533:3 This is a rather inexplicit statement, but the comment makes it clear. Krishńa, it is said, in order to form the circle, takes each damsel by the hand, and leads her to her place: there he quits her; but the effect of the contact is such, that it deprives her of the power of perception, and p. 534 she contentedly takes the hand of her female neighbour, thinking it to be Krishńa's. The Bhágavata is bolder, and asserts that Krishńa multiplied himself, and actually stood between each two damsels: 'The Rása dance, formed of a circle graced by the Gopís, was then led off by the lord of magic, Krishńa having placed himself in the midst of every two of the nymphs.' The Hari Vanśa intimates the same, though not very fully: 'Then all the nymphs of the cowherds, placing themselves in couples in a row, engaged in pleasant diversion, singing the deeds of Krishńa.' The Pankti, or row, is said by the commentator to mean here, the Mańd́ala, or ring; and the couples' to imply that Krishńa was between every two. He quotes a verse to this effect from some other Vaishńava work: 'Between each two damsels was Mádhava, and between each two Mádhavas was a nymph; and the son of Devakí played on the flute:' for, in fact, Krishńa is not only dancing with each, but also by himself in the centre; for this the commentator on the Hari Vanśa cites a passage from the Vedas: ###. Literally, 'The many-formed (being) assumes (various) bodies. One form stood apart, occupying triple observance.' Now if the verse be genuine, it probably refers to something that has little to do with Krishńa; but it is explained to apply to the Rása; the form of Krishńa being supposed to be meant, as wholly distinct from the Gopís, and yet being beheld by every one of them, on each side and in front of her. In the meditation upon Krishńa, which is enjoined in the Brahma Vaivartta, he is to be contemplated in the centre of the Rása Mańd́ala, in association with his favourite Rádhá; but the Mańd́ala described in that work is not a ring of dancers, but a circle of definite space at Vrindávana, within which Krishńa, Rádhá, and the Gopís divert themselves, not very decorously. This work has probably given the tone to the style in which the annual festival, the Rása Yátrá, is celebrated in various parts of India, in the month of Kártika, upon the sun's entrance into Libra, by nocturnal dances, and representations of the sports of Krishńa. A circular dance of men and women, however, does not form any prominent feature at these entertainments, and it may be doubted if it is ever performed. Some of the earliest labourers in the field of Hindu mythology have thought this circular dance to typify the dance of the planets round the sun (Maurice, Ancient History of Hindus, I. 108. II. 356); but there is no particular number assigned to the performers by any of the Hindu authorities, beyond its limitation to sixty-four. At the Rása Mandala of the Brahma Vaivartta, Rádhá is accompanied by thirty-six of her most particular friends amongst the Gopís, but they are each attended by thousands of inferior personages, and none p. 535 of the crowd are left without male multiples of Krishńa. The only mysticism hinted at in that Puráńa, is, that these are all one with Krishńa: the varied vital conditions of one spirit being represented by the Gopís and the illusory manifestations of Krishńa: he himself being supreme unmodified soul.