________________ is a masterpiece, and it surpasses in its completeness of effect any other Indian poem. It has all the perfection of the miniature word-pictures which are so common in Sanskrit poetry......All the sides of love, save that of utter despair and final separation, are brilliantly described; all the emotions of longing, of awakened hope, of disappointment, of hot anger against the unfaithful one, of reconciliaton, are portrayed by the actors themselves or Radha's friend in songs which are perfect in metrical form and display at its highest point the sheer beauty of words of which Sanskrit is pre-eminently capable."! "It is, however, astonishing that he was able to combine so much passion and sentiment of love, so much alliteration in language, that often resounds as pure music in our ears with such an ornate and yet artificial a form."* "Jayadeva's style is worthy of high praise; now in a rapid flow of short words, now in the measured moveinent of long and skilfully constructed compounds, the poem brings in a series of brilliant pictures the emotions it seeks at once to describe, and to arouse as sentiments in the hearts of its readers or hearers."3 "Makiug abundant use of alliteration and the most complex thymes...the poet has adapted the most varied and melodious ineasures to the expre. ssion of exuberant erotic emotions, with a skill which could not be sur. passed."! In this poeni the art of wedding sound and sense is carried out with such perfect success that it is, indeed, untranslatable. Jayadeva has a great command over the language and metres and is keenly sensitive to the melody of the words he chooses, see for example, the refrain in Song No. 5 (cauto v). . धीरसमीरे यमुनातीरे वसति वने वनमाली / Jayadeva skilfully uses all the conventions of Sanskrit love-poetry to produce the desired effect. He makes free use of figures of sound and sense but does not allow them to mar the sentiments he wants to portray. All this high praise the poem deserves no doubt, but one should not infer from it that the work is free from defects. Jagannatha severely criticises Jayadeva for describing the joys and amorous sports of God Krsna and his beloved Radba." K. H. Dhruva points out some poetic (1) Keith: A History of Sanskrit Literature, pp. 194-195. (2) M. Winternitz: History of Indian Literature Vol. III Part I p. 147. (3) Keith: Classical Sanskrit Literature, p. 122 (4) Macdonell: A History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 345 (5) Rasagangadhara (Kavyamala ed. 1947) p. 65 : यत्र सहृदयानां रसोद्बोधः प्रमाणसिद्धस्तत्रैव साधारणीकरणस्य कल्पनात् / अन्यथा स्वमातृविषयकस्वपितृरतिवर्णनेऽपि सहृदयस्य रसोबोधापत्तेः। जयदेवादिभिस्तु गीतगोविन्दादिप्रबन्धेषु सकलसहृदयसंमतोऽयं समयो मदोन्मत्तमतङ्गरिव भिन्न...
