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{{Short description|Maithili and Sanskrit poet, composer and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2017}}
{{About||the 1937 film|Vidyapati (film)}}
{{Infobox writer 
| name = Vidyapati
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| image = Statue of Maha Kavi Kokil Vidyapati.jpg
| image_size = 250px
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| birth_date = {{circa|{{birth year|1380}}}}
| birth_place = [[Bisfi]] (present day [[Madhubani, Bihar|Madhubani]] [[Bihar]], [[India]])<ref name="brit">{{Britannica|627989|Vidyapati}}</ref>
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1460|1380}}
| death_place = [[Bisfi]]<ref name="brit"/>
| occupation = Writer, poet
| language = [[Maithili language|Maithili]], [[Brajabuli]]
| nationality = Indian
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'''Vidyapati''' ({{circa|1380}} – 1460), also known by the sobriquet ''Maithil Kavi Kokil'' (the poet [[cuckoo]] of [[Maithili language|Maithili]]), was a [[Maithili language|Maithili]] and [[Sanskrit]] poet, composer, writer, courtier and royal priest.<ref name="Jha20182">{{cite book|author=Pankaj Jha|title=A Political History of Literature: Vidyapati and the Fifteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8xl9DwAAQBAJ|date=20 November 2018|publisher=OUP India|isbn=978-0-19-909535-3|page=2}}</ref> He was a devotee of [[Shiva]], but also wrote love songs and devotional [[Vaishnavism|Vaishnava]] songs.<ref name=":0" /> He knew [[Sanskrit]], [[Prakrit]], [[Apabhraṃśa|Apabhramsha]], and [[Maithili language|Maithili]].<ref name=":0" />

Vidyapati's influence was not just restricted to Maithili and Sanskrit literature but also extended to other Eastern Indian literary traditions.<ref name="Jha20182" />
The language at the time of Vidyapati, the [[prakrit]]-derived late [[abahatta|Abahattha]], had just begun to transition into early versions of the Eastern languages such as Maithili and [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]]. Thus, Vidyapati's influence on making these languages has been described as "analogous to that of [[Dante]] in [[Italy]] and [[Chaucer]] in [[England]]".<ref name=":3" /> He has been called the "Father of Bengali literature".<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Coomaraswamy|first=Ananda Kentish|title=Vidyāpati: Bangīya Padābali; Songs of the Love of Rādhā and Krishna.|publisher=The Old Bourne Press|year=1915|location=London}}</ref>

==Early life==
Vidyapati was born to a Maithil Brahmin family in the village of Bisapī (now [[Bisfi]]) in the present-day [[Madhubani district]] of the [[Mithila, India|Mithila region]] of northern [[Bihar]], [[India]].<ref name="brit"/><ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Jha|first=Pankaj|title=Vidyapati and Mithila|date=2019-02-14|url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780199489558.001.0001/oso-9780199489558-chapter-1|work=A Political History of Literature|pages=3–36|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/oso/9780199489558.003.0001|isbn=978-0-19-948955-8|access-date=2021-03-07}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> The name ''Vidyapati'' ("master of knowledge") is derived from two Sanskrit words, ''vidya'' ("knowledge") and ''pati'' ("master"). There is confusion as to his exact date of birth due to conflicting information from his own works and those of his patrons.<ref name="Jha2018">{{cite book|author=Pankaj Jha|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8xl9DwAAQBAJ|title=A Political History of Literature: Vidyapati and the Fifteenth Century|date=20 November 2018|publisher=OUP India|isbn=978-0-19-909535-3|page=4–7}}</ref>

He was the son of Gaṇapati Ṭhakkura, a [[Maithil Brahmin]] said to be a great devotee of [[Shiva]].<ref name=":2" /> He was a priest in the court of Rāya Gaṇeśvara, the reigning chief of Tirhut.<ref name="Jha2018" /> A number of his near ancestors were notable in their own right including his great-grandfather, Devāditya Ṭhakkura, who was a Minister of War and Peace in the court of [[Harisimhadeva]].

Vidyapati himself worked in the courts of various kings of the [[Oiniwar Dynasty]] of Mithila.<ref name="Jha2018" /> Vidyapati's first commission was by Kīrttisiṃha, who ruled Mithila from around 1370 to 1380.<ref name=":2" /> This led to the ''Kīrttilatā'', a long praise-poem for his patron in verse.<ref name=":2" /> This work contains an extended passage praising the courtesans of Delhi, foreshadowing his later virtuosity in composing love poetry.<ref name=":2" /> Though Kīrttisiṃha didn't commission any more works, Vidyapati secured a position at the court of his successor, Devasimha.<ref name=":2" /> The prose story collection ''Bhūparikramaṇa'' was written under Devasimha's auspices.<ref name=":2" /> Vidyapati developed a close friendship with Devasimha's heir apparent Sivasimha and started focusing on love songs.<ref name=":2" /> He wrote some five hundred love songs, primarily between 1380 and 1406.<ref name=":2" /> The songs he composed after that period were devotional praises of Shiva, Vishnu, Durga, and Ganga.<ref name=":2" />

There was a close friendship between Sivasimha, king of Mithila from 1402 to 1406, and Vidyapati.<ref name=":2" /> As soon as Sivasimha ascended to his throne, he granted Vidyapati his home village of Bisapi, an act recorded on a copper plate.<ref name=":2" /> On the plate, Sivasimha calls him "the new [[Jayadeva]]".<ref name=":2" /> The poet also accompanied his king to Delhi, at the sultan's demand.<ref name=":2" /> A story about that encounter relates how the king was held by the sultan and Vidyapati negotiated for his release by displaying his clairvoyant powers.<ref name=":2" /> Sivasimha's favorable patronage and the courtly environment encouraged Vidyapati's experiments in love songs written in Maithili, a language everyone at court could enjoy.<ref name=":2" /> In 1406, Sivasimha went missing in a battle with a Muslim army.<ref name=":2" /> After this defeat, Vidyapati and the court took refuge at a king's court in Rajabanauli, Nepal.<ref name=":2" /> In 1418, Padmasimha succeeded Sivasimha as ruler of Mithila after an interregnum when Sivasimha's chief queen Lakhima Devi reigned for 12 years. Vidyapati returned to serve Padmasimha and continue writing, primarily treatises on law and devotional manuals.<ref name=":2" />

At about 1430 or earlier, he is known to have returned to his village, Bisapi.<ref name=":2" /> He often visited its temple of Shiva.<ref name=":2" />

He is recorded as having two wives, three sons and four daughters.

== Political career ==
The independence of the kings Vidyapati worked for was often threatened by incursions by Muslim sultans. The ''Kīrttilatā'' makes reference to an incident where the [[Oiniwar dynasty|Oiniwar]] King, Raja Gaṇeśvara, was killed by the Turkish commander, Malik Arsalan in 1371. By 1401, Vidyapati requested the help of the [[Jaunpur Sultanate|Jaunpur Sultan]] in overthrowing Arsalan and installing Gaṇeśvara's sons, Vīrasiṃha and Kīrttisiṃha, on the throne. With the Sultan's assistance, Arsalan was deposed and Kīrttisiṃha, the oldest son, became the ruler of Mithila.<ref name="Jha20182" />

The conflicts of his time are evident in his works. In his early praise-poem ''Kīrttilatā,'' he slyly criticizes his patron for his perceived deference to Muslims.<ref name=":2" />

== Love songs ==
While working under his second patron, Devasimha, and especially under his successor Sivasimha, Vidyapati started composing [[Maithili language|Maithili]] songs of the love of Radha and Krishna. He seems to have only composed love songs between 1380 to 1406, though he kept writing until near his death in 1448.<ref name=":2" /> He seems to have ceased writing love songs after his patron and friend Sivasimha went missing in a battle and his court had to go into exile. <ref name=":2" />These songs, which would eventually number five hundred, broke with convention. They were written in vernacular Maithili as songs, not as formal poems in literary Sanskrit as was done before. Until Vidyapati, Maithili wasn't employed as a literary medium.

He applied the tradition of Sanskrit love poetry to the "simple, musical, and direct" Maithili language.<ref name=":2" /> His inheritance from the Sanskrit tradition include its repertory of standard images to describe beauty ("eyes large and tender like a doe's") and standard settings to invoke certain moods and feelings (spring with its increasing heat as an analogy for rising passion).<ref name=":2" /> Vidyapati also drew from the beauty of his home in Madhubani ("forest of honey"), with its mango groves, rice fields, sugar cane, and lotus ponds.<ref name=":2" />

In the tradition of [[Jayadeva]]'s [[Gita Govinda]], Vidyapati's songs were simultaneously praises of love-making and praises of Krishna; praise of Krishna involved praise of love-making.<ref name=":2" /> The intensity and poetic virtuosity of the songs were integral to these songs' function as a way to directly worship god and earn spiritual merit.<ref name=":2" /> Vidyapati's continuation of Jayadeva's program in a different language earned him the title "the new Jayadeva".<ref name=":2" /> His work did differ from his predecessor's in two ways. His songs were independent from one another unlike the Gita Govinda, which comprises twelve cantos telling an over-arching story of the couple's separation and reunion.<ref name=":2" /> While Jayadeva wrote from Krishna's perspective, Vidyapati preferred Radha's; "her career as a young girl, her slowly awakening youth, her physical charm, her shyness, doubts and hesitations, her naive innocence, her need for love, her surrender to rapture, her utter anguish when neglected - all of these are described from a woman's point of view and with matchless tenderness."<ref name=":2" />

These songs frequently mention the queens of king Sivasimha, an indicator that they were meant to be enjoyed by the court.<ref name=":2" /> At times, his poems identify Krishna with king Sivasimha and Radha with the king's chief queen, Lakhima Devi.<ref name=":2" /> They were sung by a court singer, Jayati, who sent the songs to music.<ref name=":2" /> They were learned by dancing girls and eventually spread out of the court.<ref name=":2" />

His love songs have been collected into the ''Padāvalī'', probably not by Vidyapati himself.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" />

== Devotional songs ==

Though he wrote hundreds of love songs about the romance of Radha and Krishna, he was not a special devotee of Krishna or Vishnu.<ref name=":2" /> Instead, he lavished attention on Shiva and [[Durga]] but also wrote songs about [[Vishnu]] and [[Ganga (goddess)|Ganga]].<ref name=":2" /> He is particularly known for his songs of the love of [[Shiva]] and [[Parvati]] and prayers for Shiva as the supreme Brahman.

A song titled ''All My Inhibition'':<blockquote>
All my inhibition left me in a flash,<br />
When he robbed me off my clothes,<br />
But his body became my new dress.<br />
Like a bee hovering on a lotus leaf<br />
He was there in my night, on me!<ref>[http://allpoetry.com/Vidyapati Vidyapati Poetry], allpoetry.com</ref>
</blockquote>

==Influence==
=== Odia literature ===
Vidyapati's influence reached [[Odisha]] through Bengal. The earliest composition in [[Brajabuli]], an artificial literary language popularized by Vidyapati, is ascribed to [[Ramananda Raya]], the governor of Godavari province of the King of Odisha, Gajapati Prataprudra Dev. He was a disciple of [[Chaitanya Mahaprabhu]]. He recited his Brajabuli poems to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he first met him on the bank of river [[Godavari]] at [[Rajahmundry]], southern provincial capital of Kingdom of Odisha in 1511–12. Other notable [[Odia literature|Odia]] poets influenced by Vidyapati's poems were Champati Ray and king Pratap Malla Dev (1504–32).

=== Bengali literature ===
Bengali [[Vaishnavism|Vaishnavas]] like [[Chaitanya Mahaprabhu|Chitanya]] and [[Chandidas]] adopted Vidyapati's love songs about Radha and Krishna as Vaishnava hymns.<ref name=":2" /> All major Bengali poets of the medieval period were influenced by Vidyapati. As a result, an artificial literary language, known as [[Brajabuli]] was developed in the sixteenth century. Brajabuli is basically Maithili (as prevalent during the medieval period) but its forms are modified to look like Bengali.<ref name="Majumdar1960">{{cite book |editor1-last=Majumdar |editor1-first=Ramesh Chandra |editor1-link=R. C. Majumdar |editor2-last=Pusalker |editor2-first=A. D. |editor3-last=Majumdar |editor3-first=A. K. |date=1960 |title=The History and Culture of the Indian People |title-link=The History and Culture of the Indian People |volume=VI: The Delhi Sultanate |location=Bombay |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |page=515 |quote="During the sixteenth century, a form of an artificial literary language became established ... It was the ''Brajabulī'' dialect ... ''Brajabulī'' is practically the Maithilī speech as current in Mithilā, modified in its forms to look like Bengali."}}</ref> The medieval Bengali poets, Gobindadas Kabiraj, Jnandas, Balaramdas and Narottamdas composed their ''pada''s (poems) in this language. [[Rabindranath Tagore]] composed his ''Bhanusingha Thakurer Padabali'' (1884) in a mix of Western Hindi (Braj Bhasha) and archaic Bengali and named the language Brajabuli as an imitation of Vidyapati (he initially promoted these lyrics as those of a newly discovered poet, ''Bhanusingha''). Other 19th-century figures in the [[Bengal Renaissance]] like [[Bankim Chandra Chatterjee]] have also written in Brajabuli.

Tagore was much influenced by Vidyapati. He set the poet's Bhara Badara to his own tune. A bridge in Kolkata near [[Sealdah railway station|Sealdah Station]] is named after him (Vidyapati Setu).

== Legacy ==
Vidyapati has been kept alive in popular memory over the past six centuries; he is a household name in [[Mithila (region)|Mithila]].<ref name=":0" /> His love songs are sung at weddings in the region.<ref name=":2" /> Many myths have arisen about him and people continue to sing his songs.

=== ''Bidāpat Nāch'' ===
A form of folk dance-drama street theater, ''Bidāpat Nāch,'' where "bidāpat''"'' is derived from "Vidyapati", is performed in [[Purnia district|Purnia]] district in north Bihar.<ref name=":1">{{Cite thesis|title=Renu Village : An Ethnography of North Indian Fiction|url=https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/ETD-UT-2012-05-5214|date=May 2012|degree=PhD|first=Ian Alister|last=Woolford|publisher=The University of Texas at Austin}}</ref> While several groups performed in multiple villages in that area in the 20th century, there was just one group left in one village by 2012.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

=== In mythology ===
Vidyapati's life has been mythologised in different ways. Many of his admirers ascribe miracles to him and detail his interaction with the gods.<ref name="Jha2018" /> Among these stories is one which details that [[Shiva]] came down to earth to speak with Vidyapati after being impressed with his piety.

Another story tells of story involving him and the Goddess [[Ganga in Hinduism|Ganga]].<ref name="Jha2018" /><ref name=":0" /> When his death was imminent, he decided to go to the river Ganga, but was too tired to continue just a few miles away. He resolves that if his piety was pure, the river would come to him.<ref name=":0" /> And so it happens.<ref name=":0" /> The goddess obliges and the river rises to let him take a final dip in holy waters.<ref name=":0" /> At some point in the past, the town where this is believed to have happened was renamed [[Vidyapati Nagar]] ("town of Vidyapati") and a Shiva temple was built there.<ref name=":0" />

=== In popular culture ===
[[Pahari Sanyal]] played Vidyapati in the 1937 Bengali film ''[[Vidyapati (1937 film)|Vidyapati]]'', which received a lot of appreciation. The film starred [[Prithviraj Kapoor]] as King Shiva Singha of Mithila.<ref name="indiavideo">{{cite web |last1=Chandra |first1=Balakrishnan |last2=Pali |first2=Vijay Kumar |title=100 Years of Bollywood - Vidyapati 1937 |url=http://www.indiavideo.org/cinema/vidyapati-7383.php |website=IndiaVideo.org |publisher=Invis Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. |access-date=23 July 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811010130/http://www.indiavideo.org/cinema/vidyapati-7383.php |archive-date=11 August 2014 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Another film, also titled ''Vidyapati'', was made in 1964 by Prahlad Sharma, starring [[Bharat Bhushan]] and [[Simi Garewal]] in the lead roles.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Firoze Rangoonwalla|author2=Vishwanath Das|title=Indian Filmography: Silent & Hindi Films, 1897-1969|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=26dZAAAAMAAJ|year=1970|publisher=J. Udeshi}}</ref>

In Dec 2018, [[Darbhanga Airport]] was renamed Kavi Kokil Vidyapati Airport.

== Works ==

===Texts===
*''Maṇimañjarīnāṭikā'' (Sanskrit, [[Tirhuta script|Tirahuta]] script) - a conventional romantic play (''nāṭikā'')<ref name=":0" />
*''Bhūparikramaṇa'' ("around the world", Sanskrit, Devanagari script) - a collection of eight prose stories set in different locales<ref name=":0" />
*''{{IAST|Kīrttilatā}}'' ([[Abahattha|Avahaṭṭha]], Devanagari script) - a praise-biography in verse detailing the victory of Vidyapati's patron Kirttisimha's over his rival Malik Arsalan composed in the Sanskrit genre ākhyāyikā.<ref name=":0" />
*''{{IAST|Puruṣaparīkṣā}}'' (Sanskrit, [[Devanagari]] script) - a treatise on political ethics and ideal masculinity, composed broadly in the Sanskrit kathā genre.<ref name=":0" />
*''Gorakṣavijaya'' (Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Maithili; [[Tirhuta script|Mithilākṣara]] script) - a musical play about Tantric saint [[Gorakhnath|Gorakṣanātha]] rescuing his teacher [[Matsyendra|Matsyendranātha]] from a worldly life back to the life of a yogi<ref name=":0" />
*''Kīrttipatākā'' (Avahaṭṭha, Tirahutā script) - a partially-extant praise-biography in verse for another of Vidyapati's patrons, Sivasimha.<ref name=":0" />
*''Harikeli'' (Avahaṭṭha, Tirahutā script) - a partially-extant allegorical love play between [[Krishna]] and the [[Gopi|Gopis]], with Raya Arjuna/Jagat Simha (a cousin of Sivasimha) as protagonist.<ref name=":0" />
*''Likhanāvalī'' (Sanskrit, Devanagari script) - a manual for scribes, with model letters, business documents, and [[Affidavit|affadavits]]<ref name=":0" />
*''Śaivasarvasvasāra'' (Sanskrit; one manuscript in [[Tirhuta script|Mithilākṣara]] script, two in Devanagari) - describes the significance and merits of worshipping Shiva, with proscribed rituals, citing extensively from the [[Puranas]].<ref name=":0" />
*''Gaṅgāvākyāvalī'' (Sanskrit) - a text glorifying the religious significance of [[Ganga in Hinduism|Ganga]], with citations from the Puranas.<ref name=":0" />
*''{{IAST|Vibhāgasāra}}'' (Sanskrit, [[Tirhuta script|Tirahuta]] script) - a [[dharmaśāstra]] focusing on property law, with citations from many [[Smriti|Smritis]].<ref name=":0" />
*''{{IAST|Dānavākyāvalī}}'' (Sanskrit, Devanagari script) - a guide to types of ritual donations and their spiritual merits<ref name=":0" />
*''{{IAST|Durgābhaktitaraṅgiṇī}}'' (Sanskrit, Devanagari script) - a guide to the proper worship of [[Durga]], especially during [[Navaratri]] or in the month of [[Ashvin|Asvin]].<ref name=":0" />
*''Gayāpattalaka'' (Sanskrit, Devanagari script) - a text about funerary rituals.<ref name=":0" />
*''{{IAST|Varṣakṛtya}}'' (Sanskrit) - a text describing the festivals that are to be observed through the year (probably the festivals that were observed in Mithila at that time).<ref name=":0" />
*''Padāvalī'' (Maithili, [[Tirhuta script|Tirahuta]]/Bangla/Devanagari scripts depending on version) - a compilation of Vidyapati's songs in praise of Krishna, likely not put together by him.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

=== Translations ===
His works have been translated to several languages, including English.<ref name=":3" /> Vidyapati's love songs were translated into English as part of the [[UNESCO Collection of Representative Works]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Love Songs of Vidyāpati|publisher=G. Allen & Unwin|year=1963|location=London|translator-last=Bhattacharya|translator-first=Deben}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
* {{citation |editor-last=Coomaraswamy |editor-first=Anand |title=VIDYĀPATI: BANGĪYA PADĀBALI |publisher=The Old Bourne Press |location=London |year=1915 |url=http://themathesontrust.org/papers/hinduism/cooma-vidyapati.pdf}}

==Further reading==
* {{citation |editor-last=Archer |editor-first=W. G. |title=Love Songs of Vidyapati; Tr. by Deben Bhattacharya |publisher=George Allen and Unwyn |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XaE9swEACAAJ |year=1963}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/vidyapati/ Vidyapati] at [[Encyclopædia Universalis]]
* [https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Vidyapati Vidyapati] at the [[Great Soviet Encyclopedia]]
* {{Gutenberg author|id=39294}}
* [http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/~amit/books/vidyapati-1963-love-songs-of.html 27 poems] transl. Deben Bhattacharya, from ''Love Songs of Vidyapati'', (UNESCO) 1963
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1350s births]]
[[Category:1440s deaths]]
[[Category:Hindu poets]]
[[Category:14th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:People from Madhubani district]]
[[Category:Culture of Mithila]]
[[Category:Writers of Mithila]]
[[Category:Maithili poets]]
[[Category:15th-century Indian poets]]
[[Category:Maithil Brahmin]]

Vidyapati - Revision history

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