NOTES

Note 1, p. 13.

For a further discussion of these two main kinds of Indian expression, see

my _Indian Painting_ (Iris, Batsford, London, 1956).

Note 2, p. 14.

In Indian painting, Krishna is normally blue or mauve in colour, though

cases occur in which he is black, green or dark brown. Black would seem

to follow from Krishna's name--the word 'Krishna' meaning 'black'--and may

have been applied either because he sprang from a black hair of Vishnu

or because he was born at midnight, 'black as a thundercloud.' It has

been suggested that his dark complexion proves a Dravidian or even an

aboriginal origin since both the Dravidian races and the aboriginal tribes

are dark brown in colour in contrast to the paler Aryans. None of the

texts, however, appears to corroborate this theory. So far as 'blue' and

'mauve' are concerned, 'blue' is the colour of Vishnu and characterizes

most of his incarnations. As the colour of the sky, it is appropriate to

a deity who was originally associated with the sun--the sun with its

life-giving rays according well with Vishnu's role as loving protector.

'Blue' is also supposed to be the colour of the ocean on which Vishnu is

said to recline at the commencement of each age. In view of the variations

in colour in the pictures, it is perhaps significant that 'blue,' 'mauve'

and 'green' are commonly regarded in village India as variants of

'black'--many Indians making no distinction between them. In Indian

painting, the fact that Krishna is blue makes it easy to identify him, his

only serious rival being another and earlier incarnation of Vishnu, the

princely Rama. The latter can usually be distinguished from Krishna by the

fact that he carries a bow (never a cowherd's stick) and is often

accompanied by Hanuman, the monkey leader.

Note 3, p. 17.

For a comparison of Ghora Angirasa's teaching in the _Chandogya Upanishad_

with Krishna's precepts in the _Gita_, see Mazumdar, _The Age of Imperial

Unity_ (432-4) and Basham, _The Wonder that was India_ (242-7, 304-5)

Note 4, p. 17.

Although the actual date of the _Mahabharata_ war has been variously

assessed--'between 1400 and 1000 B.C.' (M.A. Mehendale in _The Age of

Imperial Unity_, 251) 'the beginning of the ninth century B.C. (Basham,

op. cit., 39)--the epic itself is generally recognized as being a product

of many centuries of compilation. The portions relating to Krishna the

hero may well date from the third century B.C. The _Gita_, on the other

hand, was possibly composed in the second century B.C. 'but assumed the

form in which it appears in the _Mahabharata_ today in the early centuries

A.D.' (Mehendale, op. cit., 249).

Note 5, p. 24.

The implication is that the Pandavas have not been granted ultimate

salvation i.e. final release from living but have reached the important

transitional level of 'the heaven of the doers of good deeds.' They have

also been granted the limited status of petty gods.

Note 6, p. 25.

_Harivansa_, 'the Genealogy of Krishna' but more literally, 'the Genealogy

of Hari,' a synonym for Vishnu. For the sake of clearness and to avoid

burdening the text with too much periphrasis, I have throughout referred

to Krishna as such. In the texts themselves, however, he is constantly

invoked under other names--Hari (or Vishnu), Govinda (the cowherd),

Keshava (the hairy or radiant one), Janarddana (the most worshipful),

Damodara ('bound with a rope,' referring to the incident (p. 32) when

having been tied by Yasoda to a mortar, Krishna uproots the two trees),

Murari ('foe of Mura, the arch demon' p. 58) or in phrases such as

'queller of Kaliya the snake,' 'destroyer of Kesi, the demon horse,'

'slayer of Madhu--the demon who sprang from the ear of Vishnu and was

killed by him.' A similar use of periphrasis occurs in Anglo-Saxon

kennings ('world-candle' for sun, 'battle-adders' for arrows). In the same

way, Abul Fazl's chronicle, the _Akbarnama_, never names the emperor Akbar

but refers to him in terms such as 'His Majesty,' 'the holy soul,' 'lord

of the age,' 'fountain of generosity,' 'the sacred heart,' 'the

world-adorning mind,' 'the decorated mansion of sports.'

Note 7, p. 26, 34, 46, 68, 69.

In Chapters 3 and 4 I have, in the main, strictly followed the _Bhagavata

Purana,_ incorporating, however, a few important details and passages

either not given in this text but included in the _Vishnu Purana_ or if

given, not so vividly expressed. The details and passages in question are

page 27 concerning the white and black hairs of Vishnu, page 34--the

lyrical description of Krishna's life in the forest, page 46--Akrura's

meditation as he goes to visit Krishna, page 68--the drunken brawl and

page 69 the deaths of Balarama and Krishna. All extracts are from H.H.

Wilson, _The Vishnu Purana_ (pages 498, 511, 541-2, 609-612).

Note 8, p. 28.

The resemblance between Kansa's order to kill all male infants and Herod's

slaughter of the innocents has often been remarked.

Note 9, p. 29.

Krishna's constant alterations of role, appearing sometimes as God but

more often as boy or man, have been commented on by Isherwood and

Prabhavananda in connection with Arjuna's dilemma in the _Mahabharata_.

'Krishna is the divine incarnation of Vishnu, Arjuna's chosen deity.

Arjuna knows this--yet, by a merciful ignorance, he sometimes forgets.

Indeed, it is Krishna who makes him forget, since no ordinary man could

bear the strain of constant companionship with God. After the vision of

Krishna's divine aspect, Arjuna is appalled by the realization that he has

been treating the Lord of the universe as 'friend and fellow-mortal.' He

humbly begs Krishna's pardon, but his awe soon leaves him. Again, he has

forgotten. We may infer the same relationship between Jesus and his

disciples after the vision of the transfiguration.' _(The Song of God,

Bhagavad-Gita,_ 29-30).

Note 10, p. 33.

Although part of the supreme Trinity, Brahma was often treated in

literature as an ordinary god who ambled gently about the world, was often

rather absent-minded, sometimes behaved as if he were a priest, and was

prone, as on the present occasion, to act a trifle misguidedly.

Note 12, p. 40.

The scene is illustrated in two Kangra and Guler paintings (Archer,

_Indian Painting in the Punjab Hills_, Figs. 10 and 23).

Note 12, p. 58.

Pragjyotisha--a city situated in the east, in Kamarupa on the borders of

Assam. According to the _Vishnu Purana_ (Wilson, 582), its environs were

defended by 'nooses, constructed by the demon Mura (Naraka's ally), the

edges of which were as sharp as razors.' Mura had seven thousand sons (not

seven, as stated in the _Bhagavata_). All, however, were 'burnt like moths

with the flame of the edge of Krishna's discus.'

Note 13, p. 67.

Basham (op. cit., 305) points out that elements in the Krishna story such

as the destruction of the Yadavas and the death of the god are 'quite

un-Indian in their tragic character. The themes of the drunken brawl

leading to a general slaughter, of the hero slain by an arrow piercing his

one vulnerable spot, and of the great city engulfed by the sea, are

well-known in European epic literature, but do not occur elsewhere in that

of India and are not hinted at in the Vedas. The concept of the dying god,

so widespread in the ancient Near East, is found nowhere else in Indian

mythology.'

It is unfortunate that Krishna's reasons for destroying the Yadava race

are nowhere made very clear. The affront to the Brahmans is the immediate

occasion for the slaughter but hardly its actual cause; and, if it is

argued that the Yadavas must first be destroyed in order to render

Krishna's withdrawal from the world complete, we must then assume that the

Yadavas are in some mysterious way essential parts of Krishna himself.

Such a status, however, does not seem to be claimed for them and none of

the texts suggest that this is so. The slaughter, therefore, remains an

enigma.

Note 14, p. 68.

Wilson (op. cit., 608) summarizing the portents listed in the

_Mahabharata_ but not included in the _Vishnu_ or _Bhagavata Puranas_.

Note 15, p. 72.

From the _Brihadaranyaka_, quoted A. Danielou, 'An Approach to Hindu

Erotic Sculpture,' _Marg_, Vol. II, No. i, 88. For a Western expression of

this point of view, compare Eric Gill, 'Art and Love,' _Rupam_ (Calcutta,

1925), No. 21, 5.

'If the trees and rocks, the thunder and the sea, the frightful avidity of

animal life and the loveliness of flowers are so many hints of the God who

made them, how much more obviously are the things of humanity analogues of

the things of God? And among all such things, the union of man and woman

takes the highest place and is the most potent symbol. Therefore it is

that outside the commercial civilizations of the western world, love and

marriage take their place as types of divine union and everywhere love and

marriage are the subject matter, the theme of religious writers, singers,

painters and sculptors. It is true that love is the theme of western

writers also but with them the idea of love is entirely free from divine

signification. (As a corollary), the more the divine background

disappears, the more the prudishness of the police becomes the standard of

ethics and aesthetics alike. Under such an aegis the arts are necessarily

degraded to the level of the merely sentimental or the merely sensual and

while the sentimental is everywhere applauded, the sensual is a source of

panic.'

Note 16, p. 73.

In later poetry as well as in popular worship, Radha's position is always

that of an adored mistress--never that of a beloved wife. And it is

outside or rather in the teeth of marriage that her romance with Krishna

is prosecuted. Such a position clearly involved a sharp conflict with

conventional morals and in the fourteenth century, an attempt was made,

in the _Brahma Vaivarta Purana_, to re-write the _Bhagavata Purana_,

magnifying Radha as leader of the cow-girls, disguising or rather denying

her adultery and finally presenting her as Krishna's eternal consort. For

this purpose, three hypotheses were adopted. Radha was throughout assumed

to be Krishna's spouse and it is only on account of a curse that she takes

human form as a cowgirl and comes to live in Brindaban. Radha herself does

not marry Ayana the cowherd--his wedding being only with her shadow.

Thirdly, Krishna comes to Brindaban and goes through a secret marriage

with her. Their love-making is, therefore, no longer adulterous but

strictly conjugal. It is not perhaps surprising that the _Brahma Vaivarta

Purana_ failed to capture the Indian imagination and indeed is nowadays

hardly ever heard of. It is of interest mainly on account of the prolific

information given about Radha, the fact that it sets her firmly in the

centre, dethroning the hapless Rukmini, and its baroque descriptions of

sexual union.

Note 17, p. 73.

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a parallel situation seems to

have arisen in feudal France and Germany where local love-poetry also

treated adultery as a _sine qua non_ of romance.

'Two things prevented the men of that age from connecting their ideal of

romantic and passionate love with marriage. The first is, of course, the

actual practice of feudal society. Marriages had nothing to do with love

and no 'nonsense' about marriage was tolerated. All marriages were matches

of interest and, worse still, of an interest that was continually

changing. When the alliance which had answered would answer no longer, the

husband's object was to get rid of the lady as quickly as possible.

Marriages were frequently dissolved. The same woman who was the lady and

'the dearest dread' of her vassals was often little better than a piece of

property to her husband. He was master in his own house. So far from being

a natural channel for the new kind of love, marriage was rather the drab

background against which that love stood out in all the contrast of its

new tenderness and delicacy. The situation is indeed a very simple one,

and not peculiar to the Middle Ages. Any idealization of sexual love, in a

society where marriage is purely utilitarian, must begin by being an

idealization of adultery.' (C.S. Lewis, _The Allegory of Love_ (London,

1936), 13.)

Note 18, p. 77.

Much of the _Gita Govinda's_ power arises from the endowment of Nature

with romantic ardour, the forest itself being presented as a highly

sensitive and symbolic setting for the behaviour of lovers. The following

passage from _Tess of the D'Urbervilles_ is perhaps the nearest approach

in English to this kind of treatment.

'Amid the oozing fatness and warm ferments of the Var Vale, at a season

when the rush of juices could almost be heard below the hiss of

fertilization, it was impossible that the most fanciful love should not

grow passionate. The ready bosoms existing there were impregnated by their

surroundings. July passed over their heads and the weather which came in

its wake seemed an effort on the part of Nature to match the state of

hearts at Talbothays Dairy. The air of the place, so fresh in the spring

and early summer, was stagnant and enervating now. Its heavy scents

weighed upon them, and at mid-day the landscape seemed lying in a swoon.

Ethiopic scorchings browned the upper slopes of the pastures, but there

was still bright herbage here where the water courses purled. And as Clare

was oppressed by the outward heats, so was he burdened inwardly by waxing

fervour of passion for the soft and silent Tess.'

Note 19, p. 77.

The _Gita Govinda_ was one of the first Sanskrit poems to be rendered into

English--Sir William Jones publishing a mellifluous version in _Asiatick

Researches_ in 1792. Later in the nineteenth century it was translated

into Victorian verse by Sir Edwin Arnold. The present translation from

which all the extracts are taken is by George Keyt, the foremost modern

artist of Ceylon. It is greatly to be hoped that the entire translation,

hitherto available only in an Indian edition, will one day be published in

England.

Note 20, p. 86.

Poems 1 and 2 are based on versions by O.C. Gangoly (_Masterpieces of

Rajput Painting_, 29, 58); poems 3-11 are from new translations by Deben

Bhattacharya.

Note 21, p. 91.

For the originals of certain poems in the _Rasika Priya_ and their literal

translation, see Coomaraswamy, 'The Eight Nayikas.'

Note 22, p. 104.

The first scholar to draw attention to this fact, i.e. that the subjects

are not Radha and Krishna but palace ladies impersonating them, is Dr.

Joan van Lohuizen de Leeuw, whose paper on this and kindred problems is

under preparation.

Note 23, p. 105.

For a detailed discussion of Bhanu Datta's _Rasamanjari_ and of similar

treatises by other Sanskrit authors, see V. Raghavan, _Srngaramanjari of

Saint Akbar Shah_ (Hyderabad, 1951).