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As it expanded into the many alcoves of Indian life, the narrative and attendant imagery of the ra\sa-lêla\, the story of Kr≥s≥n≥a’s dancing with the cowherd women of Vr≥nda\vana, nourished a wide variety of genres of poetry and drama. Indeed, the perspectives, commentaries, and offshoots of this narrative have been innumerable, and it is not within the scope of this volume to deal with many of them. Nevertheless, whether one is looking at the ra\sa-lêla\’s sublime poetry, theological arguments, source materials, or derivative works, one has to acknowledge and contend with the narrative’s enduring power. Indeed, the ongoing celebrity of this particular story may very well have something to do with its ability to bring love and death together in an unprecedented manner, and this is therefore where I will focus my investigation. Is this narrative principally an allegorical or didactic work, a siddha \nta, or does the text appropriate the “cowherd woman story” as a collective fantasy, reflecting deeper wishes which are utterly at odds with cultural norms (the psychoanalytic reading)?1 This last idea is a particularly sensitive one, because it raises vociferous objections from partisans and from representatives of disciplic lines (samprada\yas) who advocate deep esoteric interpretations of this material, considering its reduction to human terms to be extremely sacriligious.2 Any judgments about the anagogic experience associated with this text are tenuous to say the least. The esoteric entrance into the lêla\ of S:rê Kr≥s≥n≥a is said to be a religious mystery that is entered through faith and practice as opposed to speculation. Nevertheless, speculation has abounded. We know, for example, that the chapter’s “transgressive” material has been quite threatening to Indian reformers like Ram Mohan Roy who spurned the 91 6 THE RA|SA DANCE AND THE GATEWAY TO HEAVEN Bha\gavata. This stands to reason, since some of the most ingrained, cultural paradigms (such as “woman as the gateway to hell”) are dramatically inverted in this section of the Pura\n≥a. The heightened expression of lamentation over loss that is considered a weakness in S:uka’s discussion of the Ra\ma\yan≥a becomes an exalted and transformative force in this part of the Bha\gavata. A colleague of mine, who lived as a sa\dhu in India, once remarked that Vr≥nda\vana contains simultaneously the best and worst of human nature. This statement can well be compared to the responses initiated by the Ra\sapañca\dhya\yê, the five chapters about the ra\sa-lêla\ that continue both to inspire profound devotion and to provoke bitter scorn.3 The first thing to emphasize here is that the text is presenting ritualized archetypal—as opposed to literal representative—material. The setting, scenes, and characters therefore appear to be “type-cast,” symbolic , if you will, and this positioning informs the particulars of the narrative . Except for Kr≥s≥n≥a, there is no individual character study or development . No one else is described or discussed at any great length. The gopês, or cowherd women, are portrayed as a collective body, often as Kr≥s≥n≥a’s “ornaments,” and always as part of his divinity. And while Kr≥s≥n≥a may be an individual character, he is far from a human one. The text repeatedly emphasizes Kr≥s≥n≥a’s divinity in hyperbolic terms, contributing to its fantastic sensibility. This larger than life, material, however , is laden with social and emotional repercussions. Conclusions that have been drawn from, and patterns of living and thinking that have emerged through the ra\sa-lêla\ episode can be as disturbing as they are sublime, and this needs to be reckoned with. Although my focus here is more on a literary reading of the text than on its social applications, the text cannot be viewed apart from its pervasive presence in the culture and the possible reasons for it. The ra\sa dance, itself—the image of Kr≥s≥n≥a dancing in a circle with the cowherd women—may derive from a specific form noted in the Na\èyas;a\stra, in which female dancers move with their hands interlocked in the company of men who have their arms placed around the necks of the women. It may also have been an actual performance tradition of the time.4 In either case, one sees the operation of elemental...

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