KRSNA STEALS THE GOPIS' CLOTHES: A FOLKTALE MOTIF1

A unitary theology is achieved for the Krsna cycle of myths only with the greatest difficulty, if at all. This article examines one of the themes dealing with Krsna and the gopis, the ciraharana, the stealing of the clothes. Peripheral to this is the hero's climbing a tree and observing the gopTs thence. The ensuing discussion leads to the conclusion that the cTraharana is a floating motif of sexual fantasy, of ancient date, as attested by its wide dispersion throughout India and by its occurrence in the Kathdsaritsdgara. It was seized first by the Krsna bhakti movement of south India as early as the 5th century A.D. and then by the composer of the Sanskrit Bhdgavatapurdna in the 9th or 10th century. The motif, including the detail of the climbing of the tree, then became a firmly fixed part of the Krsna cycle first in Tamilian and then Caitanya bhaktism. THE KRSNA CYCLE OF MYTHS is neither textually nor theologically a unitary one. The charioteer of the Mahabhdrata, the enunciator of the BhagavadgTtd, the child and adult cowherd of the Harivamra, and the lover of the gopis and of Radha, are textually attested at different periods and are, presumably, of different origins. A unitary theology is achieved for them only with the greatest difficulty (if at all). This is a commonplace of modern scholarship on Hindu religion. There is much intensive and detailed study of the various elements of the cycle, as to content, and textual attestation and relationships. The most recent such study is Hardy's Viraha-bhakti (1983), which