Odia Books

Gourahari Parichha was born in 1794,Paralakhemundi in Ganjam district, odisha,and he was a contemporary f the renowned poets, Gopal Krishna (1785-1862) and Kavichandra Raghunath Parichha (1795-1872). A staunch Vaishnava by faith, he composed a great number of beautiful poems depicting the love of Radha and Krishna. Apart from being a poet, he was also an expert in ‘veena’ recital. Vyasakavi Fakirmohan paid a tribute to him in his poem, ‘Utkal Bhramana’, mentioning in particular his command of music on veena.

Not much is known about Gourahari’s life or writings. His poems appeared in the last decade of the nineteenth century in Damodar Patnaik’s Sangita sagar 0 sangita sarbasara. Some of his poems were also published in Preeti sudhakar by Gopalaballava Das.

Gourahari was an honest scholar, and his deep philosophical thoughts, detatched love and spiritual leanings are reflected in his writings. His work may be classified into three divisions: Chaupadis (depicting the love sport of Radha and Krishna), Astakal seva (in Bengali), and Bhasa sangita vinoda (translation of Gitagobinda).

Gourahari’s Chaupadis are remarkable for their devotion and music, and his translation of Gitagobinda tries to capture the magic of the original, and its language is simple to understand. Apart from these, he also wrote a drama, entitled Prahlada nataka, under the name of Rama Chandra Chotray, the then king of
Jalantara.

Gourahari was the disciple of Govindadas Rasikananda. He had deep regard for his guru as well as for the
six exponents (Sada Goswamis) of the Vaishnava ‘raganuraga’ bhakti cult. In this cult love for ‘parakiya
nayika’ plays an important role. Gourahari composed thirtyfour poems, arranged alphabetically, but
unfortunately only three of them on ‘dha’, ‘la’ and ‘ch’ are available. Gourahari’s poems have been set to
different ragas.

He has used figures with depth of emotion. He also composed a number of chaupadis on the love of Radha and Krishna and portrayed Radha in eight types of nayikas (heroines). His use of dialogue in the chaupadis is also impressive. The dialogues are usually between Radha, Krishna and a ‘duti’ (messenger). The duti’s modes of worship and religious practice are described in ‘Astakal seva’. The chaupadis are, indeed, the prized possession of odia literature, and Gourahari is an important name in odia literature because of his poetic excellence and philo-sophical thoughts.

Utkal Bhramana
Love Of Radha And Krishna.