BLiterature-Apratim

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lovers’ pains. According to his ideas, monsoon is a suitable time for love’s sighs and
sorrows.
Almost all other Vaishnava poets followed Jayadeva’s model. Their Padas
can be divided into the sections as they are in Gitogobindam. In fact, a
Gitogobindam can be compiled from every Vaishnava poet’s complete works.
Vidyapati is no exception.
Vidyapati’s Maithili verse gave birth to a typical Bangla diction called Brajabuli.
Many later Vaishnava poets (e.g. Gobindadas Kabiraz and Shekhar Ray) followed
this diction. Even modern day poet Tagore wrote his Bhanushinger Padabali in
Brajabuli. This verse-diction nullifies the idea that medieval literatures were mainly
intended for religious purposes.
He wrote books on other topics. He composed poems surrounding Shiva and
Parvati. He even wrote books on rhetorical subject in Sanskrit. But it is his Vaishnava
Padavali that became popular in this region.
Vidyapati is called the ‘sovereign poet’ of the middle ages. In poetic
gorgeousness, he often looks as great as the modernist Jibanananda. Known as the
‘unique Jayadeva’ in his own time, Vidyapati will ever be remembered as a great
designer of Radha-Krishna Padavali.
Chandidas (15 th /16 th Century)
Chandidas is the only medieval Bengali poet who claims a place in the entire
world literature. In the world of poetry, his place is unique and everlasting.
This great poet’s historicity is shrouded in mystery. A large number of poets of
this same name lived in this province in the middle ages. They held different
sobriquets like Baru, Dwiza, Dina, Taruniraman etc. As a result, a great poet of
Bangla literature (whoever he is) is in historical sense, confined to a mere name.
Chandidas’s life-story (probably fictitious) is associated with a washerwoman
named Rami (or Tara). He wrote love poems to his beloved glorifying her as equal to
Krishna’s consort Radha.
Chandidas mainly wrote of the sorrows of love in his poems. However,
Chandidas’s tears of love are not the outcome of a failed lover’s broken heart (as
apparently seems), but in fact a crave for getting attached to a soul of higher order.
His poems sometimes tell of Platonic love – his perception reaches at a love
beyond any physical attraction. Sometimes his temporal love develops into divine or
mystical love. When he tells us that love is like an inscription on stone and cannot
be removed, he at the same time expresses love’s sorrows, eternity and greatness; it
does not remain an ordinary feeling.
And his love develops into a divine perception from a usual temporal idea. He
says in a song –
“I feel the joy of wearing the necklace of infamy
Around my neck
For you, my love.”
(Translated by the author)