Singing Krishna

Introduces Paramanand, one of India's poet-saints, his work, and this work's use in ritual.Singing Krishna introduces Paramanand, one of north India's greatest medieval poet-saints, whose poetry has been sung from the sixteenth century to the present in ritual service to the Hindu deity Krishna. A. Whitney Sanford examines how hearing Paramanand's poetry in ritual context serves as a threshold for devotees between this world and Krishna's divine world. To see Krishna is a primary goal of the devotee, and Paramanand deftly constructs a vision through words. Sanford employs the dual strategies of interpreting Paramanand's poems-which sing the cycles of Krishna's activities-and illustrating the importance of their ritual contexts. This approach offers insight into the nature of the devotional experience that is not accessible by simply studying the poetry or rituals in isolation. Sanford shows that the significance of Paramanand's poetry lies not only in its beauty and historical importance but finally in its capacity to permit the devotee to see through the ephemeral world into Krishna's world.A. Whitney Sanford is Assistant Professor of Religion at the University of Florida.