_Bhagavata Purana_ continues to be the chief chronicle of Krishna's
acts but the last half of Book Ten and all of Book Eleven fall into
neglect.[49] In their place, the story of Krishna's relations with the
cowgirls is given new poignancy and precision. Radha is constantly
mentioned and in all the incidents in the _Purana_ involving cowgirls,
it is she who is given pride of place. At the river Jumna, when Krishna
removes the cowgirls' clothes, Radha begs him to restore them. At the
circular dance in which he joins with all the cowgirls, Radha receives his
first attentions, dancing with him in the centre. When Krishna is about to
leave for Mathura, it is Radha who heads the cowgirls and strives to detain
him. She serves, in fact, as a symbol of all the cowgirls' love. At the
same time, she is very far from being merely their spokesman or leader and
while the later texts dwell constantly on her rapturous love-making with
Krishna, they also describe her jealousy when Krishna makes love to other
girls. Indeed the essence of their romance is that it includes a temporary
estrangement and only after Krishna has neglected Radha, flirted with
other cowgirls and then returned to her is their understanding complete.

The second result is the allegorical interpretation which Krishna's
romances now received. In Christian literature, the longing of the soul
for God was occasionally expressed in terms of sexual imagery--the works
of the Spanish mystic, St. John of the Cross, including 'songs of the
soul in rapture at having arrived at the height of perfection which is
union with God.'

Oh night that was my guide!
Oh darkness dearer than the morning's pride,
Oh night that joined the lover
To the beloved bride
Transfiguring them each into the other.