The story of Radha has evolved through history
The story of Radha has evolved through historyIt is impossible to think of Krishna without thinking of Radha. Theirs is an eternal love story, the stuff of romantic songs. And yet, some of the biggest Krishna temples in India do not enshrine the image of Radha. In Puri, Orissa, Krishna is enshrined with his sister Subhadra and his brother Balaram. In Udupi, Karnataka, and Guruvayoor, Kerala, and Nathdvara, Rajasthan, Krishna stands alone as a cowherd boy. In Pandharpur, Maharashtra, and Dwarka, Gujarat, he stands alone with the temple of his wife Rukmini nearby.u00a0 Even the most sacred book of Krishna, the Bhagavat Puran, does not mention Radha. To understand this, we have to look at the historical development of Krishna worship in India.
It is difficult for many people to accept that religious ideas have a history of their own. The earliest tales of Krishna, found in the Mahabharata, compiled between 300 BC and 300 AD, only refer to, but do not describe, his early life in the village of cowherds. Later around 400 AD, the Harivamsa was added as an appendix to the Mahabharata. This described in detail Krishna's life in Gokul including his dalliance with milkmaids. But there was no mention of Radha or any particular milkmaid. The women were a collective with whom Krishna danced and sported. The mood was joyful and carnival like. In the Bhagvata Purana, compiled around 10th century in south India, where the idea of devotion to God visualised as Krishna was elaborated, Krishna disappears when the milkmaids become possessive and seek exclusive attention. The idea that God (Krishna) loves all with equal intensity was visually expressed by making the women dance in a circle, each one equidistant from Krishna who stood playing the flute in the centre.
Around this time Prakrit literature started referring to one Radha who was portrayed as Krishna's favourite. In Hala's Gatha Saptasati Krishna removes a dust particle kicked up by cows from Radha's eye thus declaring her exalted position in his heart and humbling the other women. In these songs Krishna is not divine; he is a simple cowherd, a hero of the village folk. The songs lack sensual passion and religious ecstasy. Radha is never wife, and the dominant emotion is one of longing following separation, an emotion that eventually characterizes Radha-Krishna relationship.
In the 5th century, the Tamil epic, Shilapadikaram, refers to one Nal-Pinnai who was beloved of Mal (the local name for Krishna). Scholars believe that she represents an early form of Radha. This idea of a favourite milkmaid gradually spread to the north and reached its climax with the composition of the Gita Govinda, a Sanskrit song written by Jayadeva in the 12th century AD where the passion of the cowherd god and his milkmaid beloved was celebrated in a language and style that took all of India by storm.
Many scholars are of the opinion that Jayadeva was born in a village near Puri, Orissa, which is renowned for the grand temple complex of Jagannath, lord of the world, a local form of Krishna. Research has shown that he was involved with Padmavati, a temple dancer or devadasi and perhaps even married her. His work was inspired by both his personal experience and his religious beliefs. Each of Jayadeva's song is composed of eight couplets known as Ashtapadis. 24 Ashtapadis make a chapter and 12 chapters make up the entire work. In it Krishna is identified as the supreme divine being a radical shift from earlier scriptures where Krishna is one of the many incarnations of Vishnu. The book uses extremely ornamental language to describe in intimate details Radha's passion. As one moves from verse to verse, one is transported from the physical realm into the spiritual realm.
The erotic longing becomes the cry of the soul for union with the divine.
Such an approach was revolutionary; it fired the imagination of the priests and dancers who made it part of the temple ritual. Being a major Vaishnava religious centre, hundreds of pilgrims from all over India poured into Puri. Day and night, they heard the priests sing Jayadeva's song of Radha's love for Krishna and the devadasis depict her yearning for her beloved in graceful dance steps. Before long they were mouthing the lyrics and taking it back to their villages. In less than a century, Gita Govinda transformed from a temporal parochial literary work into a pan-Indian sacred scripture. It completely revitalised Vaishanvism in the subcontinent and catalyzed the rise of the bhakti or devotional movement in India.
In time, down the Gangetic plains especially, Radha became a Goddess in her own right. Without her, Krishna was incomplete. She was the medium through which Krishna could be realised. Metaphysically, Radha came to represent the truth of our soul, the unexpressed, unrequited longings of our heart, suppressed by social realities which cries out to Krishna. Krishna acknowledges this truth of our being that society denies, each time he dances with Radha at night, outside the village, in secret.u00a0
Disclaimer > This column attempts to explain sacred beliefs in the spirit of genuine and respectful curiosity without claiming any authority on the same.
