Vidyapati
Topic: Bhakti and Sufi Traditions · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Vidyapati was a poet from Mithila, the region of north Bihar. He lived in c. the 14th–15th centuries. He is best known for love songs about Radha and Krishna, written in Maithili, the everyday language of his region. These songs are called padavali, meaning "songs in verses". They later shaped Bengali Vaishnava poetry. Vaishnava means devotion to Vishnu and his forms, such as Krishna. He also wrote songs to Shiva. This shows that one poet could praise more than one god. He matters because he took bhakti, or loving devotion to God, out of Sanskrit and into a spoken language.
Example
Vidyapati's Radha-Krishna songs travelled from Mithila into Bengal. There, Vaishnava devotees of the 16th century, the time of Chaitanya, sang them in their worship. Bengali poets later copied his style.
Don't confuse with
- Jayadeva: he wrote the Gita Govinda about Radha and Krishna in Sanskrit, in 12th-century Bengal. Vidyapati wrote in Maithili, two centuries later.
- Vidyaranya: a scholar-sage linked with the founding of the Vijayanagara kingdom in the south. He was not a Maithili poet.