The thousand-year-old Sanskrit classic the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, or “Stories of the Lord,” is the foundational source of narratives concerning the beloved Hindu deity Kṛṣṇa. For centuries, pious individuals, families, and community groups have engaged specialist scholar-orators to give week-long oral performances based on this text. Seated on a dais in front of the audience, the orator intones selected Sanskrit verses from the Bhāgavatapurāṇa and narrates the story of Kṛṣṇa in the local language. These sacred performances bring blessings and good fortune to those who sponsor, perform, or attend the ... More

The thousand-year-old Sanskrit classic the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, or “Stories of the Lord,” is the foundational source of narratives concerning the beloved Hindu deity Kṛṣṇa. For centuries, pious individuals, families, and community groups have engaged specialist scholar-orators to give week-long oral performances based on this text. Seated on a dais in front of the audience, the orator intones selected Sanskrit verses from the Bhāgavatapurāṇa and narrates the story of Kṛṣṇa in the local language. These sacred performances bring blessings and good fortune to those who sponsor, perform, or attend them. Devotees hold that the narratives of Kṛṣṇa are like the nectar of immortality for those able to appreciate them. In recent years, these events have grown in number, scale, and popularity. Once confined to private homes or temple spaces, performances now fill vast public arenas such as sports stadiums and attract live audiences in the tens of thousands while being simulcast around the world. What has led to this explosion in the popularity of these events? What social and political factors are contributing to the growth of this religious practice? Using the ancient Vedic act of sacrifice as a uniting metaphor, Seven Days of Nectar is the first scholarly work to explore the Bhāgavatapurāṇa through the lens of performance theory, integrating the text, its narration, and the intersecting worlds of the sponsors, exponents, and audiences. This approach, which draws on close textual reading, philology, and ethnography, casts new light on how narratives are experienced as authentic and transformative and, more broadly, how texts shape societies.