Girdhar or Giradhara or Giridharadāsa (1787–1852) was a

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

poet.

Works

Girdhar best known for his poetic epic ''Rāmāyaṇa'' (1835) which is popular in

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

. He derived the story primarily from the '' Rāmāyaṇa'' of Vālmīki and the ''Hanumannāṭaka'', with some inspiration from other Puranic texts. His version is lucid and musical as it is in simple language and uses traditional

metre The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

s and melodies including ''Dhanāśrī'', ''Vilāvala'', ''Māru'', ''Sāmerī'', ''Sāraga'', ''Soraṭha'', ''Āsāvarī'', ''Bhairava'', ''Dohā'', ''Caupāī, Ghanākṣarī'', and others. His poetry ''Radha Virahna Barmas'' is influenced by the poetry of

Vaishnavism Vaishnavism () ), also called Vishnuism, is one of the major Hindu denominations, Hindu traditions, that considers Vishnu as the sole Para Brahman, supreme being leading all other Hindu deities, that is, ''Mahavishnu''. It is one of the majo ...

. His ''Tulasī-Vivāha'' narrates the wedding of

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

and Tulsi in 26 lyrics. It resemble the ''Kadva'' (cantos) style of medieval Gujarati poetry. He also wrote lyrics on Gopi and Krishna relations and wrote ''Ashwamedha'' and ''Rājasūyayajña''. He based a large number of his poems on the ''Daśamaskandha'' of the ''

Bhāgavata Purāṇa The ''Bhagavata Purana'' (; ), also known as the ''Srimad Bhagavatam (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam)'', ''Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana'' () or simply ''Bhagavata (Bhāgavata)'', is one of Hinduism's eighteen major Puranas (''Mahapuranas'') and one o ...

''.

Biography

Girdhar or Giridharadāsa was born in the village of Māsar,

Baroda State Baroda State was a kingdom within the Maratha Confederacy and later a princely state in present-day Gujarat. It was ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty from its formation in 1721 until its accession to the newly formed Dominion of India. With th ...

in a Lāḍ Vaṇik family in 1785. His father, Garabaḍadās, worked as a

patwari A village accountant or karanam (Andhra Pradesh), patwari (Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Telangana, West Bengal), patowary (Assam), talati (Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra), lekhpal (Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand) is a government role in rural areas of t ...

or village accountant and for some years Girdhar followed him in the profession and was educated in the requisite fields. At the age of twenty he moved to Baroda where he worked for his sister's husband's banking firm. In Baroda he was exposed to learned ascetics and holy men, and studied Sanskrit language and its epic texts. Some years later he was initiated into the Vallabha Sampradāya by Gosvāmī Puruṣottamadās. Girdhar worked as a manager in the local Vallabhite temple. He was also a friend of an ācārya of the Rādhāvallabhī sect named Raṁgīlāl Mahārāj. Girdhar's wife and son both died early in life. Girdhar traveled to several Vaishnav religious sites with Raṁgīlāl. On the return journey, when Girdhar wished to visit Śrīnāthajī Raṁgīlāl refused. Girdhar was anxious to get Śrīnāthajī's

darśana In Indian religions, a ''darshan'' (Sanskrit: दर्शन, ; 'showing, appearance, view, sight') or ''darshanam'' is the auspicious sight of a deity or a holy person. The term also refers to any one of the six traditional schools of Hind ...

, and soon died while meditating upon him in 1850.

References

19th-century Indian poets 1787 births 1852 deaths Gujarati-language poets Poets from British India {{poet-stub

Works

Biography

See also

References