Religions of South Asia 6.1 (2012) 83-101 ISSN (print) 1751-2689 doi:10.1558/rosa.v6i1.83 ISSN (online) 1751-2697 © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2012, Unit S3, Kelham House, 3 Lancaster Street, Sheield, S3 8AF. Rādhe, Rādhe!: Continuity and Change in the Contemporary Oral Performance of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa MCCOMaS TaylOr 1 The australian National University School of Culture, History and language Baldessin Precinct Building; australian National University aCT 0200 australia mccomas.taylor@anu.edu.au aBSTraCT: This article focuses on the sacred week-long story-telling event known as a Bhāgavat-saptāh. The saptāh centres on narratives of the deity Viṣṇu and, in particular, his manifestation as Kṛṣṇa, and on Kṛṣṇa’s devoted lover Rādhā. These stories are preserved in their most authoritative form in the Sanskrit text of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa. First I will examine the traditional instructions for holding a saptāh, which I will call the ‘archetype’. I will then describe a saptāh which took place at Vrindavan, Uttarpradesh, India, in November 2009. I will then compare the archetype with the case study, identifying six major continuities: the central role of the text, temporal aspects, economic considerations, visual preparation, spatial arrangements and social inclusiveness. I also identify two major divergences: the sectarian content and the use of the vernacular. Finally, I seek to explain both in terms of modernizing processes. Continuity and divergence are found to take place both in spite of, and because of, such processes. KEyWOrDS: Bhāgavatapurāṇa; Bhāgavat-saptāh; Kṛṣṇa; oral performance; Rādhā; Vrindavan. INTrODUCTION Vrindavan is a town of about 60,000 inhabitants situated four hours by road southeast of Delhi in the state of Uttarpradesh. 2 It lies at the heart of the 1. McComas Taylor heads the South asia Program in the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Paciic at the Australian National University. His research focuses on power and knowledge in Sanskrit texts and the contemporary purāṇic performance. 2. I use standard modern Hindi spellings for names, words and phrases usually encountered in that language, and the Sanskrit forms of words when this is the more usual form.