Rukmini and Krishna -- The Princess Who Wrote First

In the kingdom of Vidarbha, King Bhishmaka had five sons and one daughter, Rukmini. The Bhagavata says that she had heard of Krishna from the visitors to her father's court -- his beauty, his courage, his goodness -- and had decided that he alone would be her husband. Krishna, for his part, had heard of her and thought her the right wife for him.

Her eldest brother, Rukmi, had other plans. He disliked Krishna and arranged for Rukmini to marry his friend Shishupala, king of Chedi. The wedding day was set. Rukmini did not wait to be rescued. She chose a trusted brahmin, wrote a message, and sent him to Dwarka.

The letter runs to seven verses, and it is remarkable for its directness. Rukmini tells Krishna that she has chosen him; that it would be wrong for the lion's share to be taken by a jackal; and she gives him a plan. Since her family will take her, on the day before the wedding, to worship the goddess Ambika at a temple outside the city, he can come for her there without having to fight his way into the palace and kill her kinsmen. If he does not come, she says, she will give up her life and seek him in another birth.

Krishna reads the letter, takes the brahmin with him, and drives to Vidarbha through the night. Balarama follows with an army, guessing there will be a fight. At the temple, Rukmini comes out after her worship, sees Krishna, and he lifts her into his chariot in front of the assembled kings.

The pursuit ends with Rukmi defeated. Krishna is about to kill him when Rukmini begs for her brother's life; Krishna spares him but shaves part of his head and moustache in disgrace. Balarama, seeing Rukmini's distress, reproaches Krishna for shaming a kinsman and comforts her. The wedding takes place in Dwarka, and the Bhagavata describes the whole city celebrating.

Rukmini became the chief of Krishna's queens, and tradition reveres her as Lakshmi herself, who descends with Vishnu in each of his avatars -- as Sita with Rama, as Rukmini with Krishna. Her firstborn, Pradyumna, is said to be Kamadeva, the god of love, born again after Shiva burnt him to ash.

Rukmini's story is often told as a romance, and it is one. But what readers have long admired is her agency. She chooses her husband, writes to him herself, plans the escape, and sets the terms -- no killing of her family if it can be avoided. In a tradition sometimes imagined as leaving women no say, the Bhagavata gives one of its loveliest chapters to a woman who made her own decision and saw it through.