Gita Govinda

01A Sanskrit poem to be sung

The Gita Govinda is a kavya in Sanskrit, but it was made to be sung. Each of its twenty-four songs carries the name of its raga and tala at the head, and the songs are joined by shlokas in the classical metres that set the scene and move the katha on. Its subject is the love of Radha and Krishna in the spring forest of Vrindavan, and the Vaishnava tradition reads that love as madhura bhakti, the soul's longing for Bhagwan in its sweetest and most intimate form. Jayadeva tells the reader plainly whom it is for: if your mind delights in remembering Hari, and you are curious about the arts of love, then listen to these sweet, soft, lovely words.

02Ten avatars, then Vrindavan

The poem opens on a dark evening: clouds thicken the sky, the forest is black with tamala trees, and Nanda tells Radha to take the frightened boy home. Then comes the first ashtapadi, praising the ten avatars, each verse ending "Keshava dhrita ... sharira, jaya jagadisha hare": Matsya who held up the Vedas in the waters of dissolution, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Balarama, Buddha and Kalki. Only then does the poem go to the spring forest. Radha sees Krishna among the gopis and turns away hurt; a sakhi carries messages; Krishna repents; and in the twelfth sarga they meet.

03Twelve sargas, twenty-four songs

Each of the twelve sargas is titled with a name of Krishna and a word for his mood: Samoda Damodara, Damodara in joy, for the first; Aklesha Keshava; Mugdha Madhusudana; Snigdha Madhusudana; and so on to Suprita Pitambara, Pitambara well pleased, for the last. The twenty-four songs are called prabandhas, and since most have eight couplets the people call them ashtapadis. Each song has a refrain that returns after every couplet, which is why they are easy to sing in a group: "dhira samire yamuna tire vasati vane vanamali", in the soft breeze on the Yamuna's bank, in the forest, dwells the one with the garland of wild flowers.

04Jayadeva and Padmavati

Jayadeva names his village in the poem itself, Kindubilva, and calls himself the foremost of those who dance at Padmavati's feet. Odisha's tradition holds that Kindubilva is Kenduli Sasan near Puri, that Padmavati was a temple dancer dedicated to Jagannath, and that she danced the songs as he sang them. Bengal's tradition places Kenduli on the Ajay river in Birbhum, where a great mela of Bauls and Vaishnavas gathers at Makar Sankranti in his memory; Jayadeva's own opening verses name fellow poets known from the court of Lakshmana Sena of Bengal. Both traditions honour him, and both keep the songs alive.

05The line Krishna wrote

In the tenth sarga Krishna pleads with Radha to let go of her anger, and the nineteenth ashtapadi reaches a line Jayadeva could not bring himself to write: "smara garala khandanam mama shirasi mandanam, dehi pada pallavam udaram", place your tender foot on my head as its ornament. Could Bhagwan ask that? The tradition tells that Jayadeva put down his pen and went to bathe in the river. While he was gone, a figure in his form came home, asked Padmavati for the manuscript, wrote the line, ate the meal she served and left. When Jayadeva returned and found the line written, he knew who had come, and wept that Padmavati had seen him and he had not.

06At the Jagannath temple

An inscription of the Gajapati king Prataparudradeva, of 1499, orders that only the Gita Govinda be sung and danced before Jagannath at the evening offering, and that no other song be learned for it. The maharis, the temple's devadasis, did so for centuries, and Odissi dance still builds whole pieces on the ashtapadis, each sung in its old raga by an Odissi singer while the dancer shows Radha's waiting and Krishna's remorse. Odisha's tradition also tells of a gardener's daughter whose song from the poem drew Jagannath out to the garden, so that he returned with his cloth torn by thorns.

07Commentaries and devotion

Rana Kumbha of Mewar, the builder of Kumbhalgarh and the Vijaya Stambha, wrote a commentary on it, the Rasikapriya, in the fifteenth century, and many others followed. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu loved to hear its songs at Puri and would be overcome by them, and the Gaudiya Vaishnavas keep it among their dearest texts. Sanskrit poets of later centuries wrote whole poems in its manner. For the devotee, the hurt and reconciliation of Radha and Krishna is the soul's own story: separation, longing, and the Lord who comes to plead.

08Painted and sung everywhere

In Kerala the ashtapadis are sung as Sopana Sangeetam at the steps of the sanctum, at Guruvayur and many other temples, with the edakka drum. In South India the bhajana sampradaya singers perform them at weddings and Radha Kalyanam festivals, and the dancers of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi take them up too. The painters of the Pahari courts, of Kangra, Guler and Tehri Garhwal, made whole series of it in the eighteenth century, the Yamuna and the bower drawn again and again.

What it contains

1. 1
   Sarga 1: Samoda Damodara

   The opening shloka of the dark evening, Jayadeva's verses on himself and his poem, and four ashtapadis. The Dashavatara song comes first, then the hymn to Krishna, then the spring forest with Krishna among the gopis. The sakhi points him out to Radha.

2. 2
   Sargas 2–6

   Aklesha Keshava, Mugdha Madhusudana, Snigdha Madhusudana, Sakanksha Pundarikaksha and Dhrishta Vaikuntha. Radha withdraws, hurt, and remembers; Krishna leaves the gopis and searches for her, full of remorse. The sakhi carries word between them, and the eleventh ashtapadi, "dhira samire", calls Radha to the riverbank.

3. 3
   Sargas 7–11

   Nagara Narayana, Vilakshya Lakshmipati, Mugdha Mukunda, Chatura Chaturbhuja and Sananda Damodara. Radha waits through the night in vain and turns from Krishna in anger at dawn. In the tenth sarga he pleads with her in the nineteenth ashtapadi, and in the eleventh she goes at last to the bower.

4. 4
   Sarga 12: Suprita Pitambara

   The meeting in the bower and the last two ashtapadis. Radha asks Krishna to adorn her again, and he does as she says. Jayadeva closes with verses on his own poem and a blessing on those who sing it.

Famous verses

मेघैर्मेदुरमम्बरं वनभुवः श्यामास्तमालद्रुमै- र्नक्तं भीरुरयं त्वमेव तदिमं राधे गृहं प्रापय। इत्थं नन्दनिदेशतश्चलितयोः प्रत्यध्वकुञ्जद्रुमं राधामाधवयोर्जयन्ति यमुनाकूले रहःकेलयः॥

"The sky is thick with clouds, the forest dark with tamala trees, and he is afraid of the night; so you, Radha, take him home." Setting out at Nanda's word, by the bowers along the path, glory to the secret plays of Radha and Madhava on the Yamuna's bank.Gita Govinda 1.1

यदि हरिस्मरणे सरसं मनो यदि विलासकलासु कुतूहलम्। मधुरकोमलकान्तपदावलीं शृणु तदा जयदेवसरस्वतीम्॥

If your mind finds delight in remembering Hari, and if you are curious about the arts of love, then listen to Jayadeva's words, a garland of sweet, soft and lovely verses.Gita Govinda 1.4

प्रलयपयोधिजले धृतवानसि वेदम्। विहितवहित्रचरित्रमखेदम्॥ केशव धृतमीनशरीर जय जगदीश हरे॥

In the waters of the flood of dissolution you held up the Veda, moving like a boat without tiring. O Keshava, who took the form of a fish, victory to you, Hari, lord of the world.Gita Govinda 1.5 (Ashtapadi 1)

धीरसमीरे यमुनातीरे वसति वने वनमाली॥

In the gentle breeze on the bank of the Yamuna, in the forest, dwells the one who wears the garland of forest flowers.Gita Govinda 5.8 (refrain of Ashtapadi 11)

स्मरगरलखण्डनं मम शिरसि मण्डनं देहि पदपल्लवमुदारम्

Place upon my head, as its ornament, your generous foot, tender as a new leaf, which takes away the poison of love's longing.Gita Govinda 10.8 (Ashtapadi 19)