Love Songs of Narsinh Mehta is a commentary on Narsinh Mehta’s love songs. Narsinh (1408-65), a Vaishnava bhakti poet of medieval India, is considered as the adi-kavi of Gujarat. He is also regarded as a shringara kavi, a poet of romance. The quintessence of his bhakti is prem and his prem has inherent bhakti, and therefore his poetry is regarded as shringara bhakti kavya.
Essentially shringara is the romantic celebration of the other, and when Narsinh’s other is none other than Krishna, his shringara kavya becomes Krishna bhakti, where Krishna is both divine and human, at the same time. Singing for Krishna, Narsinh celebrates his swami through amorous verses and divine surrender like Jayadeva.
He sat in a temple and relentlessly sang for his Lord, living through absolute poverty. Nothing made him more jovial than singing the glory of his Krishna. The only man for Narsinh is Krishna, and for the latter Narsinh is a woman at heart. Narsinh, through his songs, brings in the cue of all romantic feelings and moments, recreates the idyllic Vrindavana in one’s mind and he returns that Vrindavana a Vaikuntha with the footfalls of his Krishna.
Through this commentary, the author Harsha V. Dehejia introduces one to the fullness of Narsinh’s poems, thereby making one known to Narsinh in and out.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Harsha V Dehejia
Harsha V. Dehejia has a double doctorate, one in Medicine and the other in Ancient Indian Culture, both from Mumbai University. He is also a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London and Glasgow and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, all by examination. He is a practising Physician in Ottawa and also Adjunct Professor in the College of Humanities of Carleton University in Ottawa. His special interest is in Indian Aesthetics. His publications include: Advaita of Art, Parvatidarpana, Despair and Modernity, Gods Beyond Temples and Leaves of a Pipal Tree (all by Motilal Banarasidass, Delhi); Parvati: Goddess of Love, The Flute and The Lotus: Romantic Moments in Poetry and Painting and Celebrating Krishna: Sensuous Images, Sacred Words (all by Mapin, Ahmedabad); A Celebration of Love: The Romantic Heroine in the Indian Arts and A Festival of Krishna (both by Roli, Delhi).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vijay Sharma
Born in 1962 Vijay Sharma is an award winning Pahari miniaturist and works as an artist in the Bhuri Singh Museum, Chamba, Himachal Pradesh. He has studied major collections of Indian painting across the world and has lecture-demonstrations in leading museums and institutions in India and abroad. He has written several scholarly articles on Pahari miniature painting. He paints in various styles of Indian painting, chiefly Basohli and Kangra schools of Pahari painting. Howerer, the work included here in Chaurapanchashika style reveals the fertile imagination of artist.
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