(Excerpt from: I. Citaristi, Odissi and the Geeta Govinda, New Delhi, Manohar Publisher, 2022)
The first English translation of the Geeta Govinda to appear in the West was the one published by Sir William Jones in 1792. In the preface to the book he writes:
"When I first read the songs of Jayadeva who has prefixed to each the names of the mode in which it has to be sung, I had hoped to procure the original music, but the pundits of the South referred me to those of the West and the Brahmans of the West would have sent me to those of the North while they of Nepal and Kashmir declared that they had no ancient music but imagined that the notes of the Geeta Govinda must exist if anywhere, where the poet was born."
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