Legendary poet Jayadev and his immortal classic Geeta Govinda have contributed immensely to Odisha’s cultural identity and uniqueness. The epic poem depicting the divine love of Lord Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu, and his consort Radha, is divided into 12 chapters. Each chapter is further sub-divided into 24 Prabandhas which contain couplets grouped into eights, called Ashtapadis. For long, this song of love has been a source of inspiration to musicians, dancers and painters alike.Ten eminent artists of the State, both traditional and contemporary, came together at a two-day art camp to portray in colours the Ashtapadis. Organised by the State Government in collaboration with the Rashtriya Lalit kala Akademi, the camp was a special tribute by these artists to the great saint poet on the occasion of Jayadev Jayanti. The theme was ‘Jayadev and Geeta Govinda’. They were Anand Behera, Baladev Moharatha, BK Sahoo, Chintamani Biswal, Fakir Mohan Mallik, Kalpataru Jayadev, Narayan Maharana, Rabindra Sahu, Samir Rout and Sashikant Sahu.Of the wide range of works of art that the camp could create, one that arrested every visitor’s attention was the painting of Lord Jagannath, Lord Krishna and Radha by Samir Rout who painted the divine love with the Lord in the background. “I could imagine Jagannath as an incarnation of Krishna, the Blue God,” explained the artist.Since all the paintings in this thematic exhibition also dwelt on the cult of Jagannath, most of the works had a common motif - the circular eye of the Lord. One of the paintings portrayed the dasavatara (ten incarnations) of Lord Vishnu of which Jagannath is described as one in the Geeta Govinda.While senior artist Fakir Mallick was inspired to paint Jayadev scripting the Geeta Govinda, Anand Behera used wool to draw a peacock feather, symbolic of Lord Krishna’s attire. On the other hand, Baladev Moharatha, principal of BK College of Art and Craft, tried to showcase the relationship between Odissi and Geeta Govinda. “Geeta Govinda’s Ashtapadis are sung in various musical styles from Hindustani classical to Carnatic, Odissi to Kerala’s Sopanam, and are an integral part of abhinaya in every classical dance style. My work is a reflection of this aspect of the poem,” said Moharatha.With the circular eye as the theme, artist Chintamani Biswal drew Lord Krishna decorating the feet of Radha with ‘alata’.For art connoisseurs, it was indeed a delight to savour Jayadev’s poetry through colours.The two-day art camp culminated with an exhibition at the Bhanja Kala Mandap that was inaugurated by the Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare on Tuesday. “For generations and centuries, the Geeta Govinda has continued to inspire poets, painters and artists,” the Governor said while inaugurating the exhibition.Minister for Culture and Tourism Prafulla Samal, Director of Culture S K Das and president of Lalit Kala Akademi Durga Prashad Das also spoke on the occasion. The Governor felicitated the eminent artists who worked in the art camp to produce the paintings that were displayed at the exhibition.
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