Natyasutra Online

Content Research

It was decided that all the 24 songs (ashtapadis) of the Gita Govinda must be compiled and presented in this project. Ashtapadi means eight padas (couplets), and there are eight padas in every prabandha, except the first which has eleven. The original text was written on palm leaves, and exact copies are no longer available. The texts or manuscripts available today come in different versions. The first challenge was to compile a text version from the existing ones, acceptable to art lovers and scholars. Sanskrit is the language that Jayadeva wrote in; hence, it was only fair to seek out versions written in the same. A dedicated research team was constituted to gather authentic texts of the Gita Govinda in Sanskrit with English translations, that were as bereft of any kind of bias as possible. Dr Radhika Menon compiled a composite English version, which does justice to the original work.

Guru Pali Chandra wanted to ensure that no shortcuts or easy solutions diluted the originality of each of the texts. They had to uphold the highest artistic and literary standards of poet Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda. The 12th century work might not have existed as a single unique version all these years. Hence, the team decided to gather and recreate the different pieces that had mystified scholars for centuries. The belief that only an original version of poet Jayadeva’s work could give a person a true understanding of his message was the driving force behind the entire project. Slowly and steadily, the manuscript began to reveal itself to the team, and it was put through a rigorous choreography exercise so that Jayadeva’s genius could be recreated to its fullest potential.