Śrī Nāgara kīrtana — Kīrtana in the City

Sri Nagara-kirtana gathers six songs written specifically for nagara-kirtana, public chanting processions carried through the streets of a town or village, a practice Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself made central to His movement in Nabadwipa. Songs in this section are markedly simpler and more rhythmic than those in Gitavali's more contemplative sections, meant to be picked up quickly and repeated by a crowd walking together rather than studied privately. The section names Nadiya and Godruma together with Nityananda Prabhu, Mahaprabhu's principal associate in spreading congregational chanting, and its songs consistently frame the practice not simply as devotees glorifying the Lord but as continuing Mahaprabhu's own act of singing for the benefit of everyone else. Its opening song, with by far the most recordings of any song in this whole Gitavali batch, appears to have remained one of the more actively performed pieces from the entire book well over a century after Bhaktivinoda Thakura first published it in 1893.