@sundaralekhan Day 6 + Day 7: Pride + Creator's Choice
Combinging my free day with the Day 6 prompt. Anyone who has interacted with my content in the past year would probably already get why.
For the last prompt, I'm choosing to highlight Uddhav Sandesh by Surdas and the subculture and plethora of works it inspired. This scene is specifically based on Uddhav Shatak by Jagannath Das Ratnakar — an anthology of 100+ couplets in Braj Bhasha from 1874 about Uddhav's journey from Mathura to Braj with Krishna's letters to his parents, Radha, and the gopis.
Illustration is based on specifically these couplets by Ratnakar, after Uddhav's return from Braj:
ब्रज-रजरंजित सरीर सुभ ऊधव कौ धाइ बलबीर ह्वै अधीर लपटाए लेत । कहै रतनाकर सु प्रेम-मद-माते हेरि थरकति बाँह थामि थहरि थिराए लेत ॥ कीरति-कुमारी के दरस-रस सद्य ही की छलकनि चाहि पलकनि पुलकाए लेत । परन न देत एक बूँद पुहुमी की कौंछि पौंछि-पौंछि पट निज नैननि लगाए लेत ॥
(Rough) Translation :
Bathed in the rajas (guna) of Braj Uddhav's body becomes pious. Krishna embraces him impatiently. Says Ratnakar look at the one intoxicated with love, shaking arms are held (by Krishna) and (Uddhav) is steadied. Seeing the glorious maidens (Uddhav's) eyes wish to shed (tears of) joy. (Krishna) doesn't let one drop fall to the earth, (he) dabs (Uddhav's tears) and applies them to his own eyes.
Surdas' Uddhav Sandesh details the very same trip, Uddhav's travel from Mathura to Braj with letters for Yashoda, Nanda, Radha, and the gopis from a very distraught Krishna worried about their well being and their pain of separation from him. Uddhav questions their sadness, proposes they part with their despair born from 'worldly love' and instead meditate on the formless Supreme Being, since Krishna is very much that. However, his preaching of devotional love does not please or satiate the gopis who just want their Kanha back and they end up changing Uddhav's mind, gaining his empathy.
This episode can be and has been written with varying takes. In Ratnakar's work, Krishna and Uddhav are more touchy feely than they are in the Surdas version, which largely uses heavy symbolism and metaphor for the pairing (eg: Krishna is the lotus and Uddhav is the bee who will get stuck in the mud the lotus is growing in just to have a chance at the nectar.) However, in all versions, Krishna's polyamory and Uddhav's unconventional takes on love, and Uddhav-Gopi banter concluding in 'all love is valid' are constant. You cannot split the queer undercurrent from the narrative. Note that Surdas wrote his work in the 15th-16th century. Ratnakar is one of the last ones to write a retelling of the work in 19th century. Separated by about 400 years, Uddhav Sandesh and its derivatives are filled with a legacy of continued acceptance of love in all forms and going beyond devotional love for the 'god' that's right there regardless of gender or identity. This, to me, as a queer South Asian, is a matter of Pride and echoes 'we're here, we're queer'.
