Lyrics and Meanings (Ashtapadi)

Aṣhṭapadhi - It is lyrical poetry in 12 chapters, which is further sub-divided into 24 divisions called Prabandhha. Each Prabandhha is again sub-divided into two, comprising eight couplets called Aṣhṭapadhis.

Each song of the Aṣhṭapadhiis set in a special rāga and thāḷa. It is a rhyme of eternal love and supreme devotion. The literal meaning of "Aṣhṭapadhi" is "eight steps".

Gītha Govindha composed in the 12th century by Indian poet Jayadheva in Sanskrit language is a lyrical poetry in twelve chapters, sub-divided into twenty four divisions called Prabandhha. The songs in Gītha Govindha symbolize the eternal love of Lord Kriṣhṇa and his beloved Rādhhā and the sublimation of love in God through complete surrender.

Chapter one and chapter two, four, five and twelve contain two Aṣhṭapadhis each; chapters three, six, eight, nine and ten contain only one Aṣhṭapadhi each. Thus there are twenty-four Aṣhṭapadhi. These Aṣhṭapadhis can be set to music in different melodious ragas, which were appreciated and followed by the poets later period. On which more than hundred commentaries has been written in Sanskrit and over fifty more than hundred commentaries have been written in Sanskrit and over fifty in regional languages in India also in many foreign languages.

Since the Gīthagovindha was composed specifically for dance performance during the night worship of Lord Jagannātha, the composition is so deftly made as to be sung to the beats of a dancer's foot movements. The author himself at the end of the Kāvya again states this fact, where he again emphasizes that the poem was intended to be a prop for meditation on Viṣhṇu and it is clothed in Śhrungāra rasa by the kavi Jayadheva panḍitha immersed in the contemplation of Krishna. The poem became so popular that within a century or so, it spread to all corners of the country from east to south, west and north and was adapted to dance, music, painting and temple worship.

In short, these songs describe the celestial love between Rādhhikā and Kriṣhṇa, The egoistic nature of Rādhhikā, Her anger towards Kriṣhṇa, Her viraha thāpam (sorrow in separation), reunion and their Sallāpam.

Chapter Two

Akleśha Keśhavam - Blithesome Kriṣhṇa

Aṣhṭapadhī – 6: Akleśha Keśhava Manjari Thilakam

Sakhi He

Steeply slithered is Rādhhā’s privilege, for Kriṣhṇa's love is equipoise in respect of all other milkmaids and herself. Thus some grudge overtook her when he is on a pleasure-trip with others. She has gone elsewhere, somewhere into a bower of tendrils noisy with the humming of swarms of honeybees spiraling at its spire, and when she stepped into that bower she forlornly said this to her friend in solitude.

"One night when I have gone into a prearranged lonely alcove I was startled by his truancy and started to see all around for him. But that bounteous pleasure-giver was already there, coming earlier and hiding in the darkness. Then, he suddenly appeared from nowhere startling me again, but smiling wryly with all his lust, filled with hastiness for an exigent intimacy, met me. Oh friend! Why don't you make him to take delight in me even now, when my heart and mind are filled with love and longing for him?

I was very bashful on my first tryst. But saying hundreds of reassuring good words he brought me round. Then, I was speaking softly, sweetly and smilingly, unaware when my silken dress slipped from my hips. He, filled with hastiness for an eager intimacy, met me... Oh friend! Why don't you make him to take delight in me even now, when my heart and mind are filled with love and longing for him?

Kisalaya - tender grass, lawn;

Śhayana - as bed;

Niveśhithayā - placed in [on reposing me];

Chiramuras - all the time on my, chest,

Śhayānam - he who reposed on it;

Kruthaparirambhaṇa - on making bracing, embraces;

Chumbanayā - with kisses;

Parirabhya - in besetting manner, hugging [graspingly];

Kruthādhharapānam - done, lower lip, swilled;

Sakhi ... Savikāram - as above.

Reposing me on a bed-like lawn he lay upon my chest all along. Making bracing embraces he kissed and swilled my lips graspingly. Then he, filled with hastiness for an intimacy, met me. Oh friend! Why don't you make him to take delight in me even now, when my heart and mind are filled with love and longing for him?

Ālasanimīlitha - tired thereby slouching;

Lochanayā - with eyes [rather, eyelids, and such as i was];

Pulakāvalil - a series of tingles;

Lalitha - delicate;

Kapolam - cheeks [of Kriṣhṇa, or of Rādhhā];

Shramajala- strain, water [sweat];

Sakalakalevarayā - whose whole, body is, [such as i was];

aramadhanadhādh - utmost, love-god [passion,] by intemperance;

Athilolam - wholly, swinging - that Kriṣhṇa - let him take delight in suchlike me;

Sakhi ... Savikāram - as above.

I was tired then, hence my eyelids were slouching; his delicate cheeks too experienced a series of tingles; my whole body was wet with sweat, while his body too was highly vibrating with passionate intemperance; such were we when we first met. He, filled with hastiness for an exigent intimacy, met me. Oh friend! Why don't you make him to take delight in me even now, when my heart and mind are filled with love and longing for him?

Kokila - kokila, black singing bird;

Kalarava - inexplicable, cooing;

Kūjithayā - one who cooing like that [myself];

Jitha - one who conquered, mastered;

Śhlathhakusumā - slithered, flowers –flowers slipped from my braid;

Ākulakunthalayā - tousled, braid [my hair tousled];

Nakha - by nails;

likhitha - written, scratched;

Ghana - busty;

Sthana - bosoms; bhāram - i who had to bear the weight [of such bosoms and that of Kriṣhṇa on such bosoms];

Sakhi ... Savikāram - as above.

I was cooing and calling like a koel or a pigeon when that prodigy in every treatise of lovemaking was further examining the possibilities of taking further delight in me, while flowers from my braid slithered, hair tousled, and I was slumping under my nail-scratched buxomly bosoms upon which he is reposing. All this happened in the good old days. Oh friend! Why don't you make him to take delight in me even now, when my heart and mind are filled with love and longing for him?

My gemmy anklets that usually jingle with every footstep of mine are made jinglier when he copulated with me in different conjoining postures; and when my girdle-chain-set has fallen down in that act, and then he grasped my hair-bun to give a dole of kiss... Such as we were we met to the content of our hearts... Oh friend! Why don't you make him to take delight in me even now, when my heart and mind are filled with love and longing for him?

When I with my creeper-plant-like body was reposing on lawn, relaxing delightedly with union-time-joyousness, he too reposed on lawn as he was weakened and his lotus eyes were half-shut… but, he again sprang up as passion for me sprang up in him again… such as he was, Oh friend! Why don't you make him to take delight in me even now, when my heart and mind are filled with love and longing for him?

Let this song that contains the accounts of Kriṣhṇa's romantic frolics, as narrated by me, an ecstatic milkmaid called Rādhhā, and as penned by a worshipper of goddess Lakṡhmi called poet Jayadheva, broadly pass blessedness all round, for all of us… such as I am a well-wisher of one and all, I am wishing now to get Kriṣhṇa to my side…  Oh friend! Why don't you make him to take delight in me even now, when my heart and mind are filled with love and longing for him?