Rāsa Līlā (Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa)

The Rāsa Līlā is told in the Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Vishṇu Parva, Chapter 21. After Indra’s departure, Bhagavān Kṛshṇa went among the young gopīs of Vraja on the full-moon nights of the autumn season (śarat). With them he danced the maṇḍalākāra rāsa, the circular dance. The gopīs copied his every gesture, step and smile and moved in a great ring around him.

Vraja after Indra’s departure

Indra had gone up to svarga (heaven) after the Govinda-abhisheka. Kṛshṇa, who had lifted the Govardhana mountain, entered Vraja, honoured by all who lived there. The elders and kinsmen of the settlement praised him and marvelled at his deeds. They called themselves blessed.

Then they spoke to him with wonder: “We see that your deeds are beyond human power, O Govinda. By lifting the mountain you have shown yourself to be divine. Yet in whose form among the Rudras or the Maruts are you? Why has Vasudeva become your father? Your strength, your childhood play, your birth in this humble family of cowherds (gopas), your divine deeds: all of this fills us with bewilderment. One like you, who rules the worlds, should not have come among us in the form of a cowherd (gopāla).”

Kṛshṇa answered with a smile. He told them to wait, and in time they would know and see his true nature. (Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Vishṇu Parva, Chapter 21)

The rāsa begins

On those full-moon nights of śarat, Kṛshṇa looked at the bright moon and decided to play in the beautiful autumn night. In the cowherd settlement the lanes were fragrant with cow dung. The mighty Kṛshṇa set the great bulls to contest with one another. He set strong cowherds to wrestle against each other. He himself held the cows.

He knew his own age and youth. So in the night he called the young unmarried girls of the cowherds (gopa-kanyās) to him, and with them he played and rejoiced. (Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Vishṇu Parva, Chapter 21)

The gopīs see Kṛshṇa

The gopīs looked at Kṛshṇa’s beautiful face in the night, as one looks at the disk of the moon come down to earth. He wore a green garment and a garland of forest flowers (vanamālā). Govinda made all of Vraja shine with his presence.

The gopīs called out to him, “Dāmodara!” The young women came to him, embraced him, and fixed their restless eyes on his beautiful divine form. Their husbands, brothers and mothers tried to hold them back, yet in the night they went to Kṛshṇa. (Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Vishṇu Parva, Chapter 21)

The circular dance

The gopīs stood in a long line and then moved into a great circle, with Kṛshṇa at the centre. They sang of his deeds. They copied his movements and acted out his līlā (divine play). They kept their eyes on him and moved as he moved. They delighted in his dance (nṛtya), his song (gāna), his smile, his glance and his graceful gestures, and they repeated all of these in their own dance.

So Kṛshṇa stood as the ornament of the ring of gopa women, and he spent the autumn nights in joy and in ānanda (bliss). (Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Vishṇu Parva, Chapter 21)

The form of the rāsa

The dance told here is the maṇḍalākāra rāsa, the dance in a circle. Kṛshṇa stood in the centre and the gopīs moved around him in a ring. Their song was of Kṛshṇa. Their step was Kṛshṇa’s step. Their gaze was on Kṛshṇa. They moved as Kṛshṇa moved.

This dance came right after the Govinda-abhisheka that Indra performed. (Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Vishṇu Parva, Chapter 21)

Sources

• Hari Vaṃśa Purāṇa, Vishṇu Parva, Chapter 21