Celebrated Sanskrit poem 'Gita Govinda' now in multimedia

'Gita Govinda,' a much celebrated Sanskrit poem by 12th century poet Jayadeva is now available in a multimedia format on a pen drive.
Based on the love story of Radha and Krishna, the lyrical poem, which has inspired artistic interpretations in painting, music and dance for centuries, has been brought out recently in a multimedia project by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) under guidance of scholar Kapila Vatsyayan.
Vatsyayan, who has been a scholar of 'Gita Govinda' for fifty years and has penned several books on the same subject says she has been working on the project for over two decades.

The 'Gita Govinda' consists of 12 parts further divided into 24 songs. Each song consists of eight couplets called Ashtapadis.
"My challenge was... How do I get it across to the public through new technology, which otherwise would have taken 40 books to write and other 1500 books written by others," Vatsyayan says in the introduction to the presentation.
The 12 GB pendrive consists of Sanskrit and English text, paintings and over 17 hours of video documentation including recitations in both the languages, including recitation and explanation of songs, musical renderings, dance performances, interpretations and critical evaluation of songs and selected Ashtapadis.

Vatsyayan attempts to explain the differences between the human and the divine.
She says, "Gita Govinda is just a poem about two characters and a sakhi. At the human level there are two characters Radha and Krishna, at the divine level there are Vishnu and Shree. At the human level there is the love of two people while at the divine level there is the love and separation of the divine and the human.