Listening to Krishna

Abstract
McComas Taylor's Seven Days of Nectar offers a contrastive description of three seven-day performances of the traditional Sanskrit text Bhāgavatapurāna in different locations and with different sponsorship, bringing out the special characteristics of each as a variant of living textual practice. The book also contains reports of interviews with reciters, detailing their backgrounds, education, and aspirations. This performance tradition has prospered under globalization, due to its place in a gift economy of prestige and to the desire on the part of sponsors to confirm their membership in a religious and national community.