Odia Books

Gopal Krishna Padavali An enormous amount of literature on the Vaishnava cult was written in Odisha as in other regions of India. A collection, entitled “Padavali of Gopal Krishna (1785-1862)”, was first published in 1889-93. Many padavalis were written earlier in odia from the sixteenth century to the first part of the eighteenth. The poets who composed Krishna kavyas are Danai Das, Debadurlava Das, Upendra Bhanja, Bhupati Pandit, Vrindabati Dasi, Dinakrushna Das, Abhimanyu Samanta Sinhara, Brajanath Badajena, Bhakta Charana Das and Kavisurya Baladeva Ratha. Their padavalis were popular because of their emotional fervour which stirred the hearts of the common men. The poets depicted Radha and Krishna not as spiritual personalities but as ordinary human beings. Gopal Krishna Pattanayak adopted the style of Vaishnavapadavalis which were both musical and lyrical. He not only composed a larger number of padavalis than his predecessors and contemporary poets did, but also depicted the lila of Krishna with all its variety and richness in his poems with great naturalness and artistic beauty. In his conduct and ideals he was a true Vaishnava, and his literature was part of his religious practice. He conceived Sri Krishna as Shringara incarnate and ‘Paramananda svarupini’ (supreme bliss). He considered singing and chanting the names of Radha and Krishna to be the supreme goal of his life. In his Padavali he worshipped them as his ‘sakhi’.

The Padavali of Gopal Krishna is based on the feeling of love-’shringara rasa’. Shringara is considered
the basic element in the padavali literature, but the Vaishnavas call it madhura rasa. Gopal Krishna has
portrayed both the union with and the separation from Lord Krishna, the ‘purusha’ par excellence. His
depiction of pathos in the separation of lovers is very heart-touching. Gopal Krishna has depicted in many of his poems the tireless effort of Radha to attain the love of Krishna and the trial of her love in separation. For example, he says in one of the poems-’daya na karantu mu dasi sina re’. He has also invoked ‘shanta’ rasa in his chaupadis, entitled ‘Manah siksha’. His devotional poem, ‘Anusarita Prabhu kalayaka gala sarita’ is based on shanta rasa. He has also depicted ‘vatsalya’ rasa as in ‘Uthilu ede begi kahinkire duhki dhana’.These padavalis were meant to be sung, and musical metres were followed while composing them. He has used ragas and raginis like ashabari, ananda bhairabi, kalyani, kedar, gandhar, bhaikhi, bangalashree, shankarabharana, etc.

Gopal Krishna, had a good command of Sanskrit, but his padavalis are wonderfully free from terse Sanskritised language. He has successfully used colloquial odia words and idioms and harmonised them
with polished ‘tatsam’ (pure) words, Mayadhar Mansinha has compared Gopal Krishna’s poems with the
water of an autumn spring which flows scantily but is pure and tasteful. His poems need no commentary, as they convey eternal joy to both the learned and the ignorant.

Vaishnavapadavali
Manah Siksha
Anusarita Prabhu Kalayaka Gala Sarita
Ashabari
Ananda bhairabi
Shankarabharana
Bangalashree
Kedar