the Gitgovind. His father was Bhoidev, a Brahman of Kanauj, and his mother Bamdevi. He was born at Kenduli, about twenty miles from Suri, in the modern district of Birbhum in Lower Bengal. He became the most famous of the five distinguished poets who lived at the court of Lakshman Sen, king of Bengal, who dates from the year 1170 of the Christian era. The five poets were called the five jewels of Lakshman Sen's court, and so proud was the monarch of them that he erected a monument to preserve their names to succeeding ages. The specialities of the five poets are thus described by Jaidev himself :—
Umapatidhara excelleth in word painting ;
Jayadeva alone knoweth purity of style ;
Sarana is praised for extempore rendering of difficult passages ;
Govardhana surpasseth in description of love ;
No one is so famed as the king of poets Dhoyi for remembering what he hath once heard.
Very little is known of Jaidev's early life. It is certain that from his youth he was a diligent student of Sanskrit literature, and developed rare poetical talents. He is described by the author of the Bhagat Mal as an incarnation and treasury of melody, on which, however, he, owing to his ascetic habits, long preferred to feast his own soul rather than communicate to the world the splendid gifts he possessed. He wandered in several countries, provided with only a water-pot and dressed in the patched coat of a mendicant. Even pens, ink, and paper, generally so indispensable to literary men, were luxuries which he did not allow himself. Such was his determination to love nothing but God, that he would not sleep for two nights in succession under the same tree, lest he should conceive an undue preference for it and forget his Creator.
It pleased God, with the object, it is stated, of
