara Svāmin, the celebrated commentator on the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, is a short but remarkable poem devoted to the Vraja-līlā of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The work occurs in the manuscript and bibliographical tradition under the titles Vrajavihāra-stotram, Vrajavihāra, and Vrajavihāra-kāvya; its own concluding colophon, however, explicitly states: इति श्रीधरस्वामिना विरचितं व्रजविहारकाव्यं समाप्तम्, identifying both Śrīdhara Svāmin as author and Vrajavihāra-kāvya as title. Thus, the attribution is not dependent merely upon a modern catalogue or later conjecture, but is affirmed by the surviving textual witness itself. In the recension represented by the witnesses discussed here, the poem consists of twenty verses and presents a remarkably compact panorama of Kṛṣṇa's Vraja-līlā: the singing and longing gopīs, Kṛṣṇa's sportive relations with the women of Vraja, the playful butter-stealing child-Kṛṣṇa, the forests and kuñjas...
