This full edition of Gita Govinda includes the commentary attributed to Prabodhananda Saraswati. I have my doubts about that attribution, but it is nevertheless a very good commentary.

As usual, there has been little proofreading done, so this is version 1.00. However, many corrections in the mula text have been made, and the mula version of GG is looking a lot better, with variant readings and all.

Jagat (2007-11-06)

This edition is based entirely on (ed.) Haridas Das. (Nabadwip: Haribol Kutir, 470 Gauräbda [= 1955), which is Gaudiya-gaurava-grantha-guccha, 64.

Added by:
Credits: Jagat
Text version: 1.00 (legend)
Keywords: prabodhananda, sarasvati, jayadeva, gita, govinda, kavya, sringara-rasa

I have some reservations about identifying the author of this commentary as Prabodhananda Saraswati. Haridas Das says that he found this manuscript in the Jaipur Govinda Mandir library, but that the all important first and last folios of the text were missing. Thus there are no mangalacharanas or colophons where the author usually identifies himself.

Haridas Das points to a single reference, found in a Bengali translation of GG by a Rasamaya Das, who says, while explaining the first verse of the text that he has received his insights from Prabodhananda’s commentary.

sri-prabodhananda gosai prabhura priyatam
dui pakkhe vyakhya tar atyanta sugam

The dui paksa refered to here are the understanding of GG’s mysterious first verse as either the words of Nanda Maharaj or as those of a sakhi. Though there is indeed such an explanation in this commentary, it would be quite a jump to think that this was conclusive.

The author cites numerous works in his commentary, including the 14th century commentary of Kumbhakarna, king of Mewar, and another by Durga Simha, but seems most indebted to the Rasa-manjari commentary of Shankar Mishra. He quotes a large number of books, including the Gita, Bhagavata, and Krishna-karnamrita, Bharata’s Natya-shastra, Vatsyayana’s Kama-sutra, Rati-rahasya, and some lesser known Kama-shastra works like Pancha-sayaka, Sringara-viveka and Rasika-sarvasva. Of the Lakshana-granthas, he leans to Rasarnava-sudhakara and Sringara-tilaka, but quotes both karikas and udaharana verses from Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu and Ujjvala-nilamani. He also uses Sangita-ratnakara and Sangita-raja for musical references. For rhetoric, he refers to Kavyadarsha and Kavya-prakasa, while he uses several koshas—Amara, Visva, Dharani, Haravali and Sasvata.

Most interesting from the point of view of authorship is the citation of Rupa Goswami’s works. In the commentary to 20.1, he even refers to Rupa Goswami as bhagavat-priyaiù in the plural. In the same section, he also mentions Madhumangala, who I do not believe can be found anywhere else in Prabodhananda’s writings. At any rate, this would date the commentary to at least 1550. We know Prabodhananda was still alive in the 1570’s because we have references to him editing a work by Harivamsa’s son at that time.

This wide selection of quoted material would have to be compared to that found in other commentaries before any further conclusions were drawn from this evidence. Prabodhananda did write a work in imitation of the Gita-govinda called Sangita-madhava, which unfortunately has not yet been added to the GGM corpus.

Haridas Das lists a number of commentaries of the Gita-govinda, which can be given here:

1. Anupodaya (Anupa Singha)
2. Artha-ratnavali (Gopala)
3. Ganga (Krishna-datta)
4. Gita-govinda-tilakottama (Hridayabharana)
5. Gita-govinda-prabodha (Ramakanta)
6. Gita-govinda-madhuri (Ranganath)
7. Gita-govinda-vyakhyana (Prabodhananda)
8. Tattva-dipika (Rama Ray)
9. Dipika (Gopala)
10. Pada-dyotika (Narayana Bhatta)
11. Pada-bhavartha-chandrika (Srikanta Misra)
12. Padabhinaya-manjari (Vasudeva Vacasundara)
13. Prakasa-kaumudi (Kaviraja Chandidas)
14. Prathamashtapadi-vivriti (Vitthala Dikshit)
15. Bala-bodhini (Pujari Goswami)
16. Bhava-vibhavini (Udayanacharya)
17. Ratnamala (Kamalakara)
18. Rasa-kadamba-kallolini (Bhagavata Das)
19. Rasa-manjari (Shankar Misra)
20. Rasika-priya (Rana Kumbha)
21. Vacana-malika Shashi-lekha (Krishnadatta)
22. Sruti-ranjani (Visvesvara Bhatta)
23. Sruti-ranjini (Lakshman Suri)
24. Sruti-sara-ranjani (Tirumal Raj)
25. Sanjivani (Vanamlai Bhatta)
26. Sandarbha-dipika (Asthana-chaturanana Vishwas, Vaidya Dhriti Das)
27. Sandeha-bhedika (Kumar Khan)
28. Sarvanga-sundari (Narayan Das)
29. Sananda-govinda (Rupadeva Pandit)
30. Sara-dipika (Jagaddhara)
31. Sahitya-ratna-mala (Sesha Kamalakar)
32. Subodha (Bharata Sen Mallika)

A number of other unnamed commentaries can be added to the list:

33. Chidananda Bhikshu
34. Dhritakara
35. Paramananda
36. Pitambara
37. Bhavacharya
38. Mananka
39. Ramadatta
40. Lakshman Bhatta
41. Vanamali Das
42. Brihaspati Misra
43. Shalinath
44. Shukladhvaja
45. Sriharsha
46. Svayamprakash Yati.
Of these, the Bala-bodhini by Pujari Goswami has the most currency in the Gaudiya sampradaya and we will attempt to add it as soon as we can find a copy.

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Additional notes from the editors' research and selected discussion forum contributions.