Echoes of Radha in the Machine:
TL;DR
This study investigates the interpretive capacities of OpenAI's ChatGPT in engaging with Radha-centric poetry across Sanskrit, Braj, and Maithili traditions and argues that Radha's evolving voice offers a unique proving ground for assessing AI's engagement with affect-rich, theologically inflected texts.
Abstract
This study investigates the interpretive capacities of OpenAI's ChatGPT in engaging with Radha-centric poetry across Sanskrit, Braj, and Maithili traditions, situating the analysis within the methodological framework of digital humanities. Combining classical Indian aesthetic theory (rasa), feminist theological readings, and symbolic poetics, the paper evaluates whether a generative AI model can approximate the role of a sahrdaya (sensitive reader) in connection with the reception of devotional literature. Through close comparison of AI-generated interpretations with traditional exegetical commentaries, the study highlights both the potential of large language models for thematic mapping, metaphor recognition, and cross-lingual translation, and their limitations in reproducing embodied affect, theological nuance, and culturally situated hermeneutics. The paper argues that Radha's evolving voice from Jayadeva's Gītagovinda to Vidyapati's Padāvalī offers a unique proving ground for assessing AI's engagement with affect-rich, theologically inflected texts.