{{Infobox biography | name= Girdhar | birth_date= 1787 | death_date= 1852 | birth_place= Gujarat }} '''Girdhar''' or '''Giradhara''' or '''Giridharadāsa''' (1787–1852) was a Gujarati poet.<ref name="Datta1988">{{cite book|author=Amaresh Datta|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&pg=PA1258|year=1988|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-1194-0|page=1410}}</ref>
==Works== Girdhar best known for his poetic epic ''Rāmāyaṇa'' (1835) which is popular in Gujarat. He derived the story primarily from the ''Rāmāyaṇa'' of Vālmīki and the ''Hanumannāṭaka'', with some inspiration from other Puranic texts. His version is lucid and musical as it is in simple language and uses traditional metres and melodies including ''Dhanāśrī'', ''Vilāvala'', ''Māru'', ''Sāmerī'', ''Sāraga'', ''Soraṭha'', ''Āsāvarī'', ''Bhairava'', ''Dohā'', ''Caupāī, Ghanākṣarī'', and others. His poetry ''Radha Virahna Barmas'' is influenced by the poetry of Vaishnavism. His ''Tulasī-Vivāha'' narrates the wedding of Krishna and Tulsi in 26 lyrics. It resemble the ''Kadva'' (cantos) style of medieval Gujarati poetry. He also wrote lyrics on Gopi and Krishna relations and wrote ''Ashwamedha'' and ''Rājasūyayajña''. He based a large number of his poems on the ''Daśamaskandha'' of the ''Bhāgavata Purāṇa''.<ref name="Datta1988"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jhaveri |first=Mansukhlal |title=History of Gujarati Literature |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |year=1978 |pages=56}}</ref><ref name=":0" />
== Biography == Girdhar or Giridharadāsa was born in the village of Māsar, Baroda State in a Lāḍ Vaṇik family in 1785. His father, Garabaḍadās, worked as a patwari or village accountant and for some years Girdhar followed him in the profession and was educated in the requisite fields. At the age of twenty he moved to Baroda where he worked for his sister's husband's banking firm. In Baroda he was exposed to learned ascetics and holy men, and studied Sanskrit language and its epic texts. Some years later he was initiated into the Vallabha Sampradāya by Gosvāmī Puruṣottamadās. Girdhar worked as a manager in the local Vallabhite temple. He was also a friend of an ācārya of the Rādhāvallabhī sect named Raṁgīlāl Mahārāj. Girdhar's wife and son both died early in life. Girdhar traveled to several Vaishnav religious sites with Raṁgīlāl. On the return journey, when Girdhar wished to visit Śrīnāthajī Raṁgīlāl refused. Girdhar was anxious to get Śrīnāthajī's darśana, and soon died while meditating upon him in 1850.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Sāṭhe |first=Gajānana Narasiṁha |title=गिरधर-कृत रामायण |last2=Bhaṭṭa |first2=Dīneśa Harilāla |publisher=Vāṇī Presa |year=1978 |pages=17-18 |language=hi |script-title=hi:Giradhara-Kr̥ta Rāmāyaṇa}}</ref>
==See also== * List of Gujarati-language writers
==References== {{reflist}} {{authority control}}
Category:19th-century Indian poets Category:1787 births Category:1852 deaths Category:Gujarati-language poets Category:Poets from British India
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