Gita Govinda of Jayadeva, Sharda Narayanan and Sujatha Mohan, published by Ambika Aksharavali, Chennai, 2016, price ₹ 950
‘Gita Govinda’ is a celebrated jewel of the cultural heritage of India. The Vedic culture of India is blended with Natya Sastra, which gives prominence to music and dance, collectively called performing arts. In this context, Gita Govinda is considered the earliest Sanskrit work, focusing on performing arts that emerged in the first century of the second millennium, with the soothing vocal outpourings of poet Jayadeva and his wife Padmavati. It is said that the compositions through Padmavati’s performances were dedicated to Lord Jagannatha of Puri. This is the rarest in the cultural history of India where a concept of madhura bhakti, was performed and rendered simultaneously.
The bridal mysticism of Jayadeva is akin to that of Nammazhwar, who penned Tiruvoimozhi. The authors of the book under review present this text in the simplest way possible in five chapters. The text of Gita Govinda is popularly called Ashtapadi, and Jayadeva referred to it as Prabandha. The very essence of this text hovers around Sringara. The authors vividly elucidate the Nayaka and Nayika bhedas. The ten stages of love, otherwise called kamavasthas, except Maranavastha, as elaborated in Natya Sastra, were beautifully employed by Jayadeva, and this is accurately pointed out by the authors.
Literary perspective
The famous Indologist Sir William Jones of the 18th century expresses difficulties in tracing the original music of the Ashtapadi hymns. But kudos to the authors, who have unearthed the notes and established the raga and tala as mentioned by Jayadeva.
The first three chapters of the book extensively discuss the literary perspective, tradition of Natya and Jayadeva’s votive offering in verse. In chapter 4, the English translation for each verse is committed to the original without deviation.
In each Sarga, Jayadeva mentions his name in one of the verses wherein his quintessence of madhura bhakti towards Krishna is captured. In the first Sarga, Jayadeva takes the subject of Dasavatara to glorify Lord Krishna, His Love and playful deeds on the banks of the Yamuna and has sung ten songs each depicting His ten incarnations. In each verse of this first Sarga, the word Kesava is mentioned. It is interesting to note that the authors identified the Abhinaya Darpana that describes hastas (hands) for the Lord in Dasavatara. In the later Sargas various attributes of Krishna are vividly described by the author with appropriate notes.
The authors’ effort in presenting this treasure trove for easy rendering of verses with well-hyphenated words is commendable. Further, this book is a ready-reckoner for artists and art-lovers in understanding various abhinayas, particularly madhura bhakti.
