Historical Perspective of Jayadeva

-By Arun Kumar Upadhyay, IPS

B-9, CB-9, Cantonment Road, Cuttack-753001
0671-2304172/2304433 Mob-9437034172
E mail- arun_ved@yahoo.co.in
1.Biographical sketch- Interestingly, a brief biographical outline of Sri Jayadeva is found
only in the Bhavishya purana though he has unique place in literary history of Orissa. Bhavishya
purana has 3 major additions to the traditional content available at time of Vedavyasa-(1) At the
time of king Shatanika, the third king in Kali era after Yudhishthira when Sumantu, disciple of
Vedavyasa compiled Brahma parva. (2) Madhyama parva appears to be at the time of
Prithviraja Chauhana (1171-1192 AD) because is contains mainly his exploits. It also describes
the Tantra elements spread at time of Gorakhnatha in 8th century who set up 4 peethas at
Jalandhara (Punjab), Uddiyan (Jajpur in Orissa), Kamakhya (Asam) and Purna (Maharashtra)
to counter Islamic attack at time of Kings Nagbhata-1 of Pratihar and Bappa Raval of Mewar.
(3) Pratisarga Parva appears to be added at the end of Maratha period when British influence
was just starting. It tells about Adam, Noah, Yakut of Bible/Koran and Taimutlang, Nadirshah,
Akbar. It also gives stories of Jayachandra, Prithviraj, Shankaracharya, Ramanuja, Nimbarka,
Madhva, Jaideva, Kabir, Bhattoji Dixit, Chaitanya, Nanaka etc. (4) Uttara parva is a supplement
as a talk between Krishna and Yudhishthira.
Pratisarga parva, part 4 contains 26 chapters and starting with 4 Agni dynasty kings,
describes the following which are not in chronological orderChapter 8-Madhvacharya, Shridharacharya, Vishnusvami, Vanibhushana, Bhattoji Dikshit,
Varahmihir.
Chapter 9-Dhanvantari, Sushruta, Jayadeva.
Chapter 10-Krishna-Chaitanya, Shankaracharya.
Chapter 11-Anandagiri, Vanasharma, Purisharma.
Chapter 12-Bhartisha, Gorakhnatha, Kshetrasharma, Dhundhiraj
Chapter 13-Aghorapanthi Bharava Hanumat, Balasharma.
Chapter 14-Rudra, Ramanuja.
Chapter 15-Trilochana Vaishya as incarnation of Vasu.
Chapter 16-Namadeva, Rankana vaishya.
Chapter 17-Kabir, Narashri, Pipa, Nanaka, Nityananda.
2. Biography of Jayadeva-This is in Chapter 9, verses 34-66. Accordingly, Jayadeva was
born in village Kendu-bila (or Kanduka-bilva) in a Brahmina family. He was incarnation of lord
Sun and crown of poets. When this part was added in purana, the village appears to be under
Bengal. Since the age of 5 years, he was serving his parents. For 12 years he served parents (till
age of 17 years). Then he performed last rites of his parents. He performed Gaya shraddha for
their going to heavens and then renounced the world and was living in a forest. At the age of 23,
he met with a beautiful lady, Padmavati whose father had offered her to Sri Jagannatha. When
her father was worshipping the Daru-Brahma Jagannatha, he was ordered by the lord that

Jayadeva was His body only and Padmavati should be married to him. Then he searched
Jayadeva as a sanyasi. Padmavati also was happy to find Jayadeva as husband and lived
together for many years with him. Jayadeva wrote Nirukta in 5 parts which is an important limb
of Vedas. Due to influence of Prakrit language under Nagavanshi kings, Sanskrit was being
deformed. So he wrote a commentary on the grammar of Panini. Once Jayadeva was going with
money given by king when he was looted by thieves who threw him into well after cutting his
hands. His wife Padmavati took him out of well. The king saw the saint in this condition when
he had gone there for hunting. But Jayadeva did not blamed any body. He merely said that it was
the result of his sins of past life. King Dharmapala (name, or his quality of protecting dharma)
brought him to his capital and constructed a Dharmashala at that place after making
arrangements for safety of pilgrims. That place is still named Dharmashala in Jajpur district and
old Gazetteer of Cuttack tells that it was notorious for dacoits looting the pilgrims going to Puri.
Later on the thieves came to kings place in guise of saints. They feared that Jayadeva may not
identify and reveal them and fabricated a false story that Jayadeva was committing dacoity in
Gauda country for which his hands were cut. The king knew the real story and hanged the
thieves. Jayadeva wept and prayed for them. They were pardoned by the king . Due to grace of
God, hands and feet of Jayadeva became as before. For prayer of God, he had written
Gitagovinda, which is most famous till today. By listening to that, the king also went to heavens.
3. Historical perspective-Jayadeva was in 11-12th century when Orissa was flourishing as an
independent state while most part of north India was under constant plunder from Mahmud
Gazanavi and other Islamic invaders from west Asia. Thus it became the last place for preserving
the Vedic culture and vast literature. Jayadeva wrote books on Grammar and Nirukta which are
two important limbs of Veda out of a total of 6 limbs. Usually, Nirukta is taken same as grammar,
but Nirukta is transformation of meaning of words as per technical definition in various sciences.
Grammar is transformation of words by suffix and prefix to root verbs. Last Nirukta was written
by Yaska slightly after Vedavyasa himself and thereafter no body has ventured to write such a
text. That needs great authority on all aspects of Vedas and equal vision in all branches of
learning which is possible for a detached scholar only. Nirukta needs technical learning also. It is
quite probable that it is same Jayadeva whose methods of Algebra have been quoted by a Kerala
text Sundari commentary by Udayadivakara on Laghu-Bhaskariya of Bhaskara-1 (629 AD)
available in Maharajas Palace Library, Trivandrum. His methods of indeterminate equation of
second order by Chakravala method has been quoted by Prof. Kripashankar Shukla in his
article-Acharya Jayadeva, The Mathematician- in Ganita, Vol.5, No.1.The references and
original quotes are reproduced in the book-Bharatiya Ganitam by Prof. Venkatesha MurtyRashtriya Sanskri Vidyapeetha, Tirupati, 2005, at pages 97, 100 & 111, 107-109, 116-117. It may
be noted that special paper on Theory of numbers in M.Sc. (math) syllabus gives the
indeterminate equations of first degree only. Jayadeva has explained the much difficult problems
of second degree.
Thus, Jayadeva was the last stalwart in Vedic literature and technical sciences. His
contemporary, Bhoja of Malva has written his book Sarasvati-Kanthabharana-Alankar, verse
115 that, till the time of king Vikramaditya of Ujjain (82 BC-19 AD) all the official work was

being done in Sanskrit. Since the time of his grandson Shalivahana (78-138 AD), work started in
local languages. Jayadeva preserved the old Sanskrit tradition. Another astronomer Shatananda
belonged to same place Puri and was in same time. He wrote a karana-text (manual or handbook) Bhasvati, giving short methods of calculation based on Suryasiddhanta of Varahmihir.
Such texts are written to explain the methods of short calculations starting from a reference date
of current calendar. Thus an era had started at that time. However, there is no text to explain the
mathematical methods used in Bhasvati. It is probable that Algebra was written by Jayadeva to
cater to that need.
4. Trends in History-Research on Jayadeva also indicates a dangerous trend in Indian
historical research. We are not concerned with the work or correct time of great men. There are
attempts to shoe that they belong to the region of authors. Thus Megasthenese, who had come to
Delhi on banks of Yamuna in Gupta period, has been described at time of Maurya period at
Patna. The Brihad-hatti (major market) of Patna is Bihta, but it has been declared to be Barahat
near Meerut. Maitreya Buddha was born in Dhanya-Kataka (present Cuttack of Orissa having
Dhanamandal, Chauliaganja etc.) 150 years after death of Siddhartha-Buddha as per Fahien,
but he has been shown near Nagpur by Prof. Mirasi of that region. He has also declared Kalidas
of Nagpur region only. Now there is move to declare Kalidas of Orissa without bothering to
know the times and works of 3 Kalidas in 3 periods. Similarly, there were 28 Buddhas, out of
whom 3 were born in Orissa-Dipankara (at time of king Indrabhuti whose son started Lama
tradition), and Sumedha Buddha at Mahendragiri (same as Sumedha rishi of Chandi patha or
Tripura mahatmya) and Maitreya mentioned above. But there is no desire to know about any
Buddha, whosoever existed he was in Orissa or place of some other writers. Similarly, Mandan
Mishra is being shown by 2 groups to be from Mithila or Ujjain, but all the verses about him
indicate that he was on the banks of Son river, midway between 2 places. Similar is the attempt
with Jayadeva. No body is concerned about his works. All research in Bengal was aimed to
prove him as of Bengal.
Devotion is the basis of knowledge. Devotion to Gods is the same as devotion to Vedas and
related texts. Jayadeva was having both. But due to the miracle of restoring his cut hands, Gitagovinda became more famous. Limca book of records tell that the oldest govt. order still in force
was by Purushottama-Deva that Odisi dance will use only songs of Jayadeva. Actually, the
oldest agreement still in force is agreement between kings of Orissa (Sudhanva of Baghela
gotra) and Nepal in presence of Shankaracharya on Kartik Shukla 10th, 483 BC that king of
Nepal only will have right of worship Sri-Jagannatha like a king in addition to king of Orissa.
King of Orissa continues that tradition though he is in name only. It is not known as to how long
kingship in Nepal will survive.