Gita Govinda of Jayadeva with the Commentary of Srutiranjani (An Old and Rare Book)

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Laksmidhara is Laksmidhara is a great commentator on an immortal work Gitagovinda of Jayadeva. In normal course, this publication Would have seen the light long back. A local printer, who closed down his press, returned all the printed formes to the then Director of the Institute and disappeared. From then, the printed formes without introduction and binding were lying in the Stock room , In the mean time, the Editor of this valuable work Retired from service. After taking charge as Director-in-charge Suffered from serious ail merits and was hospitalised for a long Resuming my duties, I had a feeling that this commendable commentary on a valuable work should be brought out.

Dr. K.S. Ramamurthi, the editor of the present work evinced special interest in critically bringing out the Sanskrit Works of the authors of the Telugu region, His previous editions Like Punyakoti "s Krsnavilasa and Agastyapandita's Balabharatam, As the institute's publications substantiate the above statement And his great love for Sanskrit writers belonging to Telugu religion The editor is a long standing and experienced critical Scholar who masterly edits the works and handles the selected manuscripts in a systematic way through his work of collation. present edition of Laksmidhara's commentary, Srutiranjani on jayadeva’s Gitagovinda is one such. Although it is late because of so many inexplicable circumstances, I hope that the I of this work will be a welcome one to the world of Sanskritists In this connection I thank all the people who gave cooperationin bringing out his edition in this shape.

Jayadeva's Gitagovinda in Sanskrit is a musical poem on the love of Radha and Krsna, The work contains twenty four Ice-songs, each song in eight feet in twelve cantos There are About sixty recitative link verses. There are three characters, i.e., Krsna, Radha and a friend who acts as messenger between Krsna and Radha. The poem is intended to be a dance-drama; Scholars described this variously as 'a little pastoral drama' by jones; 'a lyric drama' by Lassen, 'a refined yatra' by von schroeder; 'one between song and drama' by Pischel and Sylvain Levi. From the commentaries on the work like the Abhinayatika etc. it becomes evident that the work is in tended to be a dance-drama that helps propagation of the Krg1a cult which was valent in those days.

Jayadeva is a native of Kendubilva village. This is identified with the modern Kenduli on the Ajay river in Berbhum district in West Bengal. According to a section of scholars jayadeva's birth place is in Orissa. Bhojadeva and Ramadevi Vmadevi or Ridhadevi) are bis parents and Padmavati, reffered to as an accomplished dancer is his wife. He is a student of Nadia or Navadvipa - a University situated on the fiuence' of Bhagfrath l and Jalangi rivers near Krsnanagar In Bengal which flourished under the Pala kings of Bengal. Dhoyi And Umapati mentioned by him in his introductory verses must have been his. contemporaries as students in the same university. He was patronised by King Laksmanasena of Bengal (A.D. 1179- 1205). The poets Umapatidhara, Sarana, Govardhana and Dhoyi, quoted' by -Jayadeva are referred to in the Sadukti- Karnamarta. As Dhoyi's Pavanaduta glorifies the compaign of Laksmanasena into the South, it can be concluded that Dhoyi was patronised by Laksrnanasena, Umapatidhara's verse. Were also found in two inscriptions of Laksmanasena, As such umapatidhara's connections with Laksmanasena, cannot be disproved. The connections of Govardhana and Sarana with the King Laksmanasena also may be established on the strength of the verse -

govardhanas ca sara"o jayadeva umapatih |

kavirajas ca ratnsni samitau laksmonasya ca ||

quoted in the Kavyamala, No. I. An inscription on the assembly hall at Laksmanasena+s capital of Navadvipa informs that all these poets were patronised by the King Laksmanasena , The Sena kings patro nised Vaishnavism. On the strength of the work the Gitagovinda and the patronage he enjoyed under the King Laksmanasena it can be presumed that Jayadeva belongs to the krsna cult of the Vaishnavis m and lived in the later half of the twelfth and the first quarter of the thirteenth century A D.

The Gitagovinda, because of its content and performance, became very popular in a short period. This is evidenced by an inscription in Patna dated A.D. 1292 wherein a verse from the Gitagovinda is found quoted. An inscription in the Puri temple dated A.D 1499 informs that the King Prataparudra of Orissa ordered the Gitagovinda to be sung in the prayer there regularlye Barbara Stoler Miller informs us that these songs are much venerated and sung throughout Orissa, specially before the Lord Jagannatha; at an annual spring fair in the village Kenduli in Bengal; during the spring celebrations in honour of the Goddess Sarasvati in Nepal, and daily in many of the temples of Kerala.!

Numerous manuscripts of this work were found throughout the country in different scripts. Intonations, acoustics, and music, etc. had their share in bringing in variants. The work commanded something like fifty commentaries and about ten have been printed. Musical Dotes and abhinaya posture also are given in some of the commentaries. Commentaries like the Rasikapriya of Kumbhakarna , Rasamanjari of Sankara- misra , Tika of Jivananda Vidyasagarabhattacarya, etc. have been published. The Gitagovinda with Abhinaya also, as available upto the seventeenth song was edited by K. Vasudevasastri and published by TMSSM Library, Tanjore in 1950.

2. Barbara Stoler Miller, Jayadeva's Grtagf'vinda, pp, X, XII. The work is translated into many Indian as well as European languages; Dutch, English, French, German and Latin constitute the foreign languages and in India it is translated into Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oria, Tamil, Telugu, etc. In addition to this many scholars have contributed papers on the work and its commentaries and many editions have come out. The editions '" with English translations of Barbara Stoler Miller and of Lee Siegal are the latest in the field. They both have dealt with all the aspects of the subject matter very thoroughly in a scientific manner.

The present edition of the Gitagovinda is based on the commentary Srutiranjani of Laksmidhara also called Laksmanasuri. He is a native of the village Cerukuru on the banks of the river krsna in Andhra. He belongs to the Kasyapagotra of Cerukuri family. Yajnesvara and Sarvamba are his parents. He refers to his grandfather Timmaya Somayaji and his elder brother Kondubhatta, Though the brothers are four in number the other two brothers are not mentioned. They worshipped Siva. The family is well versed in Vedas and Sastras. His father is said to be a poet in eight languages (astabhsakavipattabhadroh). Laksmidhara himself is a devotee of Daksinamurti and composed works like the sadbhasacandrika, Rasamanjari, Prasannarnghava- vydkhya (a commentary on the Prasannariagha and Srutiran- jani (a commentary on the Gitagovinday. He was patronise d by Tirumalarsya-I (A.D. 1567-75) of the Aravidu dynasty of Vijaya- nagara, Hence Laksmauasfir i belongs to the sixteenth century.