Jagannatha Panditaraja

Jagannātha, also known as Jagannātha Paṇḍita or Jagannātha Paṇḍitarāja, was a famous poet and literary critic who lived in the 17th century. As a poet, he is known for writing the Bhāminī-vilāsa ("The Sport of the Beautiful Lady (Bhāminī)"). As a literary theorist or rhetorician, he is renowned for his Rasagaṅgādhara, a work on poetic theory. He was granted the title of Paṇḍitarāja by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, at whose court he received patronage.

The Bhāminī-vilāsa

The Bhāminī-vilāsa is divided into four chapters, each called vilāsa, and containing about a hundred verses (in the manner of a śataka). The number of verses per chapter varies between manuscripts:

• The first, anyokti-vilāsa, contains allegorical (anyokti) stanzas about life in general (nīti). It has 100 to 130 stanzas.
• The second, śṛṅgāra-vilāsa, contains love poems. It has 101 to 184 stanzas.
• The third, karuṇā-vilāsa, contains laments mourning the death of the beautiful lady (Bhāminī).
• The fourth, śānta-vilāsa, contains verses on renunciation (vairagya). It has 31 to 46 stanzas.

Example verses

From the Rasa-gaṅgādhara

The Retort
"Small-waisted girl why are you so thin?"
"Why do you concern yourself with other people's affairs?"
"Tell me nonetheless, and give me joy."
"Go away, traveller, your wife will tell you."

— Translated by J. M. Masson

From the Bhāminī-vilāsa

A Word of Warning
My soul, I tell you, watch out. Don't take up with that cowherd.
Whose skin is the hue of fresh rain clouds, the one who pastures
His herd in Vrindavana. He's shrewd. He'll charm you first with his smile,
Then his looks. Your senses will fail, and then oblivion.

— Translated by Vidya Niwas Mishra, Leonard Nathan and Sachchidananda Vatsyayan

Devotional poems

He composed five devotional poems, each of whose names contains the word laharī ("a large wave"):

• Amṛta-laharī, in praise of the river Yamunā, 10 stanzas long,
• Sudhā-laharī, in praise of Sūrya the sun god, 30 stanzas long,
• Gaṅgā-laharī', addressed to the river Gaṅgā, 53 stanzas long,
• Karuṇā-laharī, in praise of Kṛṣṇa (Krishna), 60 stanzas long, and
• Lakṣmī-laharī, in praise of the goddess Lakshmi, 40 stanzas long.

As a scholar

He was a junior contemporary of Appayya Dīkṣita of whom he wrote disparagingly. He wrote the Kaustubha-khaṇḍana, criticizing Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita's Śabda-kaustubha, and Prauḍha-manoramā-khaṇḍana (also called manoramā-kuca-mardana) criticizing the explanations of his Prauḍha-manoramā. Other minor works attributed to him include the Sāra-pradīpikā, a commentary on the Sārasvata Prakriyā or Sārasvata vyākaraṇa, an ancient grammatical work attributed to Narendra.

References

• Lienhard, Siegfried (1984), Jan Gonda (ed.), A History of Classical Poetry: Sanskrit–Pali–Prakrit, A History of Indian Literature, vol. 3, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz