A History of Sanskrit Literature c16.s1.23

c16.s1.23

So scanty are our records that the next important lyric poet of whom we have more than the name and stanzas in the anthologies is a contemporary of Jayadeva, Govardhana, whom he extols as incomparable in effective erotic descriptions. Jayadeva, however, was neither reticent about himself nor his friends, and we cannot subscribe to his eulogy. The aim of Govardhana, as he himself insists, was to raise the Yamunā in the air in the shape of elevating the simple love songs extant in Prākrit to the level of Sanskrit. His chosen medium is the Āryā verse, and he has composed in this metre, which is unquestionably borrowed by Sanskrit from Prākrit, seven hundred erotic stanzas, without inner connexion and arranged alphabetically. The poetry, however, lacks the popular flavour which marks the *Sattasaī* of Hāla, who, of course, was the model for the *Āryāsaptaçatī*, and perhaps the most interesting thing about the poem is the fact that on it was based the *Sat'saī* (1662) in Hindī of Bihārī Lāl, who has won high rank among Hindī poets, and whose work again was copied by a late Sanskrit writer, Paramānanda, in his *Çr̥ṅgārasaptaçatikā*. The imitation of a Prākrit model is carried to the extent of styling the sections Vrajyās; within them there is no order observed and the effort to produce 700 verses necessarily leads to repetition and many weak lines. His brothers Udayana and Balabhadra corrected and brought out his work, but the text is difficult even when free from suspicion from corruption, for the poet is fond of suggestion in lieu of expression. A more favourable idea of him is given in a verse cited by Rūpagosvāmin: