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I have approached the poem not as a religious text in the conventional sense but as great poetry that transcends the dichotomy of religion and eroticism.

Poetic venture: Lyricist, scenarist and poet K. Jayakumar has used free verse in his version of ‘Gitagovinda.’

‘Gitagovinda’ or Krishna’s Song was originally written by Jayadeva in the 12th century. Scholars believe there are over 3,000 manuscripts of the epic poem in 15 different lipis or scripts belonging to the period between the 14th and the 19th century. There also exist about 15 commentaries, varying in their interpretation of the text – from mystical, erotic to the spiritual. About 20 sets of miniature paintings, mainly in Rajasthani, Gujarati, and Pahari schools, with nearly 2,000 folios have been recorded. This also explains the popularity of the epic poem in a universal context.

Divided into 12 sargas and 24 prabandhas of unequal length, the simple text in verse essentially revolves around Radha and Krishna, though it does have a preamble of sorts, and moves in a chronological order. The poet opens with a description of 10 incarnations of Vishnu. The description seeks to put at rest that Krishna is a transcendent God, and not an avatar of Vishnu, perhaps, to also emphasise on the one hand that both Radha and Krishna are archetypal figures, and on the other the earthly or human dimensions.

It is this aspect of the text which makes it a product of imagination rather than a spiritual one. And to quote one of the interpreters of the text, Kapila Vatsyayan: “As a poem, theology, erotic or mystic symbolism, it lives in the hearts of men as Jayadeva claimed it would.”

Though a comparatively recent commentary by Barbara Stroller Miller is considered extremely competent, what distinguishes K. Jayakumar’s rendering (‘Gitagovinda,’ Shubhi Publications, Pp.108, Rs.295) is that he has used free verse to make it appealing to the modern reader. So what made him (the text did get adopted as a form of worship in the Guruvayur temple) attempt a rendering?

According to senior bureaucrat Jayakumar: “After going through the acclaimed translations, especially by foreign scholars, I was convinced that an Indian sensibility is a pre-requisite for doing justice to the text. As a poet, I believe that my rendering of the poem is different in that I have approached it as a contemporary poet. My whole aim was to rediscover the poem for the readers of this generation in a poetic idiom that is familiar to them. That’s why I have also desisted from attempting artificial rhyming and have used blank verse. In any case, none can approach the exquisite rhyme of the original.”

Jayakumar also feels that “after being with this great poem while translating it, I am better equipped to reconcile the contradictions between sensuality and spirituality which is a dualism that confronts us in our times. I have approached the poem not as a religious text in the conventional sense but as great poetry that transcends the dichotomy of religion and eroticism.”

Which, indeed, is this immortal poem differently described both as a mahakavya as well as laghukavya depending on the context in which it is being studied.

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