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'Retrieving Radha' (Review of Finding Radha: The Quest for Love edited by
Malashri Lal and Namita Gokhale)in Biblio: Review of Books

Article · June 2019

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M
alashri Lal and Namita
Gokhale’s anthology In
Search Of Sita: Revisiting
Mythology (Penguin/
Yatra, 2009) was an
eclectic compilation of
essays and adaptations
centring on the enduring
figure of Sita. Finding Radha: The Quest
for Love, published nine years later, makes
for a sequel of sorts as it trains its lens
on another female character from Indian
mythology, Radha. Though both books
adopt the same accessible style, where
the previous anthology was arranged
into discrete sub-sections named
‘Commentary’, ‘Dialogue’, ‘Versions’ and
‘Creative Interpretations’, the present
one has no such demarcations and
flows back and forth across approaches
and genres, echoing similar thematic
concerns. This anthology, according to
the editors, is an attempt to address the
apparent lacuna in scholarship devoted to
Radha and “follows Radha’s perspective
in texts of literary and cultural value” and
presents reconstructions of her story (p
xx). Lal states: “To speak of Krishna is
to evoke a rooted tradition of religious
and cultural ethnography, to speak of
Radha is to enter into the interstices of
such narratives” (p xxviii). But in times
when mythology has become a vehicle
for contesting discourses of far-reaching
consequences in India, how successful
is the text in opening up mythology to
domains outside the didactic religious
and into the secular and syncretic?
The central question propelling
the ‘quest’ for Radha concerns her
growth from obscurity to inseparable
union with Krishna over the centuries,
despite the explicitly transgressive,
adulterous and incestuous elements of
her erotic attachment to Krishna. Some
philosophical questions of identity
related to Radha-Krishna arise: who is
the lover and who the beloved; which
is the human soul and which the divine
love; and whether Radha has an identity
of her own, outside Krishna. Gokhale
asserts that Radha “was born of the
need to establish a direct emotional and
mystical relationship, a sensual, tactile,
immersive connect, with the sacred” (p
xiv). Meghnad Desai later suggests that
despite innumerable gopis and wives, the
absence of a single, privileged consort was
felt as a lack in a god of Krishna’s stature,
which could only be addressed through
the all-absorbing devotion of Radha, even
though their union is short-lived.
The collection begins with Devdutt
Pattanaik’s short essay that provides
a refrain for later ones — it traces the
absence/presence of Radha in the Hindu
religious and literary traditions from
the Bhagvata Purana to Jaideva’s Gita
Govinda and beyond, highlighting the
symbolic value of the Radha-Krishna
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●
● M Y T H O L O G Y ●
●
Retrieving Radha
Rajasthan, rendered in different aesthetic
styles over a period. Alka Pande’s essay on
the culturally-acceptable cross-dressing
that forms an aspect of the Radha-
Krishna discourse (with accompanying
● images of Kangra-style paintings on the
theme) posits this as embedded in an
Indian philosophical notion of oneness,
Finding Radha: The Quest for Love divorced from Western associations of the
Edited by Malashri Lal and Namita Gokhale same with gender power play. However,
one is prompted to question the hierarchy
Penguin Random House India, 2018, 265 pp., Rs 399 (PB) inherent in the conceptual categories of
the atman and the parmatman, or the
ISBN 978-0-143-44145-8 individual soul and universal soul, that
Pande believes to be enshrined in the
Radha-Krishna duo, and represented by
R I T U PA R N A S E N G U P TA
their cross-dressing. A response may be
found in Harsha Dehejia’s essay, wherein
he argues how the Bengal Vaishnav
union as the longing of the “universal is on surer ground when undertaking concept of androgyne godhead is distinct
soul” for “the supreme divine being”, textual analyses of the said texts and from the ardhanarishvar notion of
seeking freedom from worldly drawing larger conclusions from them – Kashmiri Shaivism and by implication,
responsibilities. Pattanaik makes a case for instance the comparison of Radha’s more egalitarian. Alka Kurian’s
for the transmutation over time of the embodiment of “unfallen Eros” with the persuasive reasoning places the Radha-
myth of Kama, the god of lust and his virgin/whore dichotomy of Christian Krishna trope as integral to the romantic
consort Rati who is the goddess of thought – but flimsier in his digressions framework of earlier Bollywood cinema,
erotics, into the sensual-spiritual pairing and speculations – such as what the and interrogates its increasing irrelevance
of Radha-Krishna. Lalit Kumar’s essay mythical Radha could have said to the in more recent films.
is a commentary on the work of Tagore’s historical Gandhi about desire. (pp 67, Tarashankar Bandopadhyay’s short
Bhanusingher Padavali, which was a 73) story ‘Raikamal’ translated from Bengali
collection of love songs published in Amongst the essays that lend the by Aruna Chakravarty touches upon
1877 in a Calcutta periodical, invoking anthology a subversive flavour, are themes of desire/restraint, spiritual/
the poetic style of Vidyapati; this was the ones putting gender centre stage. erotic and home/travel.
an elaborate hoax fashioned around Madhureeta Anand’s piece is a moving The poetry selections include several
the fictitious persona of Bhanusingh, account of a personal encounter with the evocative excerpts. Sample for example,
Priya Sarukkai Chabria’s translation
● of Andal : “If he won’t caress me, what
use is this howling tenderness?” (p 183).
The central question propelling the ‘quest’ for Radha Or, Ramakanta Rath’s Sri Radha: “You
are a dagger…/that tears me but when/
concerns her growth from obscurity to inseparable I recover and look,/ the one who is
union with Krishna over the centuries, despite the bleeding/is you, not me.” (p 204)
In totality, the anthology would
explicitly transgressive, adulterous and incestuous have benefited from a tighter editorial
elements of her erotic attachment to Krishna. Some arrangement of segments, allowing for a
certain progression of ideas and charting
philosophical questions of identity related to Radha- a more distinct trajectory of disciplinary
Krishna arise: who is the lover and who the beloved; approaches separating the explicatory
which is the human soul and which the divine love; essays, from the commentary and analysis,
and the creative adaptation. Alternatively,
and whether Radha has an identity of her own, contributors with overlapping themes
outside Krishna could have been brought into conversation
with each other, thereby avoiding
● echoes of thought and making several
contributions more substantial in both
a 14th-century poet whom Tagore spirit of Radha in modern-day Varanasi, length and import. Is it a sign of our times
pretended to have ‘discovered’. Renuka embodied in the unlikely but not that the anthology devotes considerable
Narayanan significantly charts the incommensurable figures of abandoned attention to the narrativisation of Radha
metaphorical travels of Radha across widows learning to find hope and within the religious tradition? It is also
geography and history from Andal in the dignity in lives outside the matrimonial surprising that the erotic Radhika-
south in the 8th-9th centuries, to Kabir arrangement. The mystery of the town’s Santwanam penned in Telugu by the
and then Guru Nanak in the north in omnipresent greeting of “Radhe Radhe” 18th-century courtesan Maddupalani
15th-16th centuries, via Sri Ramanuja is revealed: it is meant to invoke one’s and later compiled into a complete
and Sant Ramananda, thereby tracing “Radha quality”, which is the quality of edition by the 19th-century devadasi
the roots of the “Radha logic” (p 137) to surrendering with abandon, on the path Nagarathnamma, banned by the British
Andal, the “girl saint”. to joy and love (p 103). The extract colonial government and only recently
Yudit Greenberg’s essay is an intriguing from Indira Goswami’s novel The Blue- made available in English translation,
comparison of the tropes of erotic love Necked God, translated from Assamese finds just fleeting mention in one essay
common to two myths/legends that into English by Gayatri Bhattacharyya, (Paranjape’s).
emerged from two different cultures – makes for a striking contrast in mood by One cannot resist comparing the Sita
the 12th-century Sanskrit poem Gita again turning to the widows at Vrindavan, and Radha anthologies, and concluding
Govinda and Shir Ha-Shirim from the but foregrounding their deprivation and that the scope of the latter is considerably
Hebrew Bible – and finds resonances in hunger that disturbingly turns upon the more limited, perhaps because there is
the depiction of female desire and nature body of the young bewildered visitor less room for debate when it comes to
imagery in both. Pavan Varma continues Saudamini. Debotri Dhar’s ‘A Flute Radha and she lacks the political urgency
this focus on the erotic by looking at Called Radha’ ends on an unexpected that discussions around Sita connote
the 16th/17th century erotic treatise note of critique centring on gender in contemporary India. The previous
Rasikapriya written by Keshav Das in norms and desire, where the ostracised, anthology was also more academically
Hindi, cogently demonstrating how flesh-and-blood Radha challenges the rigorous: for instance, Mandakranta
Radha and Krishna become the nayika future Radha of romantic mythology: Bose’s comparative analysis of Sita and
and nayaka or, “all-purpose models” “What would change? Men would still Radha in the present anthology does not
(p 109) for the prescribed sexual love and leave. And women would still have the sharp focus of Karen Gabriel’s
interactions between women and men be women, and forgive the men while comparison of Sita and Draupadi from
of different inclinations and situations. piously condemning each other.” (p 166) the previous one. As the title indicates,
Makarand Paranjape’s search for Radha Kapila Vatsyayan is among the few who the search for Radha remains within the
takes him beyond the usual Gita draw attention to the visual history of discourse of ‘love’ and like ruminations
Govinda and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the depictions of Radha, here a scholarly on ‘love’, delights in retaining the aura of
to other medieval texts like Surdas’s exploration of around 20 illustrated mystery around the object of its pursuit.
Sursagar and Bihari’s Satsai. Paranjape manuscripts of the Gita Govinda from n
BIBLIO : APRIL – JUNE 2019
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