Lawrence Babb, Redemptive Encounters,
1987; and Mark Juergensmeyer, Radha-
soami Reality, 1991.
Radhavallabh Sampraday
Religious community whose members
are devotees (bhakta) of the god Vishnu
(that is, Vaishnavas), and whose founder
was the sixteenth-century poet-saint
Harivamsh. Harivamsh held distinctive
views on the status of Radha, which his
community has preserved. Whereas
earlier poetry had often portrayed
Radha as the god Krishna’sadulterous
mistress, the Radhavallabhans conceive
of her as his lawful wife and as a deity
whose status was equal with Krishna’s.
Their devotion was focused on Krishna
and on his status as the “beloved of
Radha” (Radhavallabh).
Raga
In Indian music, a concrete melodic
mode of at least five notes. Any musician
playing a raga is limited by the con-
straints of its established form. The
order of these established notes in the
raga does not follow their musical order
but differs according to whether the
note sequence is ascending or descend-
ing. There are over 200 recognized ragas,
but only about thirty are in general use.
Each raga has very particular symbolic
associations—particularly with the time
of dayor with the seasons—and is also
believed to convey a particular aesthetic
mood (rasa) to listeners. As in all the
Indian arts, the musician who plays a
raga endeavors to convey a certain
mood to an audience and to awaken
corresponding feelings within them.
Raghu
In Hindu mythology, Raghu is a famous
king of the Ikshvakudynasty and the
grandfather of King Dasharatha. One of
Dasharatha’s sonsis Rama, the protago-
nist of the Ramayana, the earlier of the
two great Hindu epics.
Raghuvamsha
(“Raghu’s Lineage”) One of the great
poetic works by Kalidasa, who is gener-
ally considered to be the finest classical
Sanskritpoet. The Raghuvamshais a
quasi-historical epic in nineteen cantos,
devoted to the kings of the Solar Line,
and particularly to its most eminent
member, the god-king Rama. The story
of Rama in Kalidasa’s poem is fairly close
to that of the epic Ramayana, although
Kalidasa describes Rama as an avataror
divine incarnation in a way that Valmiki
does not. Kalidasa’s poem also uses the
kings of the Solar Line as examples of
devotion to the four aims of life
(purushartha): wealth (artha), pleasure
(kama), religious duty (dharma), and
release (moksha). In Kalidasa’s portrayal,
the kings at the end of the line are
completely immoral and devoted
solely to pleasure. Such abject neglect
of their duty to rule righteously brings
on the destruction of the line and
provides a exemplary lesson for hearers
of the poem.Rahu
A malevolent “planet” in Hindu astrology
(jyotisha) that has no counterpart in
Western astrology and was originally the
head of a demon. According to the story,
as the gods drink the nectar of immor-
tality they have churned from the ocean
of milk, the demon Sainhikeyaslips into
their midst in disguise. As the demon
begins to drink, the sunand moonalert
Vishnu, who uses his discus to cut off
the demon’s head. Sainhikeya’s two
halves become immortal, however, after
coming into contact with the nectar. The
severed head becomes Rahu, and the
decapitated body another evil planet,
Ketu. Rahu is regarded not as a physical
planet, but as the ascending node of the
moon. This is the point where the
moon’s northward path intersects the
path of the sun in the sky, causing an
eclipse. Rahu has particular enmity for
the sun and moon, as the deities
responsible for his demise, and tries to
swallow them whenever he meets themRahu