Gita Govinda

Love Songs of Radha and Krishna

Jayadeva author Lee Siegel translator

Format:Hardback

Publisher:New York University Press

Published:1st Mar '09

Should be back in stock very soon

Gita Govinda cover

A lyrical account of the illicit springtime love affair of god and goddess Krishna and Radha

Jayadeva’s Gitagovínda is a lyrical account of the illicit springtime love affair of Krishna and Radha, a god and goddess manifesting on earth as a cowherd and milkmaid for the sake of relishing the sweet miseries and rapturous delights of erotic love. The narrative framing their bucolic songs was composed under royal patronage in northeastern India in the twelfth century. It was to be performed for connoisseurs of poetry and the erotic arts, for aesthetes and voluptuaries who, while sensually engaged, were at the same time devoted to Krishna as Lord of the Universe. The text at once celebrates the vicissitudes of carnal love and the transports of religious devotion, merging and reconciling those realms of emotion and experience. Erotic and religious sensibilities serve, and are served by, the pleasures of poetry. In the centuries following its composition, the courtly text became a vastly popular inspirational hymnal. Jayadeva's songs continue to be sung throughout India in fervent devotional adoration of Krishna.

"Small, elegant books, beautifully printed, sparsely annotated, and bilingual...This arrangement naturally delights students of Sanskrit, who may dispense,at least temporarily, with their dictionaries and grammar books; but you do nothave to know Sanskrit to enjoy reading these volumes." The New Republic

ISBN: 9780814740781

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 227g

262 pages