Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/35

 The Legends of Krishna, 25

tion that in Bolivia people swing all day long on All Souls' Day in the hope that while they swing they may approach the spirits of their departed friends as they fly from Purgatory to Paradise. They swing as high as they can, so as to reach the topmost branches of the trees, and when- ever they are able to pull off one of the higher boughs they think that they release a soul from Purgatory.^

A large part of the Krishna legend relates to his amours with the Gopis, the wives and daughters of the herdsmen of the land of Braj. On this is based many of the erotic myths which form such a repulsive element in modern Vaishnavism. " Drawn from their lonely homes," as Mr. Growse tells the story," " by the low sweet notes of his seductive pipe, they floated round him in rapturous love, and through the moonlight autumn nights joined him in the circling dance, passing from glade to glade in ever-increas- ing ecstacy of passion. To whatever theme his voice was attuned, their song had but one burden — his perfect beauty ; and as they mingled in the mystic maze, with eyes closed in the intensity of voluptuous passion, each nymph as she grasped the hand of her partner thrilled at the touch, as though the hand were Krishna's, and dreamed herself alone supremely blessed in his undivided affection. Radha, fairest of the fair, reigned queen of the revels, and so languished in the heavenly delights of his embraces that all consciousness of earth and self was obliterated."

This is the dance known as the Rasa-mandala, or circular dance, and in the popular representations of it " whatever the number of Gopis introduced so often is the figure of Krishna repeated. Thus each Gopi can claim him as a partner, while again in the centre of the circle he stands in larger form with his favourite, Radha." By a similar legend a friend challenged Krishna to bestow on

' Sth Series Notes and Queries, vi., 345. - Growse, loc. cit., 61.