Author: Barbara Stoler Miller
Translator(s): Barbara Stoler Miller
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Year: 1984
Language: English
Pages: 225
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8120803663
Description
Gitagovinda is a unique work in Indian literature and a source of inspiration in both medieval and contemporary vaisnavism. The poem is dedicated in devotion to the god Krishna.
Jayadeva's dramatic lyrical poem Gitagovinda is a unique work in India literature and a source of inspiration in both medieval and contemporary vaisnavism. It concentrates on Krsna's love with the cowherdess Radha. Intense earthly passion is the example Jayadeva uses to express the complexities of divine and human love
It describes the loves of Krsna and Radha in twelve cantos containing twenty-four songs. The songs are sung by Krsna or Radha or by Radha's maid and are connected by brief narrative or descriptive passages. The appropriate musical mode and rhythm for each song are noted in the text. This poem is really a kind of drama, of the ragakavya type, since it is usually acted.
Critical acclaim of the poem has been high, but its frank eroticism has led many Indian commentators to interpret the love between Radha and Krsna as an allegory of the human soul's love for God. Learned and popular audiences in India and elsewhere have continued to appreciate the emotional lyricism the poem expresses in its variations on the theme of separated lover's passion.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR:
BARBARA STOLER MILLER was Professor of Oriental Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University. She was a student of the late Professor W Norman Brown. She had traveled widely throughout the Indian subcontinent and lived here to study Sanskrit and Indian music and art.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
1. Jayadeva : The Wandering Poet
2. The Lyrical Structure of Jayadeva's Poem
3. Jayadeva's Language for Love
4. Krishna : Cosmic Cowherd Lover
5. Radha : Consort of Krishna's Springtime Passion
Notes
GITAGOVINDA : TRANSLATION
GITAGOVINGA : SANSKRIT TEXT
TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF THE GITAGOVINDA
1. Collection of the Textual Evidence
2. Dated Manuscripts of the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth
Centuries : Basic Evidence of the Shorter Recension
3. Selected Commentaries on the Gitagovinda
4. Previous Editions of the Gitagovinda
5. Secondary Evidence
6. The Significance of the Critical Edition
7. Variant Reading
A GLOSSARY OF SANSKRIT WORDS