Gita-govinda of Jayadeva (comparative study)
by Manisha Misra | 2012 | 56,963 words
This essay contains an English study of the Gita-Govinda by Jayadeva and the “Kishore Chandrananda Champu� by Kabisurya Baladev. (1) The Gitagovinda is a Sanskrit Kavya poem of 12th century composed by Jayadeva, who was a devotee of Lord Krishna/Jagannatha and a patron of Odisha culture. The Gitagovinda had widespread influence on Indian art and li...
5.1. The benediction / Mangalacarana
In the Gitagovinda Jayadeva has used the ragas having equal, emotion and essence with the subject matter of the prabandha songs. Gitagovinda is a poem of erotics and all those ragas bear the characteristics of erotic sentiment. It has a long benediction of two songs. The first song is in the Malavaraga and the second song is in the Gujjariraga. But in the Kishore-chandrananda-champu the poet offers his salutation in the last song begins with the letter ks. It is in the Kedararaga. Jayadeva has given the figure of each raga used in his poem (not found in all mss). Even if there are a good number of variations of Gurjari/Gujjariraga in the context of Gitagovinda particularly the second song beginning with Sritakamala etc. has been indicated as mangalagujjari. But this name and figure of the same have not been defined in the available manuals on music. In the process by which the song is sung now-a-days is identified as daksinagujjari.28 The benediction composed by both of the poets are famous in the musical circles. The first two songs of Gitagovinda are still sung everyday in the temple of Lord Jagannatha at Puri to arouse the Lord from his sleep in the dawn and during the bedtime. The song of sritakamala used to be sung by the students of the catasalis or village schools of Odisha in olden days.*