The world's first love letter

One of the first love letters in the world is to a God in India and this letter finds mention in the Puranas. The letter is as old as the Mahabharata and this makes it more than 3500 years old.

This is why the letter must rank as one of the first love letters and this is from Rukmini to Krishna.

The letter is often described as eulogy of love and it was carried to Krishna by a Brahmin messenger of Rukmini. This messenger was Sunanda, who in his next birth, was reborn as the great Madhwa saint Vadiraja Theertha (1480-1600) of Sode.

Sunanda carried the beautiful letter all the way from Central India to Dwaraka where Krishna was residing. This letter appears in the tenth book and fifty second chapter of the Bhagavatha Purana.

The letter has an interesting background.

Bhishmaka, the King of Vidharbha in Central India, decided to get his daughter Rukmini married. Rukmini, who had only heard of Krishna, had mentally accepted Krishna as her husband. She decides to marry Krishna but her brother, Rukmi, wants her to marry Sisupala.

Both Sisupala and Rukmi hate Krishna. Unable to extricate herself  from her proposed marriage to Sisupala, Rukmini writes a letter to Krishna extolling his qualities and expressing her desire to marry him.

She then selects Sunanda, an elderly Brahmin, to deliver her message to Krishna.

Rukmini’s letter reveals her devotion and love to Krishna. When Sunanda reaches Dwaraka with the letter, he tells the doorkeeper of the palace where Krishna resides of his mission. The doorkeeper lead him to Lord Krishna, who was sitting on a throne.

When Sunanda hands over the letter to Krishna, he reads it out. He then thanks the messenger for the letter and tells him that even he wants to marry Rukmini.

When Krishna hears that Rukmini’s marriage is scheduled for the following day, he decides to leave for Vidarbha immediately and he requests the Brahamin messenger to accompany him.

Both Krishna and the Brahmin reach the town of Kundina where Rukmini is slate to get married against her will.

Krishna’s elder brother, Balarama, is alarmed when he receives the news that Krishna is accompanied only by a Brahmin. Suspecting an attack on Krishna,  he rides with hi army towards Kundina.

Meanwhile, Krishna reaches Kundina. He sends the Brahmin inside the palace of Rukmini to let her know that he had arrived and that he has an escape plan for them. When Rukmini sees the Brahmin, she asks whether or not Krishna has come.

The Brahmin tells Rukmini that Krishna has come and that he will marry her and take her away to Dwaraka.

When King Bhismaka hears that Krishna and Balarama had come, he invites them to the marriage ceremony of  Rukmini with Sishupala. He is, however, unaware that Krishna plans to kidnap Rukmini and marry her.  

Krishna carries off Rukmini to Dwaraka in a charriot, even as Balarama and his army hold off Sisupala, his friend and Emperor of Magadha, Jarasandha, Rukmi and others are hot on the heels of India’s first couple, who before their marriage, exchanged perhaps the first love letters in the world.        

The place where Krishna kidnapped Rukmini

“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite”,

This is what Shakespeare said in his tragedy Romeo and Juliet about love.

Here the protagonists Romeo and Juliet “hopelessly” fall in love and nothing, including death, will come in the way. This play by Shakespeare was written in the 16th century England.

Though the story of Romeo and Juliet was based on a real-life incident in Italy, it seemed to have been played out many many centuries earlier by India’s most romantic couple in love-Krishna and Rukmini.

The love story of  Krishna and Rukmini is the stuff of legends and even today almost every Indian remembers it. If Krishna is the hero, Rukmini the demure heroine, there are several villians woven into the true-life story.

Krishna elopes with Rukmini on the day of her marriage. Rukmini comes to a temple just before the marriage ceremony. Krishna comes in his chariot and carries her off.

But did you know that the temple where Rukmini went and from where she was taken away by Krishna still exists. It is in Amaravathi, one of the largest cities of Maharashtra.

This is the temple of Amba Devi. It is situate n the heart of the bustling city.

Rukmini is the daughter of King Bhishmak of Vidarbha. Since he is a vassal of  Jarasandha of  Magadha, an enemy of Krishna.

Rukmini hears of Krishna and madly falls in love with Krishna.  Rukmi is dead set against this marriage and fixes her marriage with Sishupala.

Rukmini then secretly sends a message to Krishna asking him to take her away. (The messenger is a Brahamana called Sunanda. He carried this message to Krishna at Dwaraka who at once sets off for Koundinyapura. By the way, in 1480 AD, the Brahamana messenger-Sunanda-was reborn in the world as Varidaraja Theertha, the saint of Sode. He wrote the beautiful book Rukminisa Vijaya.) Krishna then comes to the complex of Amba Devi and Ekvira from where he  “kidnaps her”.

Though it has many temples, even today Amravathi is  known for the Amba Devi and Ekvira temples. A tunnel can still be seen today at the temple and it runs upto nearby Koundinyapura.

Koundinyapura was the capital of  Vidarbha under Bhismak and even today locals point out a mound which is believed to contain its ruins.

Amravathi is well-connected by both road and rail networks.