text: Inscriptions at Lingaraja temple, and the more recently discovered Madhukeswara temple and Simhachala temple that were read and interpreted by Padmashri Dr. Satyanarayana Rajguru have shed some light on Jayadeva's early life. These inscriptions narrate how Jayadeva had been a member of the teaching faculty of the school at Kurmapataka. He might have studied at Kurmapataka as well. It must have been right after his childhood education in Kenduli village that he left for Kurmapataka and gained experience in composing poetry, music and dancing.
  Literary contributions
  Scholar Thomas Donaldson mentions that the Gitagovinda was known at Puri not long after its composition, for the earliest commentary on it was written in Odisha around 1190. The village of Kenduli Sasana is a location "teeming with Vaishnava ruins and temples, perhaps more than any other site in India", notes Donaldson. He also notes an upswing in Krishna images in Odishan sculpture from the late twelfth century on, "long before such images became popular in Bengal or elsewhere in India." In the Jagannatha temple of Puri, the Gita Govinda is ritually sung every night during the Badasinghara ritual from the time of Jayadeva himself. The maharis or devadasis were instructed to faithfully render and perform the Gitagovinda according to the ragas of Odissi music, as known from inscriptions. During the Badasinghara Besa, the nighttime attire, the deities wear a special kind of fabric known as the Kenduli Khandua or Gita Gobinda Khandua, in which lines of the Gita Govinda are woven into the fabric using the ikat technique. The weavers of Kenduli Sasana used to provide these fabrics and this is also a ritual in vogue from the time of the poet himself.