The Vaishnava Padavi ( bn, বৈষ্ণব পদাবলী) movement refers to a period in
medieval Bengali literature {{unreferenced, date=August 2015
The Middle Bengali language, Middle Bengali Literature is a period in the history of Bengali literature dated from 15th to 18th centuries. Following the Turkic peoples in India, Turkic Muslim in india, Muslim Muslim ...
from the 15th to 17th centuries, marked by an efflorescence of
Vaishnava
Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...
poetry often focusing on the
Radha-
Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...
legend. The term ''padavali'' (also written padaabali) has the literal meaning "gathering of songs" (''
pada''=short verse, lyric; ''+vali'' = plural; collection).
The padavali poetry reflects an earthy view of divine love which had its roots in the ''Agam''
poetry of
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
Sangam literature
The Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam'';) historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cāṉṟōr ceyyuḷ'') connotes ...
(600 BC–300 AD) and spread into early medieval
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
(
Nannaya
Nannaya ''Bhattaraka'' (sometimes spelled Nannayya or Nannaiah; ca. 11th century) was a Telugu poet and the author of the first '' Andhra Mahabharatam'', a Telugu retelling of the Sanskrit-language ''Mahabharata''. This work, which is rendere ...
,
Annamayya
Tallapaka Annamacharya (Telugu : తాళ్ళపాక అన్నమాచార్య) (IAST: taḷḷapāka annamācārya; 22 May 1408 – 4 April 1503), also popularly known as Annamayya, was a 15th-century Hindu saint and the ear ...
) and
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
literatures (
Dasa sahitya). The poetic themes spread rapidly as part of the religious
Bhakti movement that proposed an intensely personal form of devotion, following the philosophy of
Ramanuja
Ramanuja ( Middle Tamil: Rāmāṉujam; Classical Sanskrit: Rāmanuja; 1017 CE – 1137 CE; ; ), also known as Ramanujacharya, was an Indian Hindu philosopher, guru and a social reformer. He is noted to be one of the most important exponents ...
and opposing
caste distinctions and other
brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (gur ...
istic measures implicit in the theism of
Adi Shankaracharya
Adi Shankara ("first Shankara," to distinguish him from other Shankaras)(8th cent. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya ( sa, आदि शङ्कर, आदि शङ्कराचार्य, Ādi Śaṅkarācāryaḥ, lit=First Shanka ...
. The movement spread out and attained a pan-India status during the 13th–17th centuries.
The accompanying literary movements were marked by a shift from the classical language of
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, to the local languages (
apabhramsha) or derivatives, e.g. the literary language of
brajabuli
Brajabuli is an artificial literary language popularized by the poet Vidyapati. His Brajabuli lyrics about the love which were turned out to be for Radha Krishna later on these are considered his best work. Other poets emulated his writing, and t ...
adopted by
Vidyapati
Vidyapati ( – 1460), also known by the sobriquet ''Maithil Kavi Kokil'' (the poet cuckoo of Maithili), was a Maithili and Sanskrit polymath-poet-saint, playwright, composer, biographer, philosopher, law-theorist, writer, courtier ...
(14th century) and
Govindadas Kaviraj
History
Vidyapati in Mithila (14th century) and
Chandidas
Chandidas (born 1408) was a medieval poet of Bengal, or possibly more than one. Over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in Bengali with the ''bhanita'' of Chandidas are found with three different sobriquets along with his name, ...
(late 14th century) in
Birbhum
Birbhum district () is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the five administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is in Suri. Other impo ...
. Chandidas was among the earliest poets in the nascent
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
language, and many of his poems deal with the Radha-Krishna theme.
In 1474,
Maladhar Basu translated the 10th and 11th cantos of the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
Srimad Bhagavatam (composed c. 9th century), into the Bengali poem ''SriKrsnaVijay''. Maladhar focused on Krishna's divine life, with the 10th canto relating the legends of Krishna as a child, and his Leela with the Gopis in
Vrindavana
Vrindavan (; ), also spelt Vrindaban and Brindaban, is a historical city in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located in the Braj Bhoomi region and holds religious importance in Hinduism as Krishna spent most of his childho ...
. He was honoured by
Rukunuddin Barbak Shah
Ruknuddīn Bārbak Shāh ( bn, রোকনউদ্দীন বারবক শাহ, fa, ; r. 1459–1474) was the son and successor of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah. Initially appointed as the governor of Satgaon during the reign of his fa ...
with the title ''Gunaraj Khan''.
Although neither Chandidas nor Maladhar Basu were Vaishnavas,
[ they were to lay the foundation for much of the following Vaishnava poetry in Bengal.
]
Vaishnavism in Bengal
Vaishnavism in Bengal was given a tremendous boost by Sri Chaitanya (1486–1533), whose intense spiritualism infected many and started a movement across many regions of India. Chaitanya emphasized the role of merely uttering God's name in obtaining emancipation, and songs, sung passionately and leading to a trance-like state, were central to the path of bhakti. Chaitanya himself wrote many (source - ? gaudiya-vaishnavas say, that Chaitanya left only one song: Shikshashtaka) songs on the Radha-Krishna theme, and certainly encouraged the composition of new songs.
Major poets in the ensuing padavali tradition included Murari Gupta
Murari Gupta ( fl. 16th century) was born in a Baidya family in Sylhet. He was a physician and noted Bengali Vaishnava poet. He became a devotee of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and moved to Nabadwip.
In 1513, he composed in Sanskrit the ''Shri Krishna C ...
(''srikriShNachaitanyacharitrAmr^ta''), Narahari Sarkar, Basudev Ghosh, Lochandas, Jnanadas, Govindadas, Balaram Das, Syed Sultan and Dwija Chandidas (16th century). The 17th century saw the work of Kaviranjan (''chhoto Vidyapati''), Kavishekhar, Radhaballabh Das, Ghanashyam Das and Ramgopal Das; and were followed in the 18th century by Vaisnavadas, Chandrashekhar, Radhamohan Thakur (''padAmr^tasamudra''), Narahari Chakravarty (''gItachandroday''), Yadunandan and others. Many of the original texts are lost (some may never have been composed, as the songs came down in the kirtan tradition). The later anthology ''pAdakalpataru'' collects about 3000 Vaishnava lyrics by 150 poets.
Poetry and theme
The subject matter of the poetry is the love of Radha and Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...
, on the banks of the Yamuna
The Yamuna ( Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of about on the southwestern slopes of B ...
in Vrindavana; their secret trysts in the forests, Krishna's charms including his magic flute, the love of the gopis for Krishna, Radha's viraha on being separated from Krishna and her anguish on seeing him sporting with the other gopis. Much of the poetry, though written by men, focuses on the feelings of a woman in love. Here is a poem from Chandidas
Chandidas (born 1408) was a medieval poet of Bengal, or possibly more than one. Over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in Bengali with the ''bhanita'' of Chandidas are found with three different sobriquets along with his name, ...
, where Radha is talking to a friend:
How can I describe his relentless flute,
which pulls virtuous women from their homes
and drags them by their hair to Shyam
as thirst and hunger pull the doe to the snare?
Chaste ladies forget their wisdom,
and clinging vines shakes loose from their trees,
hearing that music.
Then how shall a simple dairymaid withstands its call?
Chandidasa says, Kala the puppet master leads the dance.
– trans. Edward C. Dimock and Denise Levertov
Priscilla Denise Levertov (24 October 1923 – 20 December 1997) was a British-born naturalised American poet. She was a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.
Early life and influences
Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Ess ...
, ''In praise of Krishna'', p. 18
Many of the poets were influenced by the Maithili poet Vidyapati, and some, such as Govindadas, also composed in the brajabuli
Brajabuli is an artificial literary language popularized by the poet Vidyapati. His Brajabuli lyrics about the love which were turned out to be for Radha Krishna later on these are considered his best work. Other poets emulated his writing, and t ...
language.
Music
Vaishnava music was extremely influential in the evolution of Indian musical tradition. In the 14th century, Amir Khusro
Abu'l Hasan Yamīn ud-Dīn Khusrau (1253–1325 AD), better known as Amīr Khusrau was an Indo-Persian culture, Indo-Persian Sufi singer, musician, poet and scholar who lived under the Delhi Sultanate. He is an iconic figure in the cultural his ...
, who spent some time in the court at Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
, was exposed to the Vaishnavite tradition. With the rise of Vrindavana
Vrindavan (; ), also spelt Vrindaban and Brindaban, is a historical city in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located in the Braj Bhoomi region and holds religious importance in Hinduism as Krishna spent most of his childho ...
14th century onwards, there was an admixture of the strains of devotional music from different regions of India. Followers of Vallabhacharya
Vallabhacharya Mahaprabhu (1479–1531 CE), also known as Vallabha, Mahaprabhuji and Vishnuswami, or Vallabha Acharya, is a Hindu Indian saint and philosopher who founded the Krishna-centered PushtiMarg sect of Vaishnavism in the Braj(Vraj) ...
of Andhra
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
and Nimbarkacharya
Nimbarkacharya ( sa, निम्बार्काचार्य, Nimbārkāchārya) ( 1130 – 1200), also known as Nimbarka, Nimbaditya or Niyamananda, was a Hindu philosopher, theologian and the chief proponent of the theology of Dvaita ...
of Maharashtra rubbed shoulders with Vaishnava composers from Bengal and Bihar. Eminent musicians such as Swami Haridas (16th century), reputedly the teacher of Tansen
Tansen ( – 26 April 1589), also referred to and commonly known as Sangeet Samrat () , was a Hindustani classical musician. Born in a Hindu Gaur Brahmin family, he learnt and perfected his art in the northwest region of modern Madhya Pr ...
, lived here.
The songs are often set to a romantic raga such as Pilu or Desh, and borrow freely from folk tunes and other traditions.
This musical tradition continues to be popular in Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
with the Baul
The Baul ( bn, বাউল) are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism, Vaishnavism and Tantra from Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley and Meghalaya. Bauls cons ...
s and other kirtaniya groups, who include Sufi Muslims among their practitioners.
Literary influence
Vaishnava padavali left a lasting mark on Bengali literature. Among others, Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
was deeply impressed by the works of Govindadas, and wrote many Vaishnava and Baul pieces. His opera ''Bhanusingher Padavali'' was composed in the Brajabuli language and included the song ''Sundari Radhe Awe Bani'' written by Govindadas. [Tagore, Rabindranath; Tony K. Stewart, Chase Twichell (tr.);
''The Lover of God'' (orig: ''Bhanusimher Padavali'')
Copper Canyon Press (Lannan Literary Selections), 2003, 121 pages
, 978-1-55659-196-9]
References
{{Reflist
Bengali-language literature
Bhakti movement
Bengali music
Vaishnavism
Hindu music
Kirtan
Indian styles of music