Raslila is a multi dimensional folk dance drama which has it’s moorings in the thespian and histrionic realm. It is mostly in Vogue and practice in the Braj region of Uttar Pradesh.Braj milieu sprawls in and around Mathura which are inextricably interwoven with the life of Lord Krishna. The themes of this dance form are annexed with the transcendental and metaphysical romance allocated and apportioned by Lord Krishna with the Gopis of Vrindavan and his twin flame Radha Rani. The authentic and veritable Raslila betides and transpires in the spell of a single night when the enchanting and mystifying flute music of Krishna allures and entices the Gopis to slip out of their homes stealthily towards the forest of Vrindavan to dance with Krishna. Krishna with his riveting and mind boggling power extra mundanely and ethereally expanses that single night into one Kalpa , a Hindu unit of time nighing about 4.32 billion years. It’s an indivisible conglomeration and amalgamation of the celestial and the mundane in Krishna’s mystifying world hailed as Goloka Vrindavan. It is during this aphrodisiacal peregrination that this dance form fructified. Raslila is voguishly performed by the erranding and sojourning troops from hamlet to hamlet
Raslila is prime matterly and substantially staged on Rasia, a song form that encapsulates the themes of Radha Krishna love. As per the intuitive revelations expressed in the Bhagavat Purana any devotee who exposes his profound and vast bhakti by imbibing and recounting the divine raslila in utmost exultation is said to receive manifold and magnificent,spiritual graces and blessings from the loving Lord Krishna. This coinage raslila is derived from the combination of two sanskrit terms- ‘Ras’ and ‘lila’ which respectively means – ‘Ras’ – elixir, sweet taste and emotions. ‘Lila’ – act, play or dance. Yoked together it gets the meaning ‘dance of sanctified love’ or sweet act of Krishna.
Raslila is deemed by the Vaishnavites as the prized asset of all plays of God. Raslila grandiosly and ceaselessly offers the sublime and opulent themes for other classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam, kuchipudi, kathak, odissi, Manipuri etc. Raslila is the most favoured and sought after theatre forms in mathura, vrindavan,Uttar Pradesh and different regions of nathdwara. Raslila is also discerned as one of the state rituals of Assam.
The lyrics pondered divinely and seamlessly with rapt adulation and adoration by swami Harivyasa Devakarya and his Guru on the nityalila of Radha and Krishna form the abundant source, base and crux of the Vani literature of Vraj.These celestial hymns proclaim the perpetual and everlasting rendezvous of Radha Krishna, the sakhis which ecstatically and rapturously hailed as nitya vrindhavan dham or nikunj dham.
