A literary witness, not a chronicle. Tradition and the anthology Saduktikarnamrita, compiled at the Sena court in 1205, place Jayadeva among the poets of Lakshmanasena (reigning about 1178 to 1206, king in 1200). The poem shows the Vaishnava devotion and the refined Sanskrit culture of the Sena court on the eve of the Khalji raid, and its author's tie to Kenduli in Bengal or Orissa is argued over. It gives no events, names no king in its text, and is listed here only as a cultural marker for Bengal in 1200.
About this source
- Title
- Gita Govinda
- Author
- Jayadeva
- Author's dates
- active late 12th century
- Written
- late 12th century, by tradition at the court of Lakshmanasena of Bengal
- Language
- Sanskrit
- Covers
- no historical narrative; a lyric drama on Krishna and Radha
- Kind
- Poem
Arnold's version is loose and bowdlerised. The association with Lakshmanasena's court rests on later tradition and on the 1205 anthology, not on the poem itself.
Where to read it
Editions
- Christian Lassen (ed.), Gita Govinda, Jayadevae poetae Indici drama lyricum (Bonn, 1836), Sanskrit text with Latin translation
- Jibananda Vidyasagara (ed.), Gitagovinda (Calcutta, 1882), Sanskrit text
Translations
- Edwin Arnold, The Indian Song of Songs, from the Sanskrit of the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva (London, 1875), English verse
- Barbara Stoler Miller, Love Song of the Dark Lord (1977), English; in copyright (not freely online)