But How Do Breasts in Perfect Circles Play Havoc With My Life: Images of the Female Gaze and Longing in the Gītagovinda of Jayadeva: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

In 1802, in response to a German rendering of the Gītagovinda, Goethe wrote, “What struck me as remarkable are the extremely varied motives by which an extremely simple subject is made endless” (Miller, X). Over twohundred years later it would seem that that endlessness of longing between Rādhā and Krishna continues to replicate itself, continues to demand that we question the motivations of such sagacious, such mutually-destructive and mutually-conciliatory yearning. The Gītagovinda is a challenge to the concluding equilibrium of the Rāsa Līlā Purāṇa. In the Purāna, Krishna is able to replicate himself and please all of the gopī women, which gives the joyous tale a joyous conclusion. Indeed, even in most visual representations of the Rāsa Līlā dance it appears that the gopīs and Krishna are locked in an endless procession of joy.