Jayadeva in One Ideas
the essentialsDivine love as human love
In the Gītagovinda, God’s love for the soul is sung as Kṛṣṇa’s passion for Rādhā.
Jayadeva (fl. 12th century) was a Sanskrit poet, probably from Kenduli in Bengal or in Odisha (the two regions both claim him), and the author of the Gītagovinda, a lyrical poem on the love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. Tradition makes him a court poet of the Sena king Lakṣmaṇasena of Bengal, married to Padmāvatī, a temple dancer at Purī who danced his songs before Jagannātha. His poem became the scripture of passionate Kṛṣṇa-devotion in eastern India, shaped the theology of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and inspired centuries of painting, dance and music.
Curiosities
did you know?- Legend: unable to write a verse in which Kṛṣṇa bows to Rādhā’s feet, Jayadeva went to bathe; Kṛṣṇa came in his form and wrote it himself.
- Two of his songs are in the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib.
Questions to Argue About
debate club →- Should God be loved with erotic passion?
Explore Next
related by shared connectionsCaitanya Mahāprabhu
The 15th–16th century Bengali saint who led an ecstatic movement of singing the names of Kṛṣṇa, regarded by his followers as Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā in one body — founder of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism and ancestor of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.
Amīr Khusrau
The 13th–14th century poet, musician and Sufi of Delhi — disciple of Nizāmuddīn Auliyā, master of Persian verse, pioneer of Hindavi (early Hindi-Urdu), and by tradition the inventor of qawwālī, the khayāl and the sitar.
Sūrdās
The 16th-century blind poet of Braj whose songs of Kṛṣṇa’s childhood mischief and the gopīs’ longing — the Sūrsāgar, “Ocean of Sūr” — are the heart of Kṛṣṇa devotion in Hindi.
Āṇṭāḷ
The only woman among the twelve Tamil Āḻvār saints (9th century) — a girl who wore the garland meant for Viṣṇu, refused any human husband, and wrote the Tiruppāvai and Nācciyār Tirumoḻi, poems of longing for God as her bridegroom.
Guru Nānak
The founder of Sikhism (1469–1539) — a Punjabi mystic and poet who proclaimed “there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim”, taught devotion to the one formless God (Ik Onkār), honest work and sharing, and the equality of all people.
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
The 19th-century Bengali mystic of the Dakshineswar Kālī temple who practised Hindu, Muslim and Christian paths and declared “as many faiths, so many paths” — the guru of Vivekananda and the fountainhead of modern Hindu universalism.