Indian · b. 1170
Jayadeva was a Sanskrit poet of the twelfth century, associated with the court of King Lakshmana Sena in Bengal and, in a competing tradition, with the village of Kenduli Sasan in Odisha. He wrote the Gita Govinda, a cycle of twenty-four songs about Krishna, Radha, and the gopis that changed Indian devotional practice. Before Jayadeva, Radha was a minor figure; after him she became the central female presence in Vaishnava worship across northern and eastern India. His songs are set to named ragas and talas and were composed for performance rather than reading, and they are still sung daily at the Jagannath temple in Puri. His wife Padmavati was a temple dancer, and the poem's rhythms follow dance. Later Bengali Vaishnavism, Odissi dance, and the whole tradition of Krishna painting in Rajasthan and the Punjab hills take their imagery from him.