'Radha'
In Indian Song & Dance

Her eyes are pink-tinged as if they have eaten a 'tamboola' and
her gem-encrusted 'tika' glows like a many-splendoured flame. She
is the fountainhead of happiness, at which even the Lord finds his
joy. Such is Radha - arguably the most famous woman in Indian
mythology, the most sung about, the most portrayed.

Who is she? How do the authors of mythological texts portray her?
As a goddess? As a woman with earthly qualities? Or as an admirable
mixture of the two? Some of the earliest references to her are found
in the Brahmavaivarta Purana. The most imaginative portrayal is
perhaps in the Vishnu Purana, which refers to the Lord's Leela and
gives her a form which is at once divine and human.

A The following verse from the Vishnu Purana refers to her as a
beautiful woman:

Ka-pi tena samayata kritapunya madalasa .. padani tasyaischaitani
ghananyalpatanuni cha (5.13.33)

Roughly translated, this verse describes her as a languid beauty,
with a graceful gait and feet that are small and beautiful.

The Padma Purana speaks of her as the "Adyaprakriti" -- the first
among the "Prakritis" of Vishnu, who is the "Purusha".

The Radha who figures in the literature, music, dance and art of
later years is, swathed in eroticism; she is the eternal lover who,
with single -minded purpose, walks the dark forests in the hope
of catching a glimpse of Krishna, and who finds her self-fulfillment
in total surrender.

The origin of this Radha can be traced to the many cults which
flourished in the later centuries -- all centred on Krishna, and all
regarding love as the finest way to achieve divinity. The
Madhurabhakti cult, for instance, considers a devotee's relationship
with his god as that between two lovers. Krishna, the dark-skinned,
flute-playing, magical lover is the male archetype for the followers
of this cult and the beautiful Radha is the female archetype. To them
she is love incarnate, the quintessence of all the romance that the
human heart is capable of dreaming of, and the symbol of the most
sublimated form of devotion.

It is not surprising that many poets, painters, dancers and singers
over the centuries have regarded her as their special deity and
painted her and Krishna with all the colours of their dreams and
longings.

The finest products of the Krishna-Radha cult, which had its home
chiefly in eastern, upper and central India, are some poetic and
prose compositions in Sanskrit. Written in the 11th and 12th
centuries, they were responsible for its spread to other parts of the
country.

The Geeta Govinda of Jayadeva, a work of great lyrical beauty,
written during the reign of Lakshmanasena of Bengal, bears traces of
the influence of the Kamasutra. It is with this poem that Radha
emerges as the supreme nayika.

Since Jayadeva lived and wrote his immortal classic in Orissa, it
was befitting that the Geeta Govinda should find pride of place
in the repertoire of Odissi dancers in the Jagannatha temple at
Puri, a great centre of Vaishnavism in those days.

The sakhibhava aspect of Vaishnavism enhances the appeal the poem,
for it shows Krishna as the supreme god and the devotees, male or
female, as his consorts. In Orissa, the gotipus, or male dancers,
dress as females and enact excerpts from the Geeta Govinda to this
day.

How does Jayadeva visualise Radha? She is dejected at Krishna's
dalliance with other women and is then wooed back by a subdued lover.
He pictures her as a sensual woman with a body that arouses amorous
longings in Krishna. He speaks of her as one whose "limbs are tender
as the flowers of spring," "who is consumed by the fever of love,"
"who, blinded by love, seeks Krishna in whatever she sees".

She is a woman with curly black tresses, with lips like the bimba
fruit, with moist eyes, and a fragrant lotus-pink mouth. Her face is
round and "softly lustrous as the moon".

There is some evidence to show that Jayadeva, who was himself a
Natyacharya, wrote his poem for dancers. His own wife, Padma-vati,
is said to have been one of the first to translate the Geeta Govinda
into dance. The ashtapadis (compositions) are set to definite ragas
(melodies) and talas (rhythms), which suggests that they were meant
for singing or as accompaniments to dancing. There are at least
two manuscripts of the poem -- both in the Saraswati Mahal Library
at Tanjore in south India -- in Sanskrit, where abhinaya for its
17 ashtapadis is clearly delineated.

Jayadeva presents Radha in the form of seven nayikas, namely:
Abhisarika, Khandita, Vipralabdha, Virahotkantitha, Vasakasajja,
Kalahantarita and Swadhinapatika. She is not Prostitapatika, since
her lover is never abroad or away throughout the duration of the
poem.

The 'Krishna Geeti' by Manaveda, one of the Zamorins of Calicut,
was inspired by the theme of Geeta Govinda. It is a known fact that
the classical dance form of Kerala, Kathakali, developed from
Krishnattam.

The spirit of the Geeta Govinda influenced painting, poetry and
dancing wherever Vaishnavism spread. In Andhra it was popularised
through the work of Narahari. Beginning with the 16th century, when
Tansen gave a new impetus to the tradition of Hindustani music,
court musicians began to travel around and receive patronage at
the princely courts in and around the region which is known as Braj
--Agra, Mathura and Bharatpur. Here, the folklore was replete with
legends of the loves of Krishna and Radha. Many musicians, Muslims
and Hindus, were captivated by these and wrote and sang about the
amours of Krishna and Radha.

Here is a composition in; the raga Abhogi which treats her as a
goddess:

Jayati shri Radhike, sakal sadhike ..
Taruni mani, nitya nautran kishori..

This composition hails Radha as the giver of happiness, as a jewel
among women, an ever-youthful beauty who waits like the legendary
chataka bird for the blue-faced Krishna and who is as beautiful
as a moonbeam resting upon a drift of snow.

In other compositions, invariably in the language of that
region,Brajabhasha, musicians see in her all the traditional nayikas.
For instance, in a composition in the raga Khamaj, she is the
submissive, fun-loving woman who pleads with Krishna to forget his
quarrel with her and participate in the holi dance. Then tired of
pleading, she threatens that she will never play the raas with him:

Abahon faga khelon nahi
tumse.. Are Kanha, jo bhai so bhai ri.

In a composition in an old raga -- Gandhaar -- she is very
picturesquely described as the Virahotkantitha :

"Kahiyo Udho tum jo neha beeja bo..
Gavan kino Madho, biraha lago Radhake mana.. "

(Oh Uddhav, tell Madhava that after sowing the seed of love, he
has gone away and Radha is very lonely without him. Her starlike
eyes are now like deep sunken wells and bear the weight of tears
with great difficult. Her thick lashes shower tears of agony.)

As an abhisarika, she goes to the banks of the Yamuna looking for
Krishna and the composer warns her (raga Bhairavi):

"Akeli mata Jaiyo Radha Jumna ke teer"
(Do not go alone to the banks of the Jumna, oh Radha..)

There are times when the composer visualises her tryst with Krishna
and then teases her (raga Ramkali) :

"Aaj Radhe tore badanpar..
Shyam mile ki chori re.."

(The marks of Shyam's love-making are visible on your body, oh Radha.
Your errant lips and your eyes, intoxicated with love, show that
you are dancing with joy after your tryst with your beloved.)

She is sometimes a sorceress (raga Jai-jaiwanti) : "The hori today
was wonderful," says the composer, "and Krishna has come home in
joy. But the people of Gokul say that Radha has cast her evil eye
upon him. A black mark should be put upon his cheek to ward off the
evil."

But on a higher plane, even the uneducated musicians see the
relationship of Radha with Krishna in its true light and they sing of
their eternal oneness. Says a thumri in the raga Piloo :

Tum Radhe bano Shyam..
sab dekhengi Brijbham..

("Become Radha yourself, oh Shyam. Let all the women of Braj look
upon you as Radha. You have never heeded my words, but this once,
do as I beg of you. If you become Radha, then we shall dance as
never before, and no one will know that you are Ghanshyam.")

To sum up, Radha, to most Indian dancers, poets, musicians and
painters, is the devotee who achieves divinity through an involvement
born of love rather than through the powers of her intellect.

As Randhawa and Galbraith point out in their book ' Indian Painting',

"Eastern philosophy seeks god through feeling. Those who seek him
in the sterile sands of intellectuality seek him in vain. Nor is
mere brilliance of intellect highly regarded; emotion is the key
to the realisation of God..Poetry and music have refinement as
their aim. Divine love is the sublimation of sexual love. It is
the music of the human soul..its most vivid expression is in and
through sexual union. This gilds the vision, lends enchantment even
to prosaic persons.."

Source: originally posted at the website of
'soulsearchindia'.

Jaya Sri Radhey!

Learn more about Sri Radhika at:

http://barsanadham.org/festivals-radhaashtmi.html