Dancing the Divine: Hindu and Buddhist Stories

South Asian myths and legends describe a rich, symbiotic relationship between humans and animals. In the Buddhist Jātakas (stories that deal with the previous lifetimes of the Buddha), animals are not mute sufferers in the daily drama of human life, but active participants who catalyze or speak about deep philosophical issues. In ancient Hindu traditions, animals are characters in stories as well as forms through which mortals commune with the divine. Vishnu descends to earth time and again, taking the form of a fish, tortoise, or boar to achieve divine feats. In this program, historian Abhishek Ghosh joins Festival favorite Kalapriya Dance to interpret these tales and offer a rich perspective on how the divine manifests on earth.