McComas Taylor
Seven Days of Nectar
Oxford University Press, 2016
The thousand-year-old Sanskrit classic the Bhagavatapurana, or "Stories of the Lord," is the foundational source of narratives concerning the beloved Hindu deity Krishna. 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 text and narrates the story of Krishna in the local language. These sacred performances are thought to bring blessings and good fortune to those who sponsor, perform, or attend them. Devotees believe that the narratives of Krishna are like the nectar of immortality for those who can appreciate them.
In recent years, these events have grown in number, scale, and popularity. Once confined to private homes or temple spaces, contemporary 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. In Seven Days of Nectar, McComas Taylor uncovers the factors that contribute to the explosive growth of this tradition. He explores these events through the lens of performance theory, integrating the text with the intersecting worlds of sponsors, exponents and audiences.
This innovative approach, which draws on close textual reading, philology, and ethnography, casts new light on the ways in which narratives are experienced as authentic and transformative, and more broadly, how texts shape societies.
“Owing to Taylor’s success in combining the fields of textual studies and the social sciences in his research, this work is an original and much needed methodological contribution to South Asian studies that undoubtedly helps move the discipline forward.”
About the Author
McComas Taylor is Reader in Sanskrit at The Australian National University. His research lies at the intersection of contemporary critical theory and narrative text. He has published widely on the construction of ‘true discourse’ and authority in the Sanskritic episteme, with a focus on fable literature and purāṇas.
Recognised at national and international levels for his innovative approach to language teaching and learning in the Age of the Internet, the author’s Joy of Sanskrit (with Grazia Scotellaro, ANU Press) is the world’s first e-textbook for India’s classical language.
He is a long-standing member of the Consultative Committee of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies and serves on the Board of the Dubrovnik International Conference on Sanskrit Epics and Purāṇ.
