The ''Gita Govinda'' ( sa, गीत गोविन्दम्; ) is a work composed by the 12th-century

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

poet, Jayadeva. It describes the relationship between

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is on ...

Radha Radha ( sa, राधा, ), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is worshiped as the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. She is the avatar of goddess Lakshmi and is also d ...

and ''

gopis Gopi ( sa, गोपी, ) or Gopika in Hinduism are worshipped as the consorts and devotees of Krishna within the Vaishnavism and Krishnaism traditions for their unconditional love and devotion (''Bhakti'') to god Krishna as described in the S ...

'' (female cow herders) of

Vrindavan Vrindavan (; ), also spelt Vrindaban and Brindaban, is a historical city in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located in the Braj Bhoomi region and holds religious importance in Hinduism as Krishna spent most of his childho ...

. The ''Gita Govinda'' is organized into twelve chapters. Each chapter is further sub-divided into one or more divisions called ''Prabandha''s, totalling twenty-four in all. The prabandhas contain couplets grouped into eights, called ''

Ashtapadis ''Ashtapadis'' or ''Ashtapadi'' refers to the Sanskrit hymns of the ''Gita Govinda'', composed by Jayadeva in the 12th Century. The ''ashtapadis'', which describe the beauty of Lord Krishna and the love between Krishna and the ''gopis'', are con ...

''. It is mentioned that Radha is greater than

. The text also elaborates the eight moods of Heroine, the ''

Ashta Nayika The Ashta-Nayika is a collective name for eight types of ''nayika''s or heroines as classified by Bharata in his Sanskrit treatise on performing arts - ''Natya Shastra''. The eight nayikas represent eight different states (''avastha'') in relati ...

'', which has been an inspiration for many compositions and choreographic works in Indian classical dances.

Summary

Delhi-National Museum-Jayadeva worshipping Radha and Krishna-20131006

The work delineates the love of Krishna for Radha, the milkmaid, his faithlessness and subsequent return to her, and is taken as symbolical of the human soul's straying from its true allegiance but returning at length to the God which created it.

Chapters

# ''Sāmodadāmodaram'' (Exuberant Krishna) # ''Akleshakeshavam'' (Blithesome Krishna) # ''Mugdhamadhusūdanam'' (Winsome Krishna) # ''Snigdhamadhusūdanam'' (Tender Krishna) # ''Sākāṅkṣa puṇdarīkākṣham'' (Passionate Krishna) # ''Dhrṣta vaikuṇṭa'' (Audacious Krishna) # ''NāgaranārāyanaH'' (Dexterous Krishna) # ''VilakṣyalakṣmīpatiH'' (Apologetic Krishna) # ''Mugdhadamukunda'' (Unpretentious Krishna) # ''ChaturachaturbhujaH'' (Tactful Krishna) # ''Sānandadāmodaram'' (Joyful Krishna) # ''SuprītapītāmbaraH'' (Exultant Krishna)

Translations

Odissi poet Gopalakrusna's handwritten Gitagobinda Pothi

The poem has been translated into most modern Indian languages and many European languages. There is a German rendering which

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

read by F. H . van Dalberg. Dalberg's version was based on the English translation done by William Jones published in the Transactions of the

Asiatic Society The Asiatic Society is a government of India organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research", in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions. It was founded by the p ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...

in 1792. A verse translation by the German poet

Friedrich Rückert Friedrich Rückert (16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages. Biography Rückert was born in Schweinfurt and was the eldest son of a lawyer. He was educated at the local '' Gymnasiu ...

was begun in 1829 and revised according to the edited Sanskrit and Latin translations of C. Lassen in Bonn 1837. There's also another manuscript at the Guimet Museum in Paris in Devanagari script narrating the love between Krishna and Radha. This oblong work is printed on paper in nagari script on seven lines per page, and has a foliation located in the left margin on the reverse. It is made up of 36 folios. This volume is decorated with a snow crystal motif scattered throughout the text, a practice typical of the Indian publisher Baburam. This edition was produced in Calcutta in 1808, in imitation of the manuscripts; devoid of title page, it is accompanied by a colophon. The present binding, executed at the museum in 1991, constitutes a reproduction very faithful to its original appearance. Notable English translations are:

Edwin Arnold Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 183224 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work ''The Light of Asia''.George Keyt George Percival Sproule Keyt, (17 April 1901 – 31 July 1993) was a Sri Lankan painter.

and

Harold Peiris Harold Peiris (1904–1988) was a Sri Lankan lawyer, author, scholar, teacher, patron of the arts, and philanthropist. He was the co-founder of the Lionel Wendt Art Centre and its sole life-trustee.The lives of Keyt
by Tissa Devendra (''Sunday Observer''), Retrieved 22 October 2015 S. Lakshminarasimha Sastri ''The Gita Govinda of Jayadeva,'' Madras, 1956; Duncan Greenlee's ''Theosophical rendering The Song of the Divine,'' Madras, 1962; Monica Varma's transcreation ''The Gita Govinda of Jayadeva'' published by Writer's Workshop, Calcutta, 1968; Barbara Stoler Miller's ''Jayadeva's'' ''Gitagovinda : Love song of the Dark Lord'' published by Oxford University Press, Delhi,1978; Lee Siegel's ''Gitagovinda: Love Songs of Radha and Krishna'' published in the Clay Sanskrit series. The first English translation of the ''Gita Govinda'' was written by

Sir William Jones Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, and a scholar of ancient India. He is particularly known for his proposition of th ...

in 1792, where ''Cenduli'' (Kenduli Sasana) of ''Calinga'' (Kalinga, ancient

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

) is referred to as the widely-believed to be the place of Jayadeva's origin and that the poet himself mentions this. Since then, the ''Gita Govinda'' has been translated to many languages throughout the world, and is considered to be among the finest examples of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

poetry.

Barbara Stoler Miller Barbara Stoler Miller (August 8, 1940 – April 19, 1993) was a scholar of Sanskrit literature. Her translation of the ''Bhagavad Gita'' was extremely successful and she helped popularize Indian literature in the U.S. She was the president of the As ...

translated the book in 1977 as ''Love Song of the Dark Lord: Jayadeva's Gita Govinda'' (). The book contains a

foreword A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between the ...

by John Stratton Hawley and includes extensive commentary on the verse and topic of the poem.

Music

Gita Govinda is one of the earliest musical texts in which the author indicates the exact ''raga'' (mode) and ''tala'' (rhythm) in which to sing each of the songs. These indications have been compiled below according to the ''ashtapadi'' number, based on the important ancient copies of the Gita Govinda and its commentaries such as ''Sarvangasundari Tika'' of Narayana Dasa (14th century), Dharanidhara's Tika (16th century), Jagannatha Mishra's Tika (16th century), ''Rasikapriya'' of Rana Kumbha (16th century) and ''Arthagobinda'' of Bajuri Dasa (17th century). # Mālava, Mālavagauḍa or Mālavagauḍā # Maṅgala Gujjarī or Gurjarī # Basanta # Rāmakirī or Rāmakerī # Gujjarī or Gurjarī # Guṇḍakirī or Guṇḍakerī or Mālavagauḍa # Gujjarī or Gurjarī # Karṇṇāṭa # Deśākhya or Deśākṣa # Deśī Barāḍi or Deśa Barāḍi or Pañchama Barāḍi # Gujjarī or Gurjarī # Guṇḍakirī or Guṇḍakerī # Mālava or Mālavagauḍā # Basanta # Gujjarī or Gurjarī # Barāḍi or Deśa Barāḍi or Deśī Barāḍi # Bhairabī # Gujjarī or Gurjarī or Rāmakerī # Deśī or Deśa Barāḍi # Basanta # Barāḍi or Deśa Barāḍi # Barāḍi # Rāmakirī or Rāmakerī or Bibhāsa # Rāmakirī or Rāmakerī Most of the ragas and talas indicated by Jayadeva, with the exception of one or two, continue to be in practice in the tradition of

Odissi music music () is a genre of classical music in India, originated from the eastern state of Odisha. The traditional ritual music for the service of Lord Jagannatha, Odissi music has a history spanning over two thousand years, authentic ''sangita-shas ...

''Gita Govinda'' at Museums

Various ''Gita Govinda'' Miniature paintings in museums: *

National Museum, New Delhi The National Museum in New Delhi, also known as the National Museum of India, is one of the largest museums in India. Established in 1949, it holds a variety of articles ranging from pre-historic era to modern works of art. It functions under ...

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

* Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay *

Metropolitan Museum of art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

* Indian Museum, Calcutta * Govt. Museum and Art Gallery Chandigarh *

Rietberg Museum The Rietberg Museum is a museum in Zürich, Switzerland, displaying Asian, African, American and Oceanian art. It is the only art museum focusing on non-European art and design in Switzerland, the third-largest museum in Zürich, and the largest t ...

Guimet Museum The Guimet Museum (full name in french: Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet; MNAAG; ) is an art museum located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. Literally translated into English, its full name is the Nation ...

Publications

;in English * *

References

External links

Shreegitagobinda O Mahakabi Shreejaydev : A Book
{{Jagannath Hindu texts Sanskrit poetry Jayadeva Bhakti movement Medieval Indian literature Vaishnavism Krishna Odissi music Odissi music repertoire