Ram Dayal Rakesh
Vidyapati (1360-1440) was a pioneer poet of Maithili language and literature in the true sense of the term. He was also a very popular poet because he composed love songs in local dialect called Maithili There is a saying: ‘desil baina sabjan mitha’. It means, local language is sweet to all.
WH Archer has written about Vidyapati in these lines: “The Indian poet, Vidyapati was born at Bisapi a village in Madhubavi, in the eastern side of North Bihar. A hundred miles north of Bisapi stretch the low foot-hills of Nepal, covered with thick jungle and haunted by tiger. The county of Madhubani is part of Mithila, long renowned for its learning and culture. Its people are known as Maithils. It was in this part of India that Vidyapati, a Maithil Brahmin, spent most of his life as courtier, scholar, writer and poet.”
It is a fact that Vidyapati was born in the Mithilanchal region. Some parts of Mithilanchal fall in the territory of neighboring India and some parts in Nepal Tarai. The language and literature are the same in these two parts. It is said that Vidyapati also stayed at Rajbanauli for about twelve years. He composed lyrical and aesthetic verses in Maithili, and they are very melodious. There is sufficient folk element in these songs. So they are very popular and sung on various auspicious occasions. According to some scholars, Rajbanauli lies in Saptari district. Some scholars are of this opinion that it lies in Siraha and some scholars say that it lies in Mahottari district. But it is dead sure that he stayed in Nepal for a long time and wrote many exemplary works. Some of his unpublished manuscripts are still available in the National Archive. Their authencity has been verified by many research scholars.
It is also said that he wrote Likhnavali (how to write letters in Sanskrit) in Rajbanauli. Ramanath Jha, a great scholar of Mithila has also certified it in the following lines: “These years of voluntary exile at Rajbanauli were the darkest period of Vidyapati’s life. There was nothing before him except frustration and disillusion. The creative genius was dead and poetry given up. He wrote a small treatise of course in Sanskrit, on the forms of letters, documents, etc. for the Raja of Saptari and this Likhnavali is the only work of the poet written during this period.”
W.H. Archer has also justified his temporary stay in Rajbanauli. He writes: “At Rajbanauli in Nepal he lived in lonely isolation, completely in 1408 for the local Raja a Sanskrit work, the Likhnavali. Ten years later, he made a complete copy in his own hand of a manuscript of Bhagawat Puran. In 1418, Padma Singh succeeded Lakhima Devi as ruler of Mithila and about this time Vidyapati seems once again to have joined the court.”
This way, Rajbanauli has become a subject of hot debate in the above-mentioned three districts of Nepal. There is no sufficient proof to support the real Rajbanauli. First of all Vidyapati used to write in the Sanskrit language and he has written many famous works such as Bhooparikrama or Around the World, Purush Pariksha, Likhnavali, Shaiva Sarvaswasar, Daan Vakyabali, Gayapatlak and Durga Bhakti Tarangani. It shows that he was a devotional and committed poet. He was a true devotee of Goddess Durga, who is widely worshipped in the whole Mithila Region. She is especially worshipped on the auspicious occasion of Durga Pooja. He expresses his inner religious feelings. He is truly devoted to goddess Durga. He regards Durga as his mother and himself as her son. As a devotional poet he also prays to the river Ganga in the following lines:
‘O Mother Ganges, I have got the essence of all pleasures at your bank.
Tears roll on in my eyes when I think to leave your proximity.
I pray to you O pious Ganga, you have sacred waters.
I wish to have your ‘darshan’ time and again.’
(My translation)
Vidyapati’s personality as a poet influenced even Chaitnyadeva, Suradas, Mira, Tulasidas and Kabir. The Nobel laureate Rabindranath Nath Tagore was also inspired, influenced and impressed by his versatile poetic genius. I would like to quote Dr. Nagendra here: “It is Maithili poet’s light that has illuminated the genius of Rabindranath Tagore and brought an admiring world around him.”
But Vidyapati primarily and prominently was a poet of physical beauty, youth, and the ethos of eros. He was a singer of romance. He has described dignified and glorified human beauty in his love lyrics. His concept of beauty seems to be against the traditional pattern of the description of beauty. In his opinion beauty does not need any artificial decoration and adoration. It is natural and original because beauty lies in the eyes of the beholders. It is crystal clear in the signature verse of one of his poems:
Sahaj hi Aanan Sunder Re
It can be translated as:
‘Face is naturally beautiful.’
It can be said that Vidyapati’s description of aesthetic feeling is original and at the same time fascinating.
Vidyapati has painted several rosy pictures of the love affairs between Radha and Krishna when they were together on many occasions. He also presented many magnificent pictures of gloomy and painful days of Radha when she was compelled to spend the lonely and long periods of separation. Now, she is bound to bemoan her separated and secluded life. Vidyapati has experienced and explained the agony and ethos of Radha’s life in these lines:
Who said,
The southern breeze was soothing?
Its gentle touch kills lonely women
And the pollen of flowers
Scorches like a fire.
(Translated by Deben Bhattachara, Love Songs of Vidyapati. p. 95.)
Vidyapati is called the incarnation of imminent Sanskrit poet Jayadev who wrote Gitgovind. He has been highly influenced by his poetic genius and style. So critics say that he is Abhinav Jayadev. Jayadev is loved for his language of love. I would like to quote: “At a time when Sanskrit was the language of culture throughout Aryabarta, he made the spoken language of his region the medium of his poetical compositions, sweet and charming and invested it with an expressiveness worthy of literary language. He set the fashion of a new type of poetry for others to follow, and there is no literature of this part of Aryavarta, which does not owe deeply to the influence of his talents and craftsmanship.” (Ramanath Jha)
Vidyapati proved himself a versatile genius for presenting the colorful and suitable atmosphere for free meeting of Radha and Krishna in many of his poems. He is a poet of immense aesthetic sense and beauty. Vidyapati has also given a scintillating picture of the society in which he lived. I would like to quote: “He says, after the death of Ganesaraj the barons turned cheats. Thieves got a free hand. Slaves overpowered their masters. Religion sank in vices. Work came to a standstill. Highhandedness became the order of the day. There was none to discriminate good from evil. People of high birth became beggars. Learned men as it were disappeared. All the fine qualities of Tirhut were gone.”
According to one of the scholars, Vidyapati was not only a poet but also a warrior, minister, historian and commentator. I would like to quote: “The most profound literary influence was that of Vidyapati (18th century) who enjoyed the patronage of King Sivasimha. He wrote in three languages- Abhatta(Apabhramsa), Sanskrit and Maithili. In Abhatta he wrote two books, Kirtilata and Kirtipataka. Among his many Sanskrit works are Purusha, Pariksha, and Vibhaga–sara. His Padavali songs and lyrics stirred all of eastern India. He was warrior, minister, historian and commentator on religion and exercised a deep influence on Rabindranath Tagore.” (P.N. Chopra (Ed.) Religions and Communities. p. 65).
It can be said in the conclusion that Vidyapati was a pioneer and prominent poet in the true sense of the term. I would like to quote a great scholar of Mithila Ramanath Jha again: “It has to be emphasized that the theme of Vidyapati’s erotic songs is love, physical love, the sexual love of man and woman without any ulterior meaning either spiritual or mystic. It is the greatness of his genius that his words have different import for different sets of people.”
Upendra Thakur has highlighted the contribution of great poet Vidyapati in the following words: “Vidyapati exercised tremendous influence on the poets and writers of northern India which, transcending geographical barriers, inspired the poets and Vaisnava preachers of Bengal, Assam, Orissa and Nepal. A versatile genius he composed poems successfully in Aprabhamsa, Prakrta and Maithili, but his undying fame, as noted earlier, rests on his Padavali whose range of poems is amazing. It is wonderful mixture of all kinds of songs- love, devotional, occasional, riddles betraying youthful beauty, charming poses, gestures, movements and vibrations of human heart. In other words, he subdued every element into a harmony of artistic perfection which exercised a great influence on the later writers of the padas.” (Upendra Thakur: History of Mithila. p. 573)
Vidyapati died in the month of Kartik but the exact date of his birth and death are still controversial.
[Ram Dayal Rakesh, PhD, is a professor of Hindi, who retired from Tribhuvan University. A folklorist, writer, critic and translator of high repute, he is also the winner of the prestigious Fukuoka Prize from Japan. He is also the former Chief of the Department of Culture at Nepal Academy.]