and romantic love between husband and wife as an accidental, even an
unexpected product of what was basically a utilitarian agreement. With the
seclusion of women and the laying of even greater stress on wifely
chastity, romantic love was increasingly denied. Yet the need for romance
remained and we can see in the prevalence of love-poetry a substitute for
wishes repressed in actual life.[48] It is precisely this role which the
story of Krishna the cowherd lover now came to perform. Krishna, being
God, had been beyond morals and hence had practised conduct which, if
indulged in by men, might well have been wrong. He had given practical
expression to romantic longings and had behaved with all the passionate
freedom normally stifled by social duty, conjugal ethics and family
morals. From this point of view, Krishna the prince was a mere pillar of
boring respectability. Nothing in his conduct could arouse delight for
everything he did was correct and proper. Krishna the cowherd on the
other hand, was spontaneous, irresponsible and free. His love for the
cowgirls had had a lively freedom. The love between them was nothing if
not voluntary. His whole life among the cowherds was simple, natural and
pleasing and as their rapturous lover nothing was more obvious than that
the cowgirls should adore him. In dwelling, then, on Krishna, it was
natural that the worshipper should tend to disregard the prince and should
concentrate instead on the cowherd. The prince had revered Brahmans and
supported established institutions. The cowherd had shamed the Brahmans of
Mathura and discredited ceremonies and festivals. He had loved and been
loved and in his contemplation lay nothing but joy. The loves of Krishna,
in fact, were an intimate fulfilment of Indian desires, an exact
sublimation of intense romantic needs and while other factors must
certainly have played their part, this is perhaps the chief reason why,
at this juncture, they now enchanted village and courtly India.

The results of this new approach are apparent in two distinct ways. The