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Transcript of Chaitanya and His Age - Forgotten Books
C ha i tanya and H is A ge
(Ram tanu Lahi ri F el l owship Lec tures
for the y ear 1 9 19 and 1921 )
By
Rai Bahadur D inesh Chandra Sen, B.A . , D .Litt. ,
Fe l low, Reader, and Head Examiner of the C alcutta Un i vers ity , A ssociate
Member of the A siat ic Society of Bengal , A uthor of History of Bengal i
Language and Literature , the Va i snava Literature of Medie vallBenga I , C hai tanya and h is Compan ions , Typical Select ions
from Old Benga l i Li terature , Folk Li terature
of Benga l , the Bengal i Ramayanas ,
Banga
etc . , etc .
Publ ished by the
UNIVERS ITY OF C A LC UTTA
192 2
Pmm sn BY A TULC H A N D RA BH A '
I‘
TA C HA RYYA A T m p: C A LC U '
I‘
TA
Umvzasn r PRESS,SENA TE House
,C A LC UTTA
D edicated
To
The Hon’
ble SIR A SUTOSH MOOKERJEE,
Kt M.A D .l.. D .Sc Ph.D .,
F
Vice -C hancellor of the C alcutta Un iversity,
whose resolute and hero ic attempts
to rescue our A lma Mater from destruction
at the hour of her great peril
may well rem ind us
of the famous line of Jayadeva
umuflfiaaaenamfi'
lfié
with the sincere grati tude of
the A uthor
Hail thee O Chai tanya— the v ictor of my heart ,
Mark the rhythm of his mystic dance in lofty
ecstasy— qui te alone .
Merri ly sounds the taborand the cymbal ’s
note keeps time .
The j oyous band following him sing and
dance merri ly— merri ly
H e steps a pace or two onwards in his
dancing gai t,
A nd knows no rest— in tox icated wi th his
own over-flowing j oy .
Oh my heart’
s Lord , how can I express the
love I have for thee
Saba A kbar craves a drop from the sea of thy
piety and love .
Song by Emp eror A kbar
(Transla ted from Hind i )
PREFA CE
The first 1 90 pages of th is book embody mylectures as R amtanu Lahiri Research Fel lowfor the session 1 919 , and the remaining portion
is mean t as my lectures for,
1921 . The subject
chosen for 1 920 was “ The Bengali Prose Style
from 1 800 to A s th is subject was to be
studied by the studen ts of the I nd ian Verna
culars in our Un iversi ty for their examination ,
the urgency of i ts treatmen t requ ired me to stop
the Chai tanya topics a‘
nd~
deli ver a course of
lectures on the prose -sty le last year. These
lectures were delivered and published early in
1921 . A nd, I next h‘
astened to revert to myhalf-fin ished lectures on Chai tanya . There are
some poin ts in th is book wh ich are a repeti tion
of the th ings said in my other books, but this
could not be helped . A s I have attempted to
give here a complete and consisten t story of the
great hero of my memoir I had to include all
noteworthy po in ts of his l ife in a short compass .
There are of course many th ings in th is book
not dealt wi th elsewhere and I have always
tried t o: presen t the inciden ts of Chai tanya’
s
life in a new l ight . I t i s hoped that the sketch
herein presen ted wi ll,by its comprehensive
character, sat isfy the curiosi ty of al l studen ts
vi PREFA C E
who want to have a clear account of Chai tanya,his rel igious v iews and of the sects that follow
his rel igion . Everyth ing said in th is book is
based on old authority,though I have not
given references in al l cases,as i t would make
the book heavy wi th foot-notes and more or less
mar i ts popular character. The readers wi ll
find one and al l of such references in the works
men tioned in the b ibliography given on pages
97 -98 of th is book .
One th ing has struck me in regard to the
recogn i tion of the Vaisnavas by the Hindu
soc iety in general . The Goswamies of Khardah
and Sant ipur— the descendan ts of N i tyananda
and A dwai ta respecti ve ly—not on ly en j oy the
h ighest social rank amongst the Vaisnavas but
have qui te a respectable standing amongst the
lay Brahmin communi ty . My idea was that
they created th is posi tion outside their own
society , even after they had broken stringen t
caste-rules, through the sheer d in t of their
noble sacrifices and h igh Sp iri tual i ty . But quite
lately a book named Sri N ityananda-vamsaval i
O -Sadhana wri tten by Pand i t K shirodbihari
Goswami—a d irect descendan t of Ni tyananda
has d isi l lusi oned me on th is point . I now find
that the descendan ts of Ni tyananda and A dwaita
had very nearly become outcastes in the primi tive
stages of the promulgation of the Chaitanya
cul t . They redeemed themselves,however, in
PREFA CE vfi
the eyes to the Brahmin commun i ty, outside
their own ranks,by con triving to en ter into
frequen t matrimon ial al liances wi th the kul in
Brahmins of the mother society , often by satis
fying large pecun iary demands of the latter.
Th is al l iance wi th a large number of kulins has
gradual ly made their posi ti on secure in the H indu
society . Th is shews that the caste-rules amongst
the H indus is a factor of so great an importance
that though the efi orts of a prophet may for a time
succeed in un loosing i ts hold upon our people, it
reasserts i tse lf wi th all i ts rigid i ty , a short wh i le
after. A nd,however mi ghty the enemy , i t i s on ly
by manoeuvres, tactics and bribes that he can
expect to gain his lost posi ti on in society—not
by Open war. The Sahaj iyas disregard the caste
rules at n ight , fearing exposure in dayl ight .
I t is for th is reason that some of them have
compared themselves wi th bats (p .
I take th is opportun ity of expressing myhearty thanks to D r. Sylvain Levi , the distin
guished Orientalist, who has k indly wri tten a
fore-word for th is book in the form of a letter.
The high complimen ts that a scholar of his
world-wide fame has g iven me , have been very
grati fying to me, as indeed they would have been
to any I nd ian . There can be no quest ion as to
the sincerity of his appreciati on ,though I feel that
there may have been a friendly b ias. I regret ,however, that my presen tation of Chai tanya does
not appear to be suffi cien tly indicative of the
PREFA CE
greatness of his character, and D r. Lev i wi l l
not g ive him a place in the ranks of the world ’
s
greatest men . H e refers to Chai tanya ’
s rel ig ion
bei ng restricted to a narrow geograph i cal area
contrast ing i t to that of Buddha. The un iversal
recogn i tion of the Buddha and a few other
greatest leaders of the world in the spiri tual
domain is ch iefly due to pol i ti cal causes, the
advan tage of wh i ch Bengal of the l 6th cen tury
could not ev iden tly possess. Vaisnav ism of
Bengal i s, besides, the youngest of the world’
s
reputed creeds, so i t is perhaps premature to
pass a judgment now on Chai tanya ’
s work .
Regard ing the v iew that the theology of
Chai tanya lacks orig inal i ty , the codes of al l
rel ig ions of the world may be traced to earl ier
sources ; and a compl icated code of E th ics
is not, in my humble op in ion ,always the
true cri terion of the greatness of a fai th .
The in fusion of l ife into the un iversal truths
and their presen tat ion in the most attractive
form are , I submit , a far truer test . I cannot
fol low the reason that love for God is a pecu liar
or local feature of I nd ian rel ig ions,wh ich cannot
be appreciated ou tside I nd ia . The d ifference , Ith ink , l ies in the fact that Europe has not yet
transcended the eth ical l imits. beyond wh ich l ies
the domain of mystic fel ici ties . Chai tanya did not
ignore mank ind ; he tried to lead men to the d izzy
heights of parad ise , wh ich my learned friend ,following the l im i tat ions of Christ ian theology,
PREFA C E ix
speaks of as“ forbidden . I agree wi th him
so far that Chai tanya cannot have a un iversal
recogn i tion}in this material istic age . But I
veri ly believe that when th is age W l l l be fol lowed
by one of Spiri tual awakening al l over the world ,he wi l l be d ifferen t ly judged . H e brought to
the doors of ord inary men the h ighest spiri tual
bliss of d ivine love, wh ich like the stream of the
holy Ganges,lay en tangl ed in the meshes of
I nd ian religious ph i losophy,
’
more knotty than
the matted locks of Siva . I hOpe , my esteemed
friend wi l l not take me amiss. A s a Bengal i , i t
is natural for me to be prejud iced in favour of
my Bengali apostle . But love always sanctifies
the soul . I f I have been blind to the defects of
Chai tanya’s religi ous system , I do not regret i t .
I wou ld in that case on ly crave my friend’s
forgiveness. Speak ing for myself , my heart,more than to any logic , responds to the couplet
first sun g by Nityananda
One who adm ires Cha i tanya and sings
praises of him ,is dear to me as my li fe .
”
I hold myself ful ly responsible for the numer
ous m i sprin ts and errors wh ich wi l l be found in
this book , and do not accuse anybody . I am not a
good proof-reader and that is all that I can plead
as my excuse .
7 , V I SWA KOSH LA NE ,C A LC UTTA . DI NESH CHA NDR A SEN .
rt. 1 5mAp ri l 1922.
FOREWORD
D R . SYLVA I N LE V I .
MON C HE R A M I ,
Vous m ’
avez demande une preface pour votre
livre : Chai tanya et son époque .
”J e n
’
ai guerc
de competence sur ce domaine ; ce que j’
en
connais, je le do is essentiel lmen t avos ouvrages
depu is le j our ou j’
ai lu avec une emotion
inoubl iable votre H isto ire de la Langue et de la
Li ttérature Bengal ie j’
ai suiv i avec un intérét
qu i ne s’
est jamais ralen ti votre activ i té si
féconde, et’
cest ainsi que , grace a vous,le
Bengale du temps de Chai tanya m ’
est devenu
fami lier. J ’avais eu pourtan t l ’occasion d’
efii eur
er le sujet i l y a tres longtemps, au début de
mes études. J e commengais a recuei l li r des
matériaux en vue de ma these sur le Theatre
I nd ien j’
avais trouvé ala B ibl iotheque Nationale
aParis, uh v ieux manuscri t en écri ture bengal ie
qui con tenai t le trai té de Rupa Gosvamin sur
l ’art dramatique (natya) je fus frappé par la
ferveur de cet écrivain qui grefi ai t sur un recuei l
de defini t i ons banales une longue sui te d’
hymnes
xi i FOREWORD
en thousiastesaKrishna ; ce fut pourmoi l’
occasion
de m’
in i tier au mouvement inSpiré par Chaitanya .
J e lus ensui te, avec une surprise et une admirat ion que je retrouve encore apres tan t d’
années,
le drame orig inal et puissan t cuKavi karnapura
met audacieusement en scene Chai tanya et ses
compagnons. J ’
ai longtemps reve d’
en donnerune traducti on paral lelement acel le du P rabodha
chandrodaya,pour mettre en con traste l ’ ingén io
si te rafii née de l’
un et la fougue passionnée de
l ’au tre . J ’
ai tradui t lo Prabodhachandrodaya, et
jai dum’
en ten ir la, faute de temps. Je sais gré
avotre l ivre de me ramener vers le héros que
j’
avais trop n égl igé , et de me le mon trer dans une
in tensi té de lum iere qui laisse par instan ts les
yeux un peu éblou is.
Vous possédez a um degré extraord inaire le
don capi tal de l ’historien , qu i est de projeter la vie
sur le passemort . C’
est umdon de poete autant
que d’
historien ,et vous etes Si essen tiellement
poete que votre style osci lle entre l ’épopée et le
lvrisme . C e besoi n de vie que vous portez en
vous ne vous permet pas de vous arréter a ces
fro ides combinaisons de possib i l ités qu i son t
partou t le fond dc l’
histoi re et dans l ’ I nde plus
que partout ai l leurs . La pénurie des documen ts
posi tifs y laisse a chaque instan t l’
historien
embarrassé pour rattacher dans une con tinui té
prov iso ire la série des fai ts connus. Vous me
pouvez pas vous résigner a cette att i tude
FOREWORD xii i
d’
expectative . Vous fai tes résolumen t la part
de l’
impossi ble mais cette d iscriminat ion une
fois opérée,le possible glisse aisémen t au
probable,et le probable au certain .
C ’
est la un effet fatal de votre imaginat ion
fougueuse .Pourtan t vous n
’
etes pas sans
connai tre n i reconnai tre les ex igences de la plus
severe cri tique ,vous épuisez tous les documen ts
avec —la pat ience d’
un érudi t , et vous pressez
vos étud ian ts avec une eloquence pathétique
de rechercher les documen ts encore i nédi ts .
Si j ’etais plus jeune , j’
aurais vou lu vous su ivre
et je ne doute pas, pour l’
honneur du Bengale
que vos appels so ien t accueil lis avec empresse
men t par la jeunesse stud ie’use . Une figure
comme Chai tanya méri te les hommages d’
un
pays en tier ; i l est juste que les savan ts lu i
consacren t leurs vei l les, comme les paysanslu i consacren t leurs chan ts.
Je su is assez dispose (et j’
ai tort peut -etre)a faire bon marché de sa theolog ie qu i m
’
ap
parai t plutot i ndifi érente et de seconde main ,
sans pui ssance d’
inven tion ou de systeme ;
ses au tres quali tés, d’
orateur,de poete, de
l ingiuste , etc ,n
’
auraient pas suffi a le mettre
hors de pair. Mais cc que donne asa personnal i té
un relief un ique,c
’
est le don d ’
amour qu ’
i l a su
porter jusqu’
a l’
extréme lim i te des possib i l i tés
humaines,en le tournan t tout en t ier sur Krishna
,
et qui s’
est associ é spon tan émen t chez lui ala
xiv FOREWORD
beau té créatrice de l’
art . Sa conception de la
danse , appliquée ala propagande de l’
amour d ivinaurai t séd ui t l ’esthétique de
’
l icate de la Grece elleaurai t sans doute placé Chaitanya acote d’
Orphée .
Qu’
i l y a it eu,dans ses transes myst iques
,
nu elemen t malad i f,vous ne le con testez pas ;
vous ci tez nu de ses propos ou i l parlc lui -meme
de ses attaques d’
épi lepsie . Mais cette faiblessememe me plai t el le est la part de la béte,
” pourreprendre les termes si expressi fs de Pascal
,
chez un etre oh la part de l ’ange est Si bel le .
J e sens,chez cc sa imydsi ivre d
’
amour,la sourde
lu tte sans cesse déchai née , et qu i lo jette a terre ,écuman t
,au m i l ieu dos visions qui lui décou
vraien t nu monde in terd i t .
Vous avez vous-meme , en plus d’
un passage ,évoqué par comparai son la figure du Bouddha,cet au tre héros ind ien de l ’amour un i verse] .
Mais j’
ai peur que votre passion dévote et pres
que fanatique pour Chai tanya vous ait rendu
un peu inj uste a l ’egard de son grand rival .
Vous a imez a insister sur l’
oeuvre sociale de
fratern i té humaine courageusemen t poursuivie
et en partie réalisée par lo missionnaire de
Krishna ; vous vous plaisez a mon trer les
M usulmans ou les Musulman isés admis dans son
égl ise ,e t vous g lori fi ez l ’espri t de cathol ici té
qu i anime sa préd ication . I c i, je le declare
franchemen t , je ne pu is vous su ivre . Vous
pourrez mettre en cause,et peut-etre avec raison ,
xvi FOREWORD
L’
I nde, a coup sur
,
-
a lo droi t de‘
s e complaire
dans son “splendide isolemen t, comme d
’
autres
peuples se son t fiatés de le faire mais el le do i t
alors loyalemen t accepter les restrictions qu i en
découlen t . Le gén ie hel lén ique et le gén i e
hébra’
i que ont congu l’ homme un iverse] , l
’
un
dans l’
ordre ph i losoph ique, l’
autre dans l ’ordre
rel igieux i ls out tendu de tous leurs efforts a le
réal iser, et i ls y ont prod igieusemen t réussi .
L’
I nde a prétendu limi ter son hori zon au cadre
nettemen t défin i de ses fron t iers naturel les,el le a dél ibérémen t ignore le reste du monde .
E l le s’
est faconne, el le a main tenu un type
d ’ organ isation religieuse et sociale qui v ise a
l’
exclusion rigoureuse de l ’ étranger. La fai ll ite
u ltime du bouddh isme dans l ’ I nde est le triomphe
supreme du nat ional isme h indou ; les seuls
liens qui rattachaien t l ’ I nde a la grande com
munauté humaine étaien t défin itivement
an éan t is. Chai tanya peu t etre un des plus
grands voyan ts de l’
I nde ; l’ human i té ne le
réclame pas comme un de ses grands hommes ;
el le ne le reconnai t poi nt , parcequ’
i l l’
a
méconnue .
K A TMUND U ,
Nepa l , 29 Juin 1922.
FOREWORD
BY
D R . SYL VA I N LEV I .
(Translated from French by C aptain J. W . Petavel, R .E . , R etired ,
Lecturer on the Poverty Problem , C alcutta Un i versi ty and Principal,
Maharaja of Kasimbazar’
s Polytechn ic I nsti tu te . )
D r. D ines/z Chandra; Sen .
DEA R FR I END ,
You have asked me for a preface for yourbook Chai tanya and his A ge but I am hardlyqualified to give i t, for what I know of the sub
ject I owe main ly to your works. From the
daywhen wi th feelings I shal l never forget , I read
your History of Bengal i Language and Li terature
,I have followed your frui tful acti vi ty wi th
a degree of in terest that has never d imin ished,
and thus, thanks to you , Bengal of the time of
Chai tanya has become fami l iar to me . I had,
however,skimmed through the subject a long
time ago in the early days of my stud ies, when I
was collecting n otes for my work on the I nd ian
theatre . I had found i n the‘ B ibliotheque
Nationale an old manuscript in Bengal i script
xvi i i FOREWORD
that contained the treat ise of Rupa Goswami on
dramatic art (Natya) . I was struck by the
en thusiasm of the writer who grafted on a com
pi lation of commonplace defin i tions a long series
of ferven t hymns to Krishna .
That put me first in to touch wi th the
movemen t insp ired by Chai tanya . Subse
quen tly I read wi th a degree of surprise and
admiration that I experience again after these
many years, the original and powerful drama in
wh ich Kavi Karnapur bold ly brought Chai tanya
and his compan ions on to the stage . I long
cherished the ambition to give a translat i on of
i t by the side of that of the Prabodh Chandro
daya,to emphasise the con trast between the
refined ingenu i ty of the one and the passionate
ardour of the other. I managed to translate
P rabodh C handrodaya but was compel led to stop
there as I had no t ime to do more . I must be
thankful to your book for hav ing brought me
back towards the hero I have neglected , and for
hav ing shown him to me in in tense light that
at times dazz les one’
s eyes.
You possess in an extraord inary degree the
cap i tal gi ft of the historian which is to make
the dead past l ive . I t is a poet ’s gi ft as much
as a historian’
s, and you are so essen tially a poet
that your style al ternates between the lyric and
the ep ic . Th is instinctive desire to make th ingsliv ing that is characteristic of you ,
does not
FOREWORD xix
al low you to be stopped over the cold study
of possibi l i ties that is everywhere the foundation
of the h istorian ’
s work , and especial ly so in
I ndia . The lack of au thori tat ive documen ts
leaves the I nd ian historian constan tly puzzled to
link known facts together in some degree of
con tinui ty . You cannot resign yourself to the
expectan t at ti tude You resolu tely make the
best of an impossible si tuat ion,but once your
choice made,
speculation’
glides unpercept iblyin to probabi li ty, and probabi li ty in to certain ty .
Th is is the inev i table result of your ferven t
imagination . Nevertheless you do not fai l to
appreciate and to recogn ise the requiremen ts of
the most severe cri ticism (you do not lose your
cri tical faculty) . You examine al l the documen ts
wi th the perseverance of the patien t scholar, and
appeal to your studen ts wi th touch ing eloquence
to seek for manuscripts sti l l unpublished . I f I
were younger, I would have wished to follow you ,and I have no doubt that , for the honour of Bengal ,your appeal wi l l be taken up enthusiastically by
her studious youth . Such a figure as Chai tanya
deserves the homage of the whole coun try .
I t is right that the learned should honour him by
burn ing their midnight oi l study ing him ,as the
peasan ts honour him by consecrating their songs
to him . I am qui te inclined ( though perhaps
I am wrong) to think less of his theology, wh ich
seems to me rather indifferen t and second-hand
xx FOREWORD
not showing power of inven t i on or method . H is
other qual i ties as an orator,as a poet
,as a
l ingu ist, etc ., would not seem to me suffi cien t
to make him wi thout an equal . But that
which marks him as an outstand ing perso
nal i ty is the g i ft of love that he has been ableto carry to the extreme l imi ts of human capaci ty cen tering i t en tirely upon Krishna
,and
wh ich his d isposi ti on caused him to associate
spontaneoslv wi th the creative beauty of
art. H is conception of dance appl ied to the
propaganda of d ivine love, wou ld have appealed
to the fine msthetic sense of the ancien t Greeks
and wou ld no doubt have gi ven Chai tanya
a place by the side of Orpheus. That there was
in his mystic trances an abnormal elemen t you
do not con test . You indeed quote one of the
passages where he himself speaks of his ep i lept ic
fi ts. But even th is weakness is pleasing to me .
We see in i t the man i festation of the an imal
side ” of man,to use Pascal ’s expressive language,
in a being in whom the man i festation of the“angel -side ”
is so beau ti ful . I feel that Si len t
stri fe going on incessan t ly in th is samyasi ,
in tox icated wi th love, and occasional ly throwing
him down foam ing at the mou th in the m idst
of his v ision that has revealed a forbidden
parad ise to him .
You have yourself , i n more than one passage ,
compared him to the Buddha— this other I nd ian
hero of un iversal love . But, I am afraid,your
FOREWORD xxi
passionate and somewhat fanatical devot i on to
Chai tanya has made you a l i ttle un just towards
his great rival . You l ike to insist on the social
work of human brotherhood courageously pur
sued,and partly real ised , by the m issionary
of Krishna . You del ight in showing the
Musalmans or converts to I slam adm i t ted in to
his church,and you glori fy the catholic sp iri t
that characterises his preachings . Here I
frankly declare that I cann ot fol low you . You
may urge,and perhaps justly, my limi tations
as a VVesterner, but an absolute regard for the
accepted mean ings of words that one uses is the
primary cond i t ion of frank anduseful discussion ,
and in the presen t case , as everywhere and always,the accuracy of the word is one and the
,
same
wi th the accuracy of idea . The word cathol i
c i ty , when i t is not used to designate the followers
of the Cathol ic Church,keeps its mean ing
derived from the Greek orig in,independen tly of
the Lat in suffix that has been attached to
i t. I t si gn ifies almost un iversal i ty— the world
approx imately as a whole . I n the almost un
fathomable depths of I nd ia ’
s religious h istory , so
rich in personali ties, both real and imaginary , the
Buddha stands alone,as the one in connect ion
wi th whom the term can be used . There is
noth ing to justi fy us ei ther in affirm ing or deny
ing that his particular conception of mank ind
has passed the l imi ts of I ndia to extend as far
xxi i FOREWORD
as the ideas of Socrates or Jesus extended . But
the fact is that the church that his i nsp iration
brought into ex istence has won the greater
part of A sia . No other fai th originating in
I nd ia,orthodox or heterodox , has ever succeeded
in do ing that . You have carefully gathered
together and treasured sl ight ind ications that
al low you to th ink that the influence of
Chai tanya has passed the l imi ts of Bengal and
Orissa . A s a matter of fact,the Chai tanya
movemen t is local,far from being Cathol ic ,
”
t.e . ,in other words
,un iversal ly human . I ndia
has certain ly the right to take pride in her
splendid isolat i on,j ust as
,indeed, some other
coun tries have chosen to do . But then she must
frankly accept the l imitat ions wh ich accompany
such an atti tude . The gen ius of the Greeks and
of the Hebrews conceived human i ty as a whole
the former concei ved man in the domain of
ph i losophy,and the latter in that of rel ig ion .
They tried wi th al l theirefforts to realise that ideal ,and attained prod igious success. I ndia has had
the ambi tion of l imi ting her hori zon wi th in clearly
defined natural boundaries. She had del iberately
i gnored the rest of the world . She created
for hersel f, andhasmain tained,a k ind of relig ious
and social organisation the object of wh ich
i s strictly to exclude foreigners. The ult i
mate fai lure of Buddhism in I nd ia is the
supreme triumph of H indu national ism. The
C onten ts
CHA PTER I .
Condi ti on of Bengal before the adven t of
Chai tanya (pp . 1
( i ) Vices brought on by reaction against Bud
dhist asceticism (pp . 1 (i t) C handidas
as precursor of C haitanyaic age (pp . l et
(i i i ) the influence of the Bhagavata and
other sacred owcrks (pp . 31 (to) Vaisna
vism in Bengal before Chai tanya (pp . 37
(v) the poli tical cond i ti on of the period
(pp . 52
CHA PTER I I .
A h istorical review of the biographical works
of the Vaisnavas— their claims to reliabi li ty
d iscussed (pp . 58
(a ) Murari Gupta’
s Chai tanya C haritam
(pp . 58
(6) Narahari Sarkar’
s songs (pp . 68
(0 ) The Chai tanya Bhagavata (pp . 73
(d) The Chai tanya Charitamrita (pp . 7 7
(e) _ Lochan Das’
s Chai tanya Mangal (pp .
81
(f ) Govinda Das’
s Karcha (pp . 85
(g) Jayananda’
s Chai tanya Mangal (pp .
89
C ONTENTS
(k) Prembi las, Bhakti Ratnakar and songson Chai tanya (pp . 92
(73) Summary (pp. 93 -97) B ibliography (pp .
97
CHA PTER I I I .
A ncestry,b irth and ch i ldhood (pp . 99
CHA PTER I V .
B irth and boy ish frivoli t ies (pp .
educat ion and founding of a To l (pp .
the defeat of the Scholar K eshub
(pp . 1 19
CHA PTER V .
Marriage (pp . 1 21 Tour in Eastern
Bengal (pp . 1 24 Return to home (p ,Visi t to Gya (pp . 128 -1 30 ) Trances (pp . 1 30
Closin g of the T61 (pp . 135 The
Sankirtan parties (pp . 1 38 -1 53) Reformation
of Jagai and Madhai (pp . 1 53-1 56) Srikrishna
play (pp . 1 56 H is resolve to turn a san
nasyi (pp . 1 57
CHA PTER v1 .
Chaitanya’
s Sannyas (pp . 1 64-167 ) H is
tour and v isi t to San tipur (pp . 1 67 The
inciden ts at Puri (pp . 1 76 H is resolve to
go to the Deccan (pp . 1 89
CONTENTS Xxvl l
CHA PTER VI I .
Govinda Das’s accoun t of his travel (pp . 191
Reformati on of Sinners—Naroj i , Bh i la
pan tha and Bara Mukh i (pp . 194 to
CHA PTER VI I I .
Visi t to Travancore and other places (pp . 209
Recepti on at Puri (pp . 21 2
CHA PTER IX .
Proposed visi t to Brindavan (pp . 216
I n terv iew wi th Sanatan and Rupa— their
Sanyas (pp . 219 Pri vate tour,— Baladev’
s
accoun t (pp . 323-326) Stay at Brindavan—on
his way back—meeting wi th Bi j li Khan (pp . 227
OH A PTER X .
C haitanya at Benares,—d iscussion wi th
Prakasananda (pp . 230 Tour In Bengal,
(pp . 233-234) A t Puri (pp . 234
CHA PTER XI .
Reveries and ecstasies gradual ly increasing
(pp . 251 -259) His passing away (pp . 259
CHA PTER XI I .
Chai tanya as a teacher (pp . 266
Love— its vari ous phases in the Sp iri tual plane
(pp . 266 Serv ice to fellowmen and
xxv i ii CONTENTS
compassion for the depressed castes (pp . 276
Social reformation— Vaisnava jurispruden ce
(pp . 283 H is command ing personali ty ,many -sidedness of character and scholarsh i p
(pp . 290 Sp iri tual emotion ,love for
mother,
influence on the Vaisnava poets
(pp . 295
Supp lem ent
CHA PTER I .
Chai tanya’
s rel igious views— the D wai ta
dwai tabad (pp . 320 Ru les of conduct,
theory of devotion (pp . 324 -327) The fivefold
rasas of the Vaisnavas (pp . 327
CHA P TER I I .
The Sahaj i as (pp . 334-341 ) The various sects
(pp . 341 The Buddh ist elemen ts (pp . 351
356 ) Their ph i losophy of love (pp . 356
Durgaprasad Kar—the Sahaj ia Sadhu practis
ing love (pp . 361 -366) Their l ove- ideal derived
from the Buddhists (pp . 367 The Mada
notsava (pp . 370 The Radha-Krishna cu l t
(pp . 372 The wickedness of the Sahaj ias
exposed in the novel Charu -Darshan (pp . 373
The Sahaj ia songs (pp . 389
CHA PTER I I I .
The duty of the R esearch -studen ts in the
field of the Sahaj ia l i terature (pp . 398
C ha itanya and his
From Old Records
CHA PTER I
COND I TI ON OF BENGA L BEFORE THE
A D VENT or CH A I TA NY A
V ices brought on by reaction against Buddhist
asceticism .
C handi D as as precursor of C haitanyaic age .
I nfluence of the Bhagavata andother sacred works .
Vaisnavi sm I n Bengal before C haitanya .
The political condition of the period.
Vi ces brought on by reaction aga i nst
B uddhi st asceti cism.
I f we take a bird ’s-eye View of the religious
aspects Of Bengal from the eleven th to the
twe lfth cen tury, we Shal l be in a posi tion to
ascertain the causes that have led to the
development of the bhakti -cult in th is provmce.
2 C H A I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
Chai tanya’
s adven t has produced a far-reach ing
effect on the rel igious and soc ial
history of Bengal , and in order
to judge and explai n how th is
could be possible ,a review of the condi tion
of the rel igious l i fe and of the social evoluti on
that was going on in th is coun try , prior to
the adven t of Chai tanya ,is essen tial from many
points of v iew. We shal l ch iefly restrict ourselves,however, to the ev idences that have been found
in Bengal i l iterature for arriv ing at our
conclusions.
The Nath -cu l t wh ich originated wi th M ina
Nath and Goraksha Nath had
already an extensive l i terature
in Ben gali in the thirteen th
cen tury , and there was the Dharma-cult also ,probably cc-eval wi th the Nath -creed and
hav ing many poin ts in com
mon . The Dharma-cult was
a degraded form of Buddh ism , and Nathism
was a comprom ise between Saiv ism and
Buddh ism . The fol lowers of both the sects
believed in ‘ Niran jan ’
and ‘ Dharma,’ though
the Nath-cult seems to have adhered more closely
to Siva worship . Both bel ieved in miracles, and
in the supernatural powers of the Siddhas.
Kalipa, Haripa and Kanupa, are spoken of in
terms of hi gh esteem in the l i teratures of both
the cults, and are he ld in h igher regard than
even the gods of heaven . But we are not
The Nath and
Dharma-cu l ts .
The common features .
C HA ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
degradation . Th is book is sometimes cal led
the‘ M ina -C hetana
’
or restorat ion of M ina
Nath to sp iritual consciousness. The tone of
the poem is e levated and calm and a qu iet
ph i losophy and sp iri t of stern asceti cism pervade
the work . The doctrines of Yoga as practised
by the Naths are d iscussed here in the
Srmrlhg/a-bhasha
’
or‘the language of twi l ight ’
as it has been cal led by some scholars, in wh ich
the Buddha-Doha-O -Gan and many other works
were wri tten
I n th is l i terature of the Nath -cult we find
asce t ic ism of a h igh order based on an observance
of moral v irtues. A n un
impeachable sexual in tegri ty
is aimed at, and preserved among many
temptat ions by the heroes of these poems,and
ch ief amongst them Goraksha Nath,the prince
of the Yog is, rises to our V iew surrounded by
many myst ic and legendary tales,resplenden t in
his vows, l ike the peak of a mountain ,when
sunrise is j ust dispel ling the mist around it . He
sets at naught al l the temptations that a man
ever faced from a woman,and saves Mina Nath
from the moral pi tfal l to which the latter had
unheed ingly fal len .
I n the songs of Maynamat i also we
find Prince Gopichandra facing temptat ions
and becoming glorious by overcoming
them . H ira,the weal thy harlot
,to whose
fascinations a hundred youths of noble l ineage
The high moral tone .
THE MORA L VIRTU‘
ES 5
had succumbed , proved powerless before our
hero . I n the Dharma- li terature Prince Lou
Sen conquers passi ons l ike a Yogi . Women
renowned for the ir beau ty and accomplishmen ts
try him,bu t he proves inv incible . Not on ly
unimpeachable in sexual morali ty , the principal
characters are endowed wi th v irtues of tru thful
ness and in tegri ty which hold to light some of
the great features of Buddhistic mora l tenets .
Where cou ld we find a greater-martyr at the altar
of truth and loyalty than Kalu -D om,the general
Of Lou Sen ? Harihara Bai ty’
s struggle for
overcomingthe temptati ons of world ly prosperi ties
on the one hand , and fears of grim persecu
tion on the othe r,resulting in his ult imate
triumph , invests him wi th a Solemn grandeur
wh ich commands our admirati on . The Dharma
mangal son gs and those of Maynamat i
have certain ly a crude humour and are
spotted wi th the blem ishes of style of
i lli terate people . But the great idea is there,the idea of unstin ted morali ty
,of loyalty and
devo ti on to the k ing , which sets al l dangers at
naught ; of adherence to truth,knowing the
result to be confiscation of property and death .
The characters are often no doubt drawn byclownish hands ; there is a forest of wi ld legends ,wh ich almost stifle the breath of the readerswi th their incred ibleness and pro lix i ty ; the
crudeness of descript ions and the ir monotony areoften tiresome to the extreme . But these
6 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
do not d imin ish at al l the lustre of fai th thati l luminates the pages , —fai th in the great moral
v irtues wh ich truly ennoble a race .
But at th is very time when stern ascet icism and strength of character were being
glorified , we find anotherside of the picture in wh ich
the forces of reaction are clearly ind icated .
Vaisnav ism of old school and Tantricism
are shown on the reverse of the p icture . We
find the people of rustic vi llages, amongst whomthe practi ce of Yoga and Tan tric culture had
been current in those days,revolt ing against all
rigour of asceticism and yie ld ing to profligacyand sexual pleasures . We find the courts of
k ings steeped i n these vices, and favouring
libert in ism in the name of relig ion by a qu i te
royal indulgence in sensuous pleasures . We find
tantr ics,original ly imbued wi th the object of
attain ing a h igh spiri tual goal , sinking low in
debauchery . Men and women sat free ly around
the Chakra or the ci rcle where all moral laws
were set at naught . King Ballala Sen (1 100
1 169 A . D . ) had a mistress of the Chanda]
caste named Padmini whom he Open ly raised
above the status of his chief queen ,and obl iged
many of his noblemen to eat the food served
by her. m mévfiw”is a line wh ich we
frequently come across in our genealogical
records, accoun t ing for the loss of social status of
particular members of our commun ity, and the
R eact ion .
THE REA C TI ON t
ti tle add}? is a con temptuous epi thet by which
Our social leaders branded those who obtained
rewards from the k ing, for tak ing food prepared
by Padmin i . I t is said that th is woman was very
handsome and was brought by the king to
his palace for helping him in tantric practices.
The inscriptions open ly praise Lakshman
Sen for in triguing wi th the beautiful Kalin ga
women .
1 A bh iram Goswami born in 1095 A .D .,
a devout Vaisnava ,kept a mistress named
Malin i and th is woman i s publicly applauded
in the Vaisnava trad i ti ons ;2 Jayadev himself
coun ts it a poin t of glory to men t ion the name
of Padmavati in his songs. She was a seva
dasi of Jagannath temple,
and Shekha
Subhodaya says that she used to dance in the
court of Lakshman Sen ,and several authorities
confirm that she had been at first ded icated to
the Puri temple from where Jayadev picked her
up .
3 Jayadev glories in cal ling himself “W m
van-572101 Farr-fl implying that she danced , whi le
he used to play upon some musical instrumen t
to keep time . The poets of this peri od sang
panegyrics of their patrons the kings, for their
licen tiousness and the copper-plateinscriptions
W W W W WW ? I -A -S-B D ec. 1909.
p. 473 .
2 See A bhiram Tattwa, A bhiram Pate l and A biramli lamrita (pub
l ished by Bhupaticharan Goswam i and A tulchandra Goswami3 See Bhaktamala by C handra Datta and Joydeva
‘ C hari tra byBanamal i D as.
8 C H A ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
also unmistakably ind icate the tendencies of the
age by describing the situations of Siva and
Parvat i in c lose embrace,in a language not qu i te
becom ing or decen t accord ing to modern taste .
l
O n the door-ways of the Puri and K anaraka
temples are found many human figures in
bas-rel ief,wh ich are grossly vu lgar. I n the
ground -floor of the Sahi tya Parisat bui ldings,an image of Siva embracing Parvat i is preserved
in the gal lery of statues ; th is image of Siva
is shock ingly vulgar and eviden tly belongs to
the age of wh ich we have been speak ing . The
lays of Jayadev wh ich sometimes rise to great
spiri tual heights are indecen t in many places
and the same shou ld be said of the Pavana-duta
by the poet D hoi of Lakshman Sen’
s court . This
coun try is prone to indulge in re lig ious specula
tions and there is no lack of subtle in terpretations
attempting to g lori fy what a moralist would
justly condemn . But when for three centuries
beginn ing from the 12th,we find our art , archi
tecture and poetry all dominated by the same
spiri t of indecency,we must admi t that
during the decl ine of H indu power, the standard
of moral i ty had become low amongst our people,
due , as I have already said,to a spiri t of
reaction against the stern attitude of the Buddh ist
and Nath ascet ics towards material istic li fe .
Th is indecency and pred i lection for sensuous
See D ec . 1909 ,p. 47 1 , and Epigraphi a l ndica
,Vol . I
,
THE REA C TI ON 9
l ife are man i fest in popu lar li teratures of the
Krishna and Siva cul ts . I n the Siva songs we
have vulgar tales of the Great God’
s gal lan try,
amon gst the low c lass women of the Kuchn i and
Dome castes . The evi l -eyed jealousy of Parvat i
described by R ameswar and other poets has
undoubtedly some very gross humour in it .
I n one of the poems we find her complain ing
that though she had tried to keep Si va at home
at n ight by ty ing the edge of her sari to his
tigerskin ,
°
i t proved of no avai l,as the Great God
ran away to mee t the Kuchn i -women as soon
as she fel l asleep . To the songs of Manasa
Devi these Siva songs are found prefixed as
prologues,and in the Krishna “K irtan of Chand i
D aswe find the same vu lgar taste,wh ich has
g iven rise to an an imated discussion amongst
scholars, some of whom,fam i liar wi th the h ighly
refined and platon ic songs of the great poet,have
expressed a doubt as to the genu ineness of the
book . I n R angpore , Cooch -behar, and indeed
in many parts of North Bengal,Krishna dhama
l i es are st i l l sung in which Krishna as a rustic
cow-herd in cl own ish humour pursues Radha
for an embrace or a k iss,
and greater the
vulgari ty in these songs,the greater is the
fun en j oyed by the farmers and the artizans of
the coun try -side . However greatly these songs
m ay have been modern ised in their language,
their origin shou ld no doubt be traced to
the th irteenth and fourteenth centuries and
2
10 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
our readers wi l l find that Chand i D as, being a
poet of that age , was at first an exponent
of the popular poet ical sen t imen ts , wh ich,
intense in their enj oymen t of sensual l i fe ,were also vulgar to the extreme . I t was the
prevalent fash i on in that age to be add icted to
a woman other than one ’
s own wi fe for {an lri c
practices . A nd amongst the Buddhist of the
latter-day Mahayana school and among the ir
bhikshus and bhi lrshani s, the Sahaja Dharma
became associated wi th i llici t love . I n the
Buddha-Gan -O -Doha we have many passages
in wh ich th is sexual love is used as symbol ic
of the Sahaj i a. concept of bl iss. Chand i D as
savs that at his time Sahaj ia love was a
man ia wi th young men, and that many noble
m inded youths started their career of love
wi th the avowed object of reaching a spi ri tual
goal ; th is, however, often proved inaccessibleto them ; and in the ir attempts to scale the
height , they fel l down to the lowest pi t
of vices, roll ing in the m ire of sensuouspleasures . The poet says that i t is a dangerousgame for young men to play
,as one in a mi llion
,
and not two,may conquerflesh and find the true
spiri tual heaven in woman’
s love . The tantr ics
not on ly became steeped in sexual v ices but
were dreaded for inhuman cruelties commi tted
in the name of rel ig ion . We have i t in the
Narottama B i lasha that a sect of v icious tantrics
offered human sacrifices to Kal i and danced with
i z CHA ITA NYA A N D H IS A C E
mere form and there was no fa i th in men .
Many people worsh ipped J aksha,the lord of
weal th , wi th offerings o f wi ne and meat .
Pan theism ,general ly speak ing
,was the
rel igi on of the learned during
th is period . Wh en Chai tanya’
s
fol lowers sang aloud the name of
God many people of Nad ia condemned it saying“Who is the god for whom al l these frenzied
uproar is mean t Man is his own sav iour andhis
own god . Where could be any God outside th is
human frame P”" Chai tanya travel led through
the whole of Southern I nd ia and met Dhundi
ram Tirtha of Tungabhadra,Mathura-nath of
Tripadi , Bhargadev of Tripatra, Bharat i Gossain
of Chandipore, and many leaders of Sannyasis,who were staunch supporters of pan theism .
Vasudeva Sarbabhcuma,a great Sanskri t scholar
of Bengal , was h imself one such . H e did not
bel ieve in a personal god and never took the
mahap rasad of Puri temple before his conver
sion to Vaisnav i sm later on .
Pan the ist ic v iews
amongst scholars .
Chai tanya-chandrodaya Natak gives us a
faith ful accoun t of the sort of rel igious l ife
that was around . I t speaks
of Sannayasis who remained
wi th cl osed eyes as if lost in deep med itation ,
but when they heard the j ingling sound of
Fa lse Sannyasis,
C ha i tanya Bhagabat , A di .C ha i tanya Bhagabat, A di , C hap . I I .
BENGA L IN NEED OF A SAvI OUR is
bracelets, ind icating the approach of women ,
they slowly Opened their eyes and locked wi th
lust ; of pan theists who believed in no other
gods than their own selves ; of Kapal ikas, both
Buddh ists and Sivaits, who were false Tantrics,of men who were given to V isi tingshrines for
mere curiosity wi thout any sp iri tual obj ect ;and of Sannyasis whose pride was as great as
their haughtiness of temper.
Thus we see that the grandeur of moral
v irtues upon wh ich Buddh ism had been founded
was wel lnigh reduced to atoms. Nagarjuna’
s
school , greatly depraved and con fused wi th crude
supersti tious bel iefs expounded the worsh ip of
tortoise and owl (n i lnha ) wi th curious specula
tive theories about the origin of the Un iverse .
Their temples held rustic fest iv i ties and though
a glimmer of fai th was occasionally seen in them ,
the Mahayana had spen t i ts best energies and
could no longer elevate the people . The tan
trios vain ly strove with the help of human
corpses, wine and women to attain a religious
goal and the pan theists in the ir self-sufli ciencyand pride of scholarship were far ofl
’
from that
humi li ty and spiri tual meekness
gxglet
l
‘
fiamre wh ich may alone lead to the
growth of true fai th . The
I slam,moreover, wi th i ts great energy and appeal
to personal God knocked , about this time,at
the gate of Bengal declaring that One Great God
was the supporter of the v irtuous as H e was the
14 CHA I TA N YA AN D H i s A GE
supporter of the world . Their vehement faith
was irresistible and led the H indu mind
involun tari ly to the old A ryan faith in a personal
God as the many specu lative and ph i losophical
theories on re l ig ion curren t in the coun try could
no longer satisfy the ir growing sp iri tual need .
Our prov ince special ly was in need of a saviour,
of one who wou ld prove that the true wel l of
sp iri tua l b l iss sprang from fai th and not from
in tel lectual subtlet ies,and that moral law and
a sense of brotherhood were the concomi tan t
forces of love wh ich could alone bring the
I ncomprehensible One wi th in human real isation .
CH A ND I D A s.
A t th is j uncture , when the cries of the
Mahayana Buddh ism for the cause of moral
v irtues were becom ing less and less aud ible with
the gradual d isappearance of t hat fai th from the
Ganget ic val ley— when Tan tricism was losing
strength as a rel ig ious force and lead ing men to
revel in debaucheries—when the temple and the
court , poetry and art del igh ted in sensuousness,there appeared on our rel igious and l i terary
horizon a great poet who represen ting the g low
and ardour of impassioned love— the sign ifican t
feature of the past school—became the harbinger
of a new age wh ich soon after dawned on our
moral and sp iri tual l ife and charged i t with
the wh ite heat of i ts emotional bliss.
C HA ND I D A S I 5
We cannot g1ve any accurate date as regards
any inciden t of Chandi Das’
s life . There i s
of course an en igmati c verse which has been
construed in to implying that in the year 1 403 A D .
Chand i D as had composed 996 songs. But the
mysterious wri ting wi ll not, I am afraid,stand
the test of h istorical scrutiny and we cannot use
it as ev idence of any value .
There are some anonymous verses in which
it i s stated that Chand i D as andI n terv i ew between
Vidyapat i and C hand i V 1dyapat1 met on the banks ofD as’
the Ganges,that during the
in terview one R upanarayanfi R aja of Mithi la
orwhoever he m ight have been ,was present
, and
that the poets enj oyed each.
other’
s company andd iscussed their favouri te top ic of love from manv
d ifferent poin ts of v iew.
‘
These anonymous
songs are undated,and are to be found in the
Padakalpataru compi led in the middle of the
1 8th cen tury . Babu Nagendranath Gupta, the
learned edi tor of Vidyapati’
s poems,does not
attach any h istorical value to th i s trad i ti on ,though
he does not support his v iews by any reason . But
we cannot summari ly reject a trad i tion to wh ich
some of our early wri ters have subscribed ; thedetai ls of conversation between the two poets as
given by these wri ters may be cal led in question,
but the in terv iew i tself may be accepted as a
historical inciden t .
But al l the same,we do not possess any defini te
evidence as regards the time when Chand i D as
16 CHA ITA N YA A ND H I S A GE
l ived . I ) e may, however, make an approx imate
guess from certain facts . Narahari Sarkar,one
of themost intimate friends ofChaitanya and born
not later than 1 465 A .D .,sings an eulogist ic song
abou t the poet in wh ich he says that Chand i Das ’
s
poems had l i teral ly flooded the coun try at his t ime,that Chandi D as was as remarkable a musician
as he was a poet,and that he was a learned
scholar whose songs were insp ired by love for
Rami— the washerwoman . I t is wel l-known to
all that C hai tanva chan ted the songs of Chand i
D as n igh t and day. N one of the h istorical works
wri tten about Chai tanya or his followers gives
any firsthand informat ion about the inciden ts of
Chand i Das’
s l ife though many lyrical songs of
the 1 5 th century and of later periods are prol ific
in the ir praise of the poet . I shan Nagar, who
wrote a b iography of A dwai ta in 1 560 A . D .,refers
to an in terv iewwh ich the latterhadwi th V idyapati
probably i n the year M 54 . Had Chand i D as
been al ive about th is time , there is no doubt
that some of the Vaislmab apostles at least, all
of whom were great admirers of Chand i D as;would have v isi ted the great Bengal i poet who
l ived at Nanoor in the B irbhum
C hihiil
i
e
gh? D istrict . But we are not aware
of auv record relating to such
an inciden t . So the natural surm ise is that
Chand i D as must have d ied at a period earl ierthan the m iddle of the 1 5th century . H ow far
earl ier, that is the question now and let us
C HA ND I D r. S 1 7
discuss i t here . We find that one Deva Sarma, a
Brahmin clerk , C opied the Kavyaprakas in November 1398 by order of Vidyapati . I n one of thesongs of th is poet we find ment ion of Gyasuddinwho died in 1 373 A D . So Vidyapati no doubt
had already made his mark as a poet before1 373 . I f we accept the statemen t of the
anonymous writers about his in terview wi th
Chand i D as to be true,that even t probably took
place when the latter was already in the prime
of his youth and Vidyapati had j ust begun to beknown to fame . I cannot al together rej ect,as I have already stated , a tradi tion which has
long prevai led in the coun try,un less i t is upset
by proper h istorical evidence .
A t this stage of our investigation Mr. Basan ta
ranjan R ay brough t the'
Krishnakirtan to the
not ice of scholars. E xpert cal ligraphic op1n l on
asserts that the handwri ting of the copy could
not be of a date later than the end of the
1 4th cen tury . Th is work of Chandi D as must
have attained a certain celebri ty before others
could think of copying i t out . Hence we believe
that Krishnakirtan could not have been wri tten
later than the middle of the 1 4th cen tury . The
Krishnakirtan of Chand i D as belongs to that class
of love-songs wh ich is cal led Krishna Dhamaliand wh ich i s curren t even now in the backwoods
of North Bengal . The poem describes the amoursof Radha-Krishna in many differen t phases.
The rustic elemen t,however, predominates in
3
18 C HA I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
these j uven i le wri tings of Chand i D as. Krishna
here i s a Simple v i llage lad who runs after the
pastoral queen of his heart— the pursu i t is
conducted wi th an intense ardour,amidst the
gay natural scenery on the banks of the black
watered Jamuna,amidst market places and
groves resounding wi th the songs of b irds no
cond i tion however low,no si tua
tion however hard,daunting
the love-stricken rustic lad who wears the mask
of a god . Th is passi onate ardour of the flesh
need not be condemned in the poetry of
med iaeval school as i t suppl ied insp irati on to
many of the greatest poets of that age .
'
l owards
the end of K rishnakirtan the poet strikes a h igher
note wh ich becomes loudly aud ible in his later
songs. SO th is work marks the transi t ion of
Vaishnab poetry from the sensuous to the idealis
tic . The earlier songs throb with somewhat
gross human inst incts, the later songs burst into
melodies of finer idea lism,the characteristic of
the later Vaishnab school I f we read the
accoun t gi ven by the poet h imself as to how he
fel l in love wi th Ram i , the problem how th is
transi tion came over the sp iri t of his songs wi l l
be solved . But we shall come to it later on .
The Krishna-dhamali to wh ich we have
already referred was once the craze of whole
Bengal , but which now survives being driven
into the borders of Northern Bengal , where the
Old things of H indu li fe have not yet altogether
Krishnakirtan .
at C HA ITA N YA A ND H IS A GE
local i ty , as I said in my note,who pun ished
Chand i D as wi th death . H e had inv i ted the
poet to his court hav ing heard of his great
fame as a musician and poet . Rami,the washer
woman ,is herself the wri ter of th is h istorical
accoun t . She lamen ts the day when Chand i D as
v isi ted the court of the M oslem Emperor. H is
queen heard Chandi D as sing some of his master
pieces. They were so sweet that the very trees
and the sky seemed to be rapt in si len t admira
tion . The queen was beside
nl
sdir
gii
ideath Of herself wi th j oy and fel t a
passion for the poet . H ow
th is passion deve loped and the matter attracted
the notice of the autocrat is not known .
Rami sk ips over detai ls ; but she says that
the queen when asked,made a bold fron t
and con fessed al l to her royal husband . The
Emperor ordered that Chand i D as shou ld be
tied to the back of an elephan t and led from
place to place and scourged in such a manner
that his flesh , sinews and nerves must be
torn ti ll he bled to death . The queen in ter?
ceded and said ,“ You do not know the ster
ling meri t of the man . I n the whole world
there does not breathe an other soul as warm as
his .
”For mercy she pleaded , but in vain .
The in furiated monarch was the more enraged .
Rami wri tes that she saw him glance at her
from the back of the elephan t wi th tender love ,
as the last moment drew near. H is clothes lay. all
UN DER ELEPHA NT ’S FEET 21
drenched in blood and l ook ing at her stead i ly
al l the time as the e lephan t moved on,the great
poet of Bengal closed his eyes wi thout u ttering
a moan .
The elephan t was often made an instrumen t
in those days for punish ing offenders of high rank .
Ferdausi was ordered to be placed under the feet
of an elephan t and trampled down to death , but
the poet succeeded in effecting an in terv i ew wi th
Sultan Muhammad and avert-ing the pun ish
men t . We find Jehan g ir con triv in g to set an
elephan t against Sher A fgan,the husband of
Meherunn isa,though that Ch ief cou ld hold his
own by his superi or tact and unmatched phy sical
strength . The an lmal after a feroc ious attack
took to heels and fled, terror-struck by the blow
inflicted on it by the Ch ief . The Muhammadan
history of’ Western A sia is replete wi th instances
of pun ishmen t of death inflicted on men of rankby placing them under the feet of elephan ts .
Thus died Chandi D as by the caprl cl ous orders
of the c r Emperor. H e could not have been
possibly more than forty years of age at the
time of his death . For in the East a woman
seldom falls in love wi th a man above that age .
The sad tale of this tragic affair has not beenall told . The Begum ’
s end was as tragic, if not
more glori ous. Repen tance was natural to her
in the matter,for she fel t that if she had not
made the confessi on ,the k ing ’
s an ger would not
have possibly reached such a cl imactic poin t .
22 C HA I TA NYA A N D H i s A GE
There is nothing in the accoun t to show that
the queen had been gu i l ty of anyth ing dis
honourable . I t was her great admiration for
the poet wh i ch led to a roman t ic feel ing of
love,and there is a h in t in the am oun t that
the poet reciprocated her sen t imen ts. Over
whelmed wi th repen tance for her con fession
wh ich she had made relying on a generous sp iri t
of appreciation and indulgen t pardon from her
husband,but wh ich led to the un fortunate catas
trophe , she was shocked at the Emperor’
s atti
tude, and when the cruel scene was enacted
before her eyes, she fain ted away unable to bear
the sight . She never recovered from that swoon ,
for the beating of her heart had stopped as she
saw the horrible torture and de ath of her lover.
Rami says that as the queen lay dead she
hurried to clasp her feet wi th tearful eyes. Here
ends her verses .
Who this Emperor of Gour was, cannot be
defin i tely ascertained , but if we take into ao
coun t the fact that Chand i D as wrote his j uven i le
work— the K rishnakirtan— about 1350 and that
he could not have been,as already men t ioned ,
mere than 40 years old at the time of his death,
we are led to suppose that it was the Emperor
Shamsudd in I I who probablv passed th is horrible
sen tence upon one of the most glori ous of
Bengal ’s sons. From 1 342 to 1385 five monarchs
ruled Bengal . Shamsuddin Bhengara from 1 342
to 1358 , whowas much respected andbeloved by
SA MSUDD IN I I 23
his people Sultan Gayasuddin (1 359 to 1373)was a patron of poetry who had sen t an i nv i ta
t ion to H afi z to come to Bengal and settle as
his court-poet and about whom V idyapati wrote
an eulogistic verse . The next Emperor A ssulat
win ru led for ten years peaceful ly andwas a very
popular monarch . A bout the next Emperor
Shamsuddin I I , Stewart says, on the death of
Sultan A ssu latwin ,the nobles raised to the
throne his adopted son , a youth of very inferior
talen t , who took the ti tle of Shamsuddin I I .
For l i ttle . more than two years he en j oyed a
tranqu i l reign,but at the exp irat ion of that
peri od , Kan is, the Z emindar of Vetoria,rebel led
against him ,and the you th being unsupported
by the Muhammadan Ch iefs was defeated and
lost his l i fe in the year 1 385 A .D .
”H e was
so unpopular that even the Muhammadan Ch iefs
did not support him though a H indu Z emindar
ki l led him and secured the throne for h imself .
May we not imag ine that the cruel pun ishmen t
of death on the greatest poet of Bengal was
probably one of the reasons wh ich had made hisrule very unpopular in the coun tryWe can expect no h istorical clue to this
matter fl om the records of the Vaishnabs themselves . They sk ip over anyth ing that is melancholy or trag ic . Their conspiracy of si lence inregard to Chaitanya
’
s passing away is wel l
known . Nor had they , wh i le wri t ing elaborate
memoirs, described when and how Sach i D ev i or
$34 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Bishnupriya d ied . Sowe should not be surpri sed
at the fact that none of the Vaishnab h istorians
has wri tten anythin g abou t the tragic end of
Chand i D as. I n Jayananda’
s Chaitanya Mangal
we come across a hurried line stating that
Gadadhar P and i t had burned himse lf al ive to
escape from Muhammadan oppression ,but the
detai ls are not g iven . I t is curi ous to note that
many po in ts in the career of Gadadhar Pand i t ,one of Chai tanya’
s best friends, are to be found
i n al l authori tative books of Vaishnabs,
save
th is most importan t poin t of his horrible death .
I t is true that the Vaishnabs do not at al l regard
Jayanauda’
s Chai tanva Mangal to be a book of
any worth , because he cared not to follow their
canons ; he has not on ly referred to the tragic
death of Gadadhara but given us historical
informat ion abou t how Chai tanya passed away ,as no other wri ter has done andwe i nstincti vely
feel that hi s accoun ts are qui te reliable, how
ever much he might have d isregarded the
delicate feel ing of the Vaishnab commun ity in
the matter.
We have already referred to the fact that
love for Rami brought on a change over the
sp iri t of Chand i Das’
s poetry. I t was certain lyan epoch -mak ing even t in his li fe . H e was a
worsh ipper of Basuli and was p iously afraid
of any roman t ic feel ing for a woman . But
the heart runs out of con trol . The poet ’s
strength fai ls him . Look how he fal ls prostrate
BA SULI’S ORDER 25
before Basu li and lamen t-s h imself I The holin ess of his vow has gone for naught ! N ight and
day he prays, but the glimpses of the glorious
form of R am i half-revealed through her blue
sar i in the temple-courtyard ,maddens him inspite of his vow
of self-dedication to Basuli . H is heart is exactly
in the same state as a flower fal len in the tide that
flows irresistibly l ike fate A las ! mother, he
lamen ts before Basuli You could not preserve
your chi ld from these unworthy feel ings for a
woman of low caste ! My austeri ties and efforts,my secret vows cou ld not save me But not
long after,Basu l i
’
s voice he heard , as if in a
dream —i t said,
“ Love this woman,my son
,
i t is your fate that you shou ld do so— nay, th is
love wi l l sancti fy y ou ; nei ther I nor hundreds
of gods and goddesses l ike me wi ll be able to give
you a gl impse of that h igher l i fe which th is
woman’
s love wi l l teach you .
”1
Chand i D as arose -wonder- struck . I n his
heart of hearts he had worsh ipped Rami . On ly a
conven tional sen se of immorali ty , a consci ousness
of his d iffi cul t soc ial envi ronmen t had fil led his
m ind wi th remorse and fear.
Now Basul i’
s mandate was
clear.Conven ti on s and fears were set at
nau ght . Each time he saw her,he found her
Remorse .
H e worship s R am i
1 C hand i Das’
s ed i t ion ,pub l ished by the Sahi tya Parishat of
C alcutta , Supp lemen t , p . 4 .
At
C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
beaut i ful and love ly as a flower, holy as a
goddess,a th ing to be placed on the head l ike
a g i ft dropped from the hands of Basul i herself.
H e says,Though I am a Brahmin and you
are a washer-woman, you are to me holy as
Grayatri .” l
H e rises above caste-prej ud ices,and
sees good in love far more than i n his Brahmin ic
blood or in the scriptures. H e declares Rami
to be as adorable as Parvati , the giver of
fortunes, as Lakshm i,the gi ver of luck and as
Saraswati , the goddess of fine arts and learn ing .
Thus he raises his love to the status of legendary
goddesses, and thi s no Brahmin had, I suppose ,done before him .
So the trad i t ional Brahmin ic superiori ty ,sacredness of scriptures and the unapproachable
dign i ty andsancti ty of gods all fel l to the ground.
Chandi D as saw one temple in the whole universe ,that was the cottage of the washer-woman near
Basul i’
s courtyard , and he became the h igh
priest there . H is love was not lim i ted by any
conven t i onal idea . H e cal ls Rami his p i tri
mam “ father and mother.
” No lover ever
spoke such a language . Love to him was
a homogeneous and und iv ided whole . A mong
rivers one is cal led the Ganges,another Godavari and another
Jamuna,bu t when they come
down and fal l in to the ocean,they loose their
Love defined not in
a l im i ted sense
C han d i Das ’
s ed i t ion , pub l ished by the Sahi tya Pari shat of
C alcutta , Supplemen t, p . 333 .
28 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
fal len from the Brahmin ic order by the beat
of drum ? But though his own men treated
him so,he did not lose his fai th in man
and he saw no god as h igh as man . H e says,
“ Hear me,brother man
,Man is the h ighest
,
none h igher than he . H e certain ly saw
d iv in i ty in the human form before him more
than e lsewhere . H e would bel ieve in no i l l
from one whom he loved . Radha in one of his
songs says to Krishna ,
“ I am not accustomed,
dear,to see your happiness and m ine apart from
one another,what del ights you del ights me also .
”
So the lover may show al l sorts of cruelty,but
cannot hurt the soul wearing the armour of
th is love, and Chand i D as says again,One who
loves and breaks, does not attain the sp iri tual
goal .” I A lover is bound to retain his love for the
person whom he has once loved . However much
he may suffer, sp iri tual ly he wi l l gain by hi s devo
ti on . D ivorce therefore i s not recogn ised in the
law-book of Chand i D as. D id Christ forsake
his people because some of them had crucified
him ? I t is the flower’
s love, tear off i ts petals,crush it cruel ly , i t wi l l have a sm i le for you st i l l .
A t th is stage on ly a step further and one attains
love d iv ine . Says Chand i D as,
“One who is
unseen and beyond al l comprehension ,wi ll be
perce ived by him alone who has lovec
3 9
1 C handi Das’
s ed i t ion,pub l ished by tho Sah i tya l
’ai i sha t o f
C alcutta supplemen t 337 .
I brd, p . 340 .
HI S POEMS BRE A THE A FREEDOM 29
A nd we know that before Chai tanyawas born,
Chand i D as had fe l t th is love,and been l ifted to
the plain from wh ich he had already v isions of
his God. Love human had taugh t him love
div ine . O therwise where i n the ordinary
romanti c poems of love,
’
do we so frequen t ly
come across lines wh ich charged wi th sp iri
tual mean ing bring us to the
tO
L
l
‘
gv
v
e
e
h
dffifigo
leadi 'm threshold of the mystic world ?
Radha fasts fi'
fififi 3 1121 21, amW 9K? when love for Kri shna has dawn ed
on her heart ; she wears the ochre - coloured cloth
of a yogin i and reci tes the name of Kri shna,ti l l
l ike a Vaishnab apostle she is beside herself wi th
j oy . The adven t of Chai tanya is presaged in
the accoun t Chand i D as gives of R adha as pros
trating herself at
.
the feet of every one who
speaks of Krishna . A nd did not Chai tanya do
the very same th in g ? H e too like Chand i Das’
s
Radha fain ted at the sight of the dark -blue
clouds wh ich brought to hi s memory the lovely
colour of Krishna .
Chandi D as not on ly frees himself from the
grip of re l i gi ous and social conven t ions, but from
the bonds of Poet ics and in fact from al l sorts of
rules laid down by scho lars . H e was himse lf a
great scholar. E ven if we had not his brother
Nakul’
s testimonv on that poin t , supported half
a cen tury later by a statemen t of Narahari , the
n umerous slokas in San skri t that adorn his
K rishnakirtan and his c losely l i teral and yet
30 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
fe l ici tous translat ion of_ some of the lays o f
Jaydeb ev idence his erud i t ionand learn ing . But. he rejects al l
He frees himse l fh ow a l l conven t ions .
Sanskri t ic h igh -sound ing words
in his later composi tions, though in K rishnakirtan
they are plen ti ful . H e rej ects the rules of Sans
kri t Poe tics that eternal ly lay down the bee to be
a lover of the flower. The flower, he says,does
not go to the bee when the lat ter does not come .
The moon cannot be a lover of the l i ly, as we
find in the Poet ics,for when the latter d ies in
frost , the moon sm i les from heaven . Thus free
ing h imself en t ire ly from al l rel igious, social ,
and li terary thraldom ,Chand i D as brings in a
new era in Vaishnab poetry and in Vaishnab
rel ig ion,wh ich i n the next period trampled down
all conven tions and orthodoxy .
The sensuous elemen t becomes gradually
idea l ised in Chand i Das’
s later wri tings . H is
K rishnakirtan shows him at first as one wi th the
poets of an earl ier epoch , a fai thfu l d isciple of
Joydev, scholarly and gorgeous in his descrip tion
of the objects of senses . A t th is stage he is not
wi thout spiri tual meaning in occasional verses,
and is an exponen t of the popular sen t imen t,the echo of wh ich is sti l l found in the Krishna
D hamal is . H is language is aglow wi th
impassioned rural poetry that draws no l ine‘of
demarcation be tween dcceucv and indecency .
But sudden ly by the grace of Basu l i and love
for Rami we find him at a later stage throwing
BH A GA VA TA A N D OTHER SA C RED BOOKS 31
off the man tle of sensuousness as the tree puts
off i ts bark,and d i splaying the
,blossom of
sp iri tual love and felici tous emotions wh ich
reached tli eir flowering poin t in the trances of
the great apostles of Vaishnav ism .
The influence of _ Ike B hagava ta and other
Sacred Works .
A cen tury before Chai tanya was born ,the
Bhagavata and the G i ta had begun to be widely
read in th is prov ince, as also in other parts
of I nd ia . We find Gov inda D as, Chai tanya’
s
compan ion ,during his tour in Southern I ndia
in 1 510—1 1 A .D . recording that at Poona
there was a regu lar craze for
the study of the G i ta and the
Bhagavata 1 When Chai tanya
was there , an i lli terate Brahm in was found studying the G i ta wi th a zeal wh ich was laughed at
by the scholars. For that d i ligen t studen t of the
sacred book nei ther understood‘
nor correctly
reci ted the slokas wi th wh ich he kept h imself
engaged day and n ight . 2 The lays of Jaydev and
The study of the
Gi ta and the Bhagavat ,
1
a? am 2153—1125 farts frets I
as"
as Wy attW UCana l H
mm or? as was wants I
was atlas afa aimmi ss u3m s i sw as cs? an? am(61511215 fife
-
6 afo case sift armn
2 Gov inda D as’s Karcha, p . 100 .
32. C H A I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Chand i D as, based on the Bhagavata , were sung
throughout th is prov ince,and we know i t on the
authority of Narahari that these songs,at his
t ime,fi lled the whole world‘ —this world was
no doubt Bengal and Orissa . The Chai tanya
bhagavata (1 573 A .D . ) says that the Gita and the
Bhagavata were widely read in the coun try
before Chai tanya ,though the author regrets
that right in terpretation of the sacred books was
m issed by the scholarly pandi ts in their en thu
siasm to d isplay erud i tion . Our D harmamangal
poems,wh ich give us gl impses of the H indu
courts before the adven t of I slam record that
the Bhagavata was stud ied there regu larly ,
and that the k in gs at their le isure -hours l isten
ed to d iscourses on that scripture from the ir
court -pandi ts . The l 0th Skanda of the Bhaga
vata,however, formed the subject of spec ial study
of the Bengalis . The 1 1th Skanda treats matters
in a phi losoph ical sp iri t . Bengal being a pastoral
coun try,i ts inhab i tan ts del ighted in pastoral
poetry and pastoral rel ig ion
more than in anyth ing else,and
the 1 0th Skanda embod ies
these in a way wh ich has perhaps no paral lel in
The ten th Skanda of
the Bhagabat .
world ’s li terature .
The sports of Krishna as a boy are described
in the tenth Skanda in such a fascinat ing manner
that i t has a special appeal for an emotional race
C hand i D as publ ished by Sahi tya Parisat , Supp lemen t “35 .
THE SPORTS 33
like the Bengalis. These sports on the sunny
banks of the dark -watered Jamuna are richly
detai led in the can to . The boys sometimes
run pursuing the shadows of birds that fly
in the sky. They mimic the apes by showing
their series of smal l teeth ,—they catch the mon
keys by their tai ls and often j ump from bough
to bough pursuing them . They cover their
bod ies wi th striped blankets and crawl on hands
and knees andbecome bulls and cows themselves
amongst their own bulls and cows. Sometimes
one of them shuts his eyes and becomes blind and
tries to find out his way in that condi t ion . One
dances in imi tation of peacocks,3pm” Of the
and another j umps over a smal l
stream imi tating the frog . One
takes fancy for becoming a crane and cover
ing h imself wi th a wh i te cloth si ts amongst
cranes ; while another shrinks and trembles in
fear as if he has seen a, tiger, where there is
nothing of the k ind . One hums wi th the bees,wh i lst his comrade imi tates the sounds of a
cuckoo or walkswi th the geese moving to and fro
as those birds do .
1 Krishna and Balaram, when
five or six years old , do all these merry-mak ings
with other gay boys of the Vrinda groves. The
brothers sometimes pull a smal l cow by the tail
and, when the latter runs forward , it carries the
struggling boys beh ind its heels to the amuse
1 See Bhagavata, Skanda X , C hap . XI I,Verses 6-12 C hap . XVI I I ,
Verses 9-16 .
5
34 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
men t of the e lderlv people who witness thesesports .
That Krishna is God incarnate is of course
in e vidence everywhere . Wh i le play ing a hun
dred games in th is wav . he nowand then unfoldshis d iv in i ty to his bewi ldered comrades by
sudden ly k i l l ing great g iants l ike Bakasura ,
Trinabarta and A ghasura, and crush ing under
his feet the m ighty crest of the snake
Kal iya . There is a gen i al breath of affection and
emot ional tenderness in the whole env ironmen t
and special ly in the house,for fond Jasoda
dotes on young Krishna and prom ising ever
more in her mind not to beat him for the m isch ief
he does almost every hour,she somet imes
loses her temper very justly . For what mother
could bear to see that during her short absence,the ch i ld had broken herm i lk -pi tcher, her vessels
full of curd and butter, and after hav ing eaten a
small part of the conten ts h imse lf , the marks of
wh ich were on his mouth and teeth,was detected
i n d istributing the remainder amongst a host of
monkeys that had gathered round him,
-he
look ing l ike the very prince of them ! Jasoda
was a m i lk -maid and these p itchers and vessels
were articles of her trade . Now she pursues the
m isch ief~making imp, who wi th many sprightly
leaps evades his mother and at last,caught
by her,subm i ts to the pun ishmen t of being bound
wi th ropes ; but these fall short by a few inches,
each time she adds to them by bringing in fresh
36 C HA ITANYA A ND H I S A GE
of the Bhagavata . Th is Skanda was translated
later on by Maladhar Basu in 1 480 A .D . or 6
years before the birth of Chai tanya .
The biograph ies of Chaitanya show that in
his childhood he played wi th his comrades al l the
plays that Krishna had played accord ing to the
Bhagavata . These sports of Krishna had indeed
become the craze wi th the ch i ldren of Bengal at
that time ; some one of Chai tanya’
s comrades
became Baka or A ghasur and fought wi th
another who played the part of Krishna . I n
these Chai tanya was general ly the leader. I n the
Chaitanya Bhagavata we find Ni tyananda as a
ch i ld play ing Krishna-plays wi th his playfellows
at Ekchaka . The breaking of the cart and the
killing of Kansa were of course the fami l iar sub
jects ; he somet imes wore false whiskers andheard
and played the part of Narada . The j uveni le
poems of Chandi D as i l lustrate how platforms
were raised , where players robed themselves in
pastoral dresses and played the parts of Krishna
and his li ttle compan ions . Sometimes they played
all the parts of the various incarnations of
Vishnu,
land C hai tanya himself in his childhood
followed the foot-prin ts of b irds , or covered
h imself wi th a striped cloth to appear as a bull
after Krishna.
2
Ramananda born in 1299 A .D . (according to
Sir R . G . Bhandarkar) and fifth in apostolic
C hand i D as , publ ished by the Sahi tya Parisat , pp . 14-20 .
C hai tanya Bhagavata, A tul Goswam i ’s ed i tion , A di , p . 40 .
A BRA HMIN PLA YER D I ES 37
succession from R amanuja worsh i pped both
Krishna and Rama and made no d istinction
between them as they were both held to be incarnations ofVishnu . I n Bengal too we findMurari
Gupta and others following the footprints of that
great Vaishnab apostle of Southern I ndia and
showing devoti on to Rama and Krishna alike .
Murari composed many beauti ful hymns in San
skri t in praise of Rama, and Chaitanya was so
delighted to hear these that he gave Murari the
ti t le of Ramadas.
1 The episodes
of Rama’
s l ife were acted by
Bengal i ch i ldren along with
those of Krishna and N ityananda had played
them al l long before he first met Chai tanya in
The emotion wh ich inspired the playerswas
great, and rose to a frenzy of excitemen t wh ich
sometimes produced tragic results. I t is said in
the Chai tanya Bhagavata that a Brahmin play
ing the part of D asarath was so greatly over
powered by grief at Rama’
s exile that he died
in course of the play on the platform.
3
Player dy ing in
course of p lay .
( i v) Vaishnavi sm i n Benga l before Chai tanya .
Vaishnav ism was already firmly planted in
Bengal by the endeavours of Sen kings who
had come from Southern I ndia. For we find
C hai tanya C hari tamri ta ,Bangabasi ed i tion , p . 169 .
2 C hai tanya Bhagavata , A tul Goswam i ’s edi ti on , p. 65.
3 I bid, p . 66 .
CHA ITA NYA A N D HI S A GE
stone - imagesof the god, popularly calledVashudev,
from every part of th is coun try,traced from the
t ime of thesesovereigns. Some of the Pal k ingsof ~ the later t imes also became devoted worsh ip
pers of th is dei ty . Wi th a sl ight chan ge in theform of th is god he takes a d ifferen t name . H e
h’
as
’
four arms, hold ing the shel l,the d isc
,the
mace and the lotus . I f by the first arm he holdsthe mace he is called Vasli udev but if by that
arm he holds the d isc he is cal led P radyumna .
I n this way he takes the diffeThe difleren t n ames
Oo BudGrent names of Sankai sana
,
A n iruddha,K eshava
,Narayana,
Madhava, Gov inda,
Vishnu, Madhusudana, Tri
bikrama,Vamana
,Sridhara
,Hrishikesha,
Padma
nava ,D amodara
,Purushottama
,A chyuta, K rish
A dhaksaja, Upendra,and Janardana
,
simply by changing the sacred emblems of
div in i ty from one hand to another. The
iconography of th is god popularly known as
Vashudev is minutely given in the Chai tanya
C haritamri ta . For the sake of conven ience, how
ever, we wi l l follow the popu lar name Vashu
dev in designatin g th is god . A s all these
differen t names imply the same dei ty , i t is of no
use to en ter in to in tricacies of names
.
wh ich'
concern those worsh ippers on ly who have to per
form di iferen t ri tuals in regard
Befzi
iifélf“Of a to the d ifferen t names. Th is
dei ty Vashudev,however
,was
original ly no god of Bengal,for there is no
THE I MA GES OF BLA C K STONE 39
trad i tionof the god to be found in the works of our
earlierpotters and sculptors who made images of
our gods. I n the old sculpture ofBengal we find
Krish'
na wi th his flute, but nowhere i s th is dei ty
in ev idence to prove that Vashudev had been
worsh ipped here before the Sen k ings became
d ictators of the relig ion under the Brahmanic
renaissance .
But nevertheless the figure of th is dei ty
caught the imag ination of the Bengali s in later
times,for in almost every v i l lage of importance
throughou t th is prov ince we‘
find images of
Vashudev recovered from tanks and under
ground . He was certain ly imported into Benga l
by the Sen k ings from Southern I nd ia . We find
these Vashudevs d isfigured by the hands of
iconoclas'
ts ly i ng in largest numbers in Eastern
Bengal,special ly B ikrampore , the reputed seat
of the Sen k ings .
These images were general ly made of“
black
stone. They often show a remarkable tendernessand grace in execution inspite of being wrought‘
out in hard stone . The lips,
-
‘
the nose and the
cheeks are so soft that tli ev seem to"
be made
of clay or wax rather“
than hard black stone .
The dark blue tin t of this stone‘ lends a lovely
in terest to the images, so that when they were
muti lated, destroyed and removed from the
temples, the helpless worsh ippers associated the
colour wi th d ivin i ty . They began to be fasci
h ated by the si ght of the dark ranges of clouds,
40 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
of the dark Jamuna and of everything that hada dark bluish colour. I n the songs and poems
of the Bengal i Vaishnabs we often meet
wi th panegyrics of the dark colour which is
Krishna’
s, but though Krishna
’
s dusty colour is
wel l-known,
nowhere outsideour prov ince is so much stress
laid upon the beauty of the dark colour in
popular songs . The people had shed theirblood in their attempts to save the temples
from the hands o f the ruthless destroyers, and
when they fai led they could not look upon
anyth ing dark wi thout being reminded of their
god . Hence long before Chai tanya th is colour had
become the craze with the Vaishnabs. Chand i D as
makes his Radha throw away the floral wreath
that adorned her dark braids, so that she migh t
revel in an undisturbed sight of the dark colour
of her luxurian t hair. She gazed with wi ld
emot ion of j oy at the dark -blue neck of the
peacock , and when she saw the dark cl ouds in
the stormy sky,she fell into a trance , and her
eyes moved not from the si ght which brought
on a mystic vision .
1
The first great Vaishnab apostle of Bengal ,Madhavendra Puri , had shown this strange
lik ing for the dark colour in the l 4th cen tury .
Chaitanya Bhagavata describes him as fainting
away at the sight of clouds. Smitten with
The dark -bl ue colour.
1 C hand i D as, Sahitya Pari se t ed i t ion ,p . 30 .
THE MA D D H I SECT 41
a love for this colour Chai tanya himself at a
later age embraced the tamal tree wi th its dark
blue foliage mistaking i t for the god of his visi on
and passed in to a trance .
1 The dark waters of
a ri ver brough t the v ision so often that the
reader wi l l be at no pains to find instances
of the wonderful fascinati on exercised by the
colour on his mind .
C hai tanya belonged to the Maddhi sect of
Vaishnabs. The originator of th is sect was
Madhyacharya born in 1 191 A .D . The special
feature of worsh ip of this sect was the recogni t ion
of other gods also than Vishnu in the temples,where Shiva, Parvati andGanes
are worshipped along with
that deity . One of the n ine ri tuals practised
there by the worshippers is song and dance .
A nd in the temple of Udi ti founded by
Madhyacharya, music,
forms one of the im
portan t features of serv ice . I t wi ll be seen that
though Chaitanya be longed to the order of
Madhyacharya,he deviated from it in some of
the main aspects of their creed . Madhyacharya
preached an uncompromising dual ism ; but
Chaitanya’
s doctrine was dwai tachoaz’
faoada he
dualism and undualism both. A ccording to this
creed dualism at a certain stage reaches non
dualism . Chaitanya and his sect did not lay
stress upon the omn ipotence- the ai swarya—of
The Maddhi sect .
1 Gov inda D as’
s Karcha, p. 120 .
49. CHA ITA NYA A N D H i s A GE
God-head , but' on H is capt ivating power by which
He draws the soul of man to H im . Madhya
charya emphasi zed ai cswarg/a or mani festation of
divine power. I t wi l l be remembered that
Chai tanya insisted on R upa’
s drawing a clear
line of demarcat ion between the braj a l i laof
Krishna and his ma thar l i la . I n the former
he is a cowherd playing pastoral games wi th his
compan ions. But in the latter he plays the
part of a k ing . The Vrinda groves with their
tales of pastoral affection and romance had a
special charm for the sect founded by Chai tanya,in preference to the man i festat ions of his
power as A lmighty God, recorded in the legends
of Mathura where he wielded the royal
sceptre .
But though Chai tanya belonged to the sect
of Madhyacharya , he se ldom
men t ions the great apostle .
I n fact I find no reference to Madhyacharya
in any Vaishnab work wri tten in Bengali prior
to Bhaktiratnakar, compi led at a much later
period,in the 18th cen tury . A ll praise is bestowed
on Madhavendra Puri , the reputed founder of
the Bhakti cult in Bengal , latterly developed by
Chaitanya. Chai tanya Bhagavata holds him as
the Guru of the Bhakti-cult in Bengal l and‘
Narottam'
D as one of the Vaishnab leaders
l n the 1 7 th cen tury sings a hymn in praise of
Madhavendra Puri .
C hai tanya Bhagavata , A tu l Goswam i ’s ed i ti on , pp . 68 -69.
44 C HA ITA N YA A ND H IS A GE
to have appeared before the sain t and fed him,
as he was fasting,forgetful of all physical pain
merged in his trances and love for the god. A t
Remuna Krishna is said to have stolen th ickened
mi lk for his devoted fol lower. I n the religious
l iterature of the med iaeval world, such legends
are common . Whatever may be their value ,there can be no question as to Madhav
’
s having
been a highly religious soul, worthy of popular
veneration ; for in I nd ia such legends are on ly
told of those men whose saintliness of character
and spiritual ity are much above the leve l of
average men . Madhav always tried to avoid
worldly fame . IVhen crowds in great numbers,
filled with admiration came to offer him their
tribute of respects at Remuna,he fled from the
place, but, says the Chari tamri ta, Fame follows
the man of worth who does not seek i t, and
when Madhav came from Remuna to Puri , he
found h imself already a renowned man there,
sought for by the k ing and al l the nobi lity
of Orissa .
”Madhavendra Puri was a good poet
h imself, and wrote many Sanskri t verses some of
which are to be found in the Padaval i compi led
by Rupa Goswami .
Madhavendra’
s disciples were already many
in Bengal,noted amongst whom were Keshav
Bharati,I shwar Puri and A dwaitawho instructed
Chai tanya in the ways of Bhakti . A nother of his
d isciples was,
Pundarik Vidyan idhi of Ch i ttagong
who was held in great reverence by Chaitanya .
MA D HA VEND RA 45
Nityananda, in the course of his reli gious tour
all over I nd ia, v isi ting her vari ous shrines,met Madhavendra Puri at Sri Parvat, somewhere
near Ba-nkot in the Madras Presidency . He
clasped the feet of the sain t and exclaimed Here
is the reward I have at last got for v isiting al l
the shrines. I see, Sir, to day your inspired love
which sanctifies my soul .” We also find Madha
vendra paying a v isi t to A dwaita at San tipur.
Madhavendra had d ied before Chai tanya was
born or when the latter was a mere child . 8 0
he could not see the great Vaishnab apost le ;but he was so ferven tly impressed wi th al l that
Madhavendra had done in inculcating the Bhakti
cult, that evidences of his extraordinary regard
are to be met with in many Vaishnab works.Chai tanya C haritamrita refers to the inciden t in
Master’s l ife where he reci tes the stanza,
beginn ing Wi th Wfil W Wi l li Hist written by
Madhavendra,and declares in enthusiasm that as
the Kaustuva is the finest of all diamonds, so is thestanza the most beautiful of al l world ’
s poems.
He becomes lost in ecstatic j oy as he recites thesloka ti ll tears choke his vo ice
,and he can no
longer recite the f ul l sloka but merely says
hami5iii i til? and then passes on in to a trance.
The Bhakti cu lt had thus already secured a
firm footing in Bengal and secured considerablenumber of adheren ts before Chai tanya came to thefield . Madhavendra was the first to inaugurate aa new‘
era in the propagati on of this particular
4-6 C HA ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
form of relig ion in wh ich emot ion was given a
hi gher place than ri tuals of worship . Thisvband
of relig ionists immed iately before the adven t of
Chai tanya was headed by A dwaitacharya, who
born in 1356 A . D . at Laur in Sylhet had
migrated to Sant ipur and settled there in his
youth . H is doctrine orig inally was the same as of
other savan ts ofthe age in I nd ia ,via ,
nondualism .
I have already stated that pan theism or more
properly adwa i taoada was favoured by al l I nd ian
scholars of the age, but A dwai ta gradual ly fe lt
the need of a personal God,wi th his grace and love . He
found that nondualism had made people l i ttle
better than sceptics ; it had increased pride in
them and made them fond of log ical arguments
and a display of scholarship , whi le the foun tain
of spiri tuali ty and love had gradual ly dried up.
A t th is stage , he began to preach the Bhakti
C ri lt and some of his di sciples, one of whom was
a Mahratta Brahmin , were so d isgusted wi th his
emotional propaganda,that they refused to accept
his doctrines anddeserted him . Though ledaway
to pan theism when he became a scholar in his
youth , he had in his chi ldhood shown a l ik ing for
Vaishnav ism and emphatical ly refused to be lieve
in caste and ri tuals of worsh ips. A s a ch i ld he is
said to have declared to his mother
A dwai ta .
fiflmflfi’i 11flow I’”(Mother, in the worship of
1 Valya-l i la -sutra by Krishna D as, C anto IV.
A DWA ITA A ND HA R I D A S 47
Krishna al l rituals such as in it iation and tak ing
thesacred thread are qui te unnecessary , every
one is free to worsh ip and caste is no barrier. )A t Laur, when a mere bov he could by no
means he led to bow before Kali and suffered
much persecution for his refractory conduct .
A dwaita’s father Kuver Pundit was the
min ister of the Raja of Laur. The latter became
a disciple of A dwai ta in after years and took
the name of Krishna D as and wrote A dwaita’
s
biography in 1 409 Saka ( 1487 A .D . ) when
Chaitanya was a baby,a l i ttle more than one
year old . A dwaita was the ti tle ; the real name
of the sain t and scholar was Kamalakshya .
H e was 52 years old when Chai tanya was born .
I ti
is stated in the Vaishnab works that Chai tanya
came in to theworld owing to the constan t prayers
and appeal from A dwaita to the‘ Most High to
send one who would redeem the World from the
sceptical tendencies of the age .
A band of enthusiastic bkalctas gathered
round A dwaita at whose house frequen t meet
ings’
were held for dev ising means to inculcate
the blzakti cult . Of these men Hari D as
was one of the most noted . H e was born
at Buran in Jessore and was
a Mahomedan ; though later
wri ters - have tried to prove that he had been ori
ginally of Brahmin extraction , and was merely
brought up by a Mahomedan ,older authorities,
however, are unan imous i n sayi ng that he
Hari D as.
48 C HA ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
was a Mahomedan by birth . The later wri ters
have tried to prove his Brahmanic blood for
the simple reason ,that wi th the growing idea
of orthodoxy amongst the Vaishnabs, i t was
though t degrading that he who had orig inal ly
been a Mahomedan should be recognised as
a leader of the Vaishnabs, claiming Brahmin
d isciples . The devotion of Hari D as to Vaishnab
faith was, as you al l kn ow,heroic and worthy
of a martyr. H e was asked by the Kaz i to
renounce the fai th of the Kafirs I t i s a
great fortune that you have been born as a Maho
medan how degrading that you should accept
the re l ig ion of the Kafirs,” 1 he said . But the
convert replied , Though you cut me piece-meal
I shal l not cease to recite the name of Hari .”2 H e
was led through 23 market-places at each of
which he was mercilessly whipped by the Kaz i’
s
order. The by-standers observed th is pun ish
men t with great indignation . Some said , Th is
country wi l l be destroyed by God ’
s wrath ; some
cursed the emperor and his min isters ; others
actually took recourse to force to save Hari D as
and some fel l at the feet of the officers and said ,G ive him a few mi ld strokes on ly , as it is your
duty to pun ish him,andwe wi l l pay you money .
’ 2
Hari D as took shelter in the name of God, and
such were his fai th and j oy in the recitation of the
1 C hai tanya Bhagavat , A tu l Goswami ’s edi tion ,p . 118 .
I bid ,pp . 1 18 -121 .
SR IVA S A ND OTHERS 49
holy name that he was unconscious of his physical
pain .
”A fuller accoun t of his life wi l l be found
in my“ Chaitanya and hi s compan i ons.
” Hari
D as was for a time a guest of A dwaita at
San tipur.
The third noteworthy name as exponent of
the bkalcti cult was Srivas of Nadia, who l ivinga li fe of pleasure in his early years, sudden ly
heard God ’
s mandate in a dream caution ing him
against the sort of life that
he was leading . A n ascetic
at this stage of his life cal led on him and
prophesied that the span of his life extended
to a year on ly . Th is so much enervated him
that he thorough ly changed the course of his
life and latterly became steeped in the emotional
fel ici ties of a mystic .
There were also several other men who j oined
this glorious band such as
Bhugarva and Gadadhar, Nara
hari and Mukunda Datta,Srimau Pandit and Sreedhar, and a few others.
One very curious personal ity was Pundarik
V idyanidhi ; he belonged to this new school
of the blzalcti - cult . I t is stated of him that he
usual ly wore the costume of a prince indulging
in all sorts of luxuries. H e slept on a h ighly
polished brass bedstead his food was served on
gold plates and he travel led
in State-palanquins. H e was
rich and handsome and was therefore always7
Srivas.
Other men whoj o ined.
Pundarik V idyani dhi .
50 C HA I TA NYA A N D HI S A GE
taken for the type of men qui te d ifferen t from
ascet ics and saints . But th is outward appearance
did not ind icate the man truly . H e was a
devotee and ascet ic at heart , though outward ly
he seemed to indulge in luxuries. There were
moments when he could not put up wi th this
mask of worldliness and threw away al l the
rich articles he used,and beggar- l ike sought the
grace of God. A t such momen ts he looked l ike
the very prince of ascet ics that he real ly was.
The Kirtan band was. already at work at
Nadia . God ’s name was reci ted wi th the sound
of’
tabor,cymbal and dance, and already the
scholars and lay people assembled to jeer at this
new spirit of Vaishnav ism . I n the Kirtan parties
held by A dwaita at th is home, where the famous
I shwar Puri was a frequen t guest , Mukunda
Datta of Srikhanda sang praises of the Lord and,
says Chaitanya Bhagavata as soon as Mukunda
begins to sing his sweet emoti onal songs, some
danced for j oy and others wept .” I shwar Puri
one day l istened to these songs and passed in to
a trance . The people had already raised a hue
and cry against th is emot ional rel ig ion . Chai
tanya Bhagavata says they all ridiculed the
Kirtan party when they sang their songs. Some
said their rel ig ion is a mere plea, they assemble
to eat fine meals.
’
O thers said what do all these
dancings and uproar mean ? They have aban
doned the ways of in tel lectual discussion wh ich
truly become learned men , and dance furiously
52 C HA I TA NYA A N D HI S A GE
God was real , —that H e might be loved more
than a man ever loved his wife and son,and that
ri tuals were of no value un less they inspired
bhakti .
(o) The pol i ti ca l condi tion of the P eriod.
Hussain Shah , the Emperor of Gour, was at
first inspired like al l zealots wi th iconoclasm .
During the absence of Raja Pratap Rudra
from Orissa in course of his warfare in the
Deccan ,Hussain Shah raided the country and
destroyed hundreds of i ts p icturesque temples
and broke and disfigured a large number of
images of gods and goddesses . Pratap Rudra,when he returned to his capital wanted to retal iate
these wrongs. H e was doubt
less aware of the fact that one
of his predecessors had once
invaded Bengal and defeated the Pathan force .
H e prepared a large force for lead ing an expedi
tion against Gour, but was afterwards counsel led
not to do so, as i t would cause hardship to the
Hindu population . The boundaries of the two
kingdoms were , however, clearly defined by theterms of peace
, and we find the demarcat ion l ine
marked by triden ts and watched over by armed
officers on both sides. Wh i le Chaitanya was cross
ing th is boundary , R am Chandra Khan ,the offi cer
of Pratap Rudra,took al l possible care, so
that Chaitanya and his people might escape
Hussai n Shah and
Pratap Rudra .
PA THA N OPPRESSION 53
mo lestation from the hands of Mahomedan
zealots.
1 A nother accoun t states that a high
Mahomedan offi cial who had the ti tle of Nawab ,instead of showing any sign of hosti l i ty as
had been expected , was greatly impressed by
Chaitanya’s religious fervour and became one of
his staunch admirers. There was a prophecy
curren t at Nadia,the last seat of Hindu k ings
inWestern Bengal , that a Brahmin of that place
would drive away the Pathans and become the
Emperor of Gour. We find in many Vaishnab
works a mention of th is prophecy . Jayananda’
s
Chai tanya Mangal says that the inhabitants of
Nadia were at this time skilled
bygfizgzgfggjfiadia
archers so that Hussain Shah
became actually frightened by
the prophecy . He ordered a general devasta
t ion of Nad ia and i ts locality . There is a smal l
v i llage near Nadia cal led P irullya where the
Mahomedan army encamped and carried on
oppressions in the neighbouring localities,converting Brahmins and other people to
I slam by force .
“Wherever there stood a
Banian tree , held sacred by the Hindus, it was
cut to pieces or uprooted . Hundreds of these
trees were destroyed . The same fate attended
the sacred Tulsi plan ts. The temples were
broken and their gods desecrated . Bathing inthe Ganges was prohibi ted by law.
” These
1 C h aitanya Bhagavata, A tul Goswami ’s edi tion ,pp . 385-386 .
54a C HA ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
Mahomedans, laments Jayananda, ruined the
noble Brahmin fami l ies of Nad ia .
” Many illus
tri ons Brahmins and amongst them Vashudev
Sarbabhouma, his father Visarad and brother
Vidyabachaspati left Nadia at th is j uncture .
Vashudev wen t to Orissa where Pratap Rudra
honoured him by g iving him a golden seat near
his throne in his court . Those Brahmins whose
caste was destroyed by force , have since been
cal led Piri li Brahmins ; for though unclean food
was forced into their mouth and thus they were
degraded in social scale,they did not accept
I slam but remained H indus. The Oppressions
done to Nadia were not novel in this pro
vince at the t ime . We find in B ijay Gupta’
s
Manashar Bhashan wri tten in 149i A . D .,and
other con temporary works the modes operandi
of Pathan zealots in oppressing the Hindus and
maki ng them converts to I slam . The Brahmins
were not al lowed to wear sacred threads. I f any
of them were a sacred ta lasi leaf on his head , he
was bound hand and foot and brought before the
Mahomedan Kaz i for pun ishmen t . Von Neor’
s
‘Life of A kbar refers to the law that was enacted
by the Pathan admin istrators that H indu subjects
must Open their mouth to receive sp i tting from
Mahomedan revenue collectors,should they wish
to spi t in course of their d ischarg ing publ ic duties.
A reference to such spitting and other humi
l iating pun ishments are to be found in many
of the Bengal i works of this period .
THE EMPEROR ’S REMORSE
I t seems that after having committed allkinds
\
of atroci t ies upon his peacefu l H indusubjects at Nadia ,
a sp irit of commiserati on andrepentance came upon Hussain Shah . Chai tanya
Mangal ascribes th is change i n the spiri t of his
administrative activities to a bad dream in wh ich
the goddess Kali i s sai d to have threatened him
with death , should he con t inue such oppression .
Whatever i t might be , the remorseful emperor
passed orders for repairing Hindu temples and
otherwise compensating the losses sustained
by the Brahmins of Nadia . We find i t men
tioned in the same Bengali work’
that there
broke out a great famine in the locali ty of
Nadia about this time .
"
But . in the spring of
1 1185 A .D . the agricultural
mjisi’
sfi is
gzi? condi ti on of the coun try
changed for the better, and
the ci ty becoming immune from Mahomedan
oppression once more attained its old flourishing
condi tion . From the accoun t suppl ied by
Brindaban D as we find that there lived a
considerable number of m i l l ionaires in Nadia
at th is t ime . When the sky thus assumed a
serene and cloudless aspect , and the ci ty smi led
in prosperi ty , Chai tanya was born at Mayapur,
one of i ts wards, in 148 6 A .D .
But the dread of the people for Mahomedan
oppressi on had lurked in the minds of the qu iet
H indus throughout the reign of Hussain Shah,
and however much he professed friendship for
56 C H A ITA NYA A ND H IS A GE'
them,they could by no means be absolutely
sure of his good wi l l . Chai tanya was adv ised
to leave R amkel i near Gour,for
,said Keshab
Basu , deputed by the Emperor to enquire about
Chai tanya,
“ though HussainPeople ever i n d i cad
of H ussai n Shall .Shah seems to be wel l disposed
to you,Sir, there is no faith
in th is Mahomedan . H ow can we forget al l
the wrongs that he did to the H indus of Bengal
and Orissa, by break ing their temples and gods‘
P
There is no knowing when he may change his
mind .
”1 The fear of the Emperor sending an
armed navy against Nadia to suppress the
sanki rtan and oppress i ts promoters was ever
in the minds of the ci ti zens. Whenever they
saw a large boat coming by the Ganges, they
feared it con tained the k ing’ s army,
and
we know how the house of Ramchandra Khan
of Benapole was once raidedby the royal army
and its temples desecrated . Though in his later
years Hussain Shah turned sober and even k indly ,his cruel nature could not always be suppressed .
I t is wel l-known that inspi te of his loud profes
sions of regard for Chai tanya, Sanatan ,his min is
ter,was sen t to jai l for no other faul t than his
wil lingness to follow Chai tanya . A vai ling himself
of the absence of Hussain Shah from his cap i tal ,Sanatan fled from the jai l hav ing bribed M ir
B abool the jai ler wi th a sum of R s .
C hai tanya Bhagavata, A tu l Goswami ’s ed i t ion,p . 426 .
HUSSA IN SA HA’S OLD MA STER 57
Hussain Shah in his early youth had worked
for sometime as a men ial servan t in the house
of one Subuddh i R ay, m inister of a former Gour
Emperor. I t is recorded that one day fai ling
in his duty he was wh ipped by Subuddhi R aythe marks of the wh ip , i t is
said,cou ld be seen on his body
in after years . But save this pun ishmen t,he
was otherwise very kindly treated by his Hindu
master for whom the Shah en tertained h igh
respects and grati tude . Many years after when
Hussain Shah became the Emperor of Gour,he remembered Subuddh i R ay and treated
him wi th ki ndness. H is queen,however, in
sisted on his inflicting some puni shmen t on the
old man for having once wh ipped him . The
Emperor remonstrated,but u l timately the coun
sel of the queen was allowed to prevai l , and
Subuddh i R ay was forced to taste unclean food ,so that his caste was destroyed . He sought the
adv ice of stern Brahm in leg islators as to howhis sin cou ld be expiated
, and they declared , the
on ly way to save yourself from th is sin is to throw
yourself into fire and be burn t al ive .
”Subud
dhi R ay sought an interview wi th Chai tanya at
Benares and when he met him , the Master said,
Go to the Vrinda groves and lead the rel igi ous
l ife of an ascetic . Th is wi l l expiate all sm,if
any sin there has been on your part for the
cruelty of others.
” 1
Subuddhi Ray.
C hai tanya C hari tamri ta , C hap . 25 , Madhyakanda .
CHA PTER I I
A H I STOR I C A L R EV I EW or THE B I OGR A P H I C A L
WORK S or THE V A I SHNA BS - THE I R C LA I MS
TO R EL I A B I L I TY D I SC U SSED .
(a ) Murari Gupta’
s C haitanya C haritam.
(b) N arahari Sarkar’s songs .
(a) The C hai tanva Bhagavata .
C haitanya C haritamri ta .
Lochan Das’s C haitanya Mangal .
(f) Govinda Das’s Karcha .
(g) Jayananda’
s C ha itanya Mangal .
(It ) Prembi las, Bhakti Ratnakara and
C haitan ya .
(t) Summary
Bibliography .
(a ) M urari Gup i a’
s Chai tanya Chari tawz.
A vast mass of biographical l i te i ature about
Chai tanya D ev seems to be based on the short
sketch of the Maste l by Murari G il pta . This
book was wri tten in Sanskri t by the venerable
author in response to the enqu iries made to
him by D amodara, a young scholar and an
arden t admirer of Chaitanya D ev.
60 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Murari’
s scholarship was held to be qui te
respectable even in the Nadia of that period
when the reputed scholars of the c i ty com
manded an all-I nd ia renown .
A ll these would make i t exceedingly probable
that what he wrote about Chai tanya Shou ld possess
an unquestionable authori ty . But we are sorry to
say that we cannot place much rel iance on this
biography . First of al l let us consider the claim
of ’
the prin ted edi tion of Murari’
s Chai tanya
C hari tam published by the A mritabazar Patrika
Press, as a genuine work . The book is regarded
as an authori ty on al l quest ions re lating to
Chai tanya ’
s l i fe by the orthodox Vaishnabs. The
date of composi tion gi ven in the colophon is
1425 Saka or 1 503 A .D . , whereas
1152333331?C hapters the book relates to those even ts
also that occurred in 1 530 A .D .
and even later ! So ei ther the date must be
rejected or the subsequen t accoun t given in the
book should be regarded as a spurious interpola
t ion . I t is natural to expect that if Damodar
made any enqu iry abou t the inciden ts of Chai ta
nya ’
s l ife to the veteran scholar he must have
done so regard ing his ch i ldhood . For Damodar
h imself knew much more about the Master’
s
latter life as his constan t compan ion at Puri , thanMurari whose knowledge was main ly confined
to Chai tanya’
s early li fe at Nad ia. Lochan D as,
a subsequen t biographer of Chai tanya,lays stress
THE LEGEND S 61
on the account of his boyhood described by
Murari and to this he ackn owledges his indebted
ness.
1 H e says that Murari’
s Chai tanya C hari tam
deal t wi th what Chai tanya did from his birth
to boyhood But rejecting the latter portion of
the book as unrel iable , we have sti l l some
seri ous objections to accepting the narrat ive o f
Chai tanya’
s early li fe as described by Murari .'
l his book and i ndeed most of the biographi
cal works of this kind are replete wi th legendary
tales and u l trahuman matters to wh ich we cannot
give any credence . We find angels coming down
to rej oice at the b irth of Chai tanya . Somet imes
Chai tanya holds a d iscourse wi th A dwaita from
the womb of hismother, as St . P au l didwi th Jesus
whi le in the womb of Mary .
The supernaturale lemen t , a, common
These tales have been told so
feature in the biogra
phies of al l sai nts andoften I n regard to the l i ves and
Prophets savings of apostles that the ir
repetit ion in each case must always be suspici ous
from a h istorical standpoin t . We find the same
th ing spoken in regard to Z oroaster who accord ing
to Greek h istorians l ived about '6000 B .C . and to
whom , the latest European scholars ascribe an
age not later than 2000 B .C . We find angels
v isi ting Maya Dev i when Buddha was in her
1as: tats stair stats caZara
W was 8 6amcanm iss n
The second li ne seems to refer to the love -cul t,preached by C hai tanya
during his stay at N adta . See C ha i tanyamangal , Sutra Khanda,p . 3
,
Bangabashi Edi ti on .
C HA ITA N YA A N D H I S A G E
womb and heavenly ‘
messengers congra tulating
Mary at. the advent of Jesus. The same tale is
told .ot'
A mina Khatun when Mahomed was about
to be born . I ndeed a wonderful resemblance can
be easi ly detected in the very methods and styles
of description of the b irth - inc iden ts of world ’
s
rel ig ious heroes. The sky becomes clear, the ai r
becomes wholesome and the ev il spi ri ts cease
haunt ing the air. A ll these invariably occur at
the birth of each of them .
I n I nd ia there is an unbroken con tinui ty of
such legends and tales even up to the presen t
moment . Ramkrishna Paramahansa, who passed
away from this ' world only the other‘
day,
has been ,of late , associated wi th legends of
Simi lar character. Babu R ajendranath Roy has
recen tly publ ished a book cal led “ Sri R am
krisna Bhagabata in wh ich we find al l th ings
ascri bed ‘
to Jesus, Buddha and Chai tanya and
a hundred other m iraculous th ings, occurring
at R amkrishna’
s b irth . These things are ever
growing in I nd ia,and j ust when I am writ ing
these lectures I know that such th ings are
be ing incorporated in a b iograph ical sketch of
Prabhu Jagatbandhu of Faridpur regarded as
a prophet and apostle by thousands who find
d iv in i ty in him . I n v i ew of the same legends
being ascribed to apostles ancien t and modern ,it
is vain to d iscuss any h istorical questions involved
in them . Murari’
s book ch iefly relates to ao
counts of this character. I t has been said of
C HA I TA NYA A s D IVINE IN CA’
RNA TI ON 63
Jnaneshaur the Vaishnabi prophet of SouthernI nd ia (born in A land i near P oona In the 13th
cen tury ) that he made a bufialo reci te the name
of God, and we find in the Chai tanya Chari ta
mri ta, Valadeva Bhattacharyya referring to his
having'
personally seen a tiger reci ting the name
o f Ha ri at Chai tanya ’
s bidd ing .
So when one th ing,however inconceivably
hard to be lieve,has been ,
said of one saint, i tmust be repeated in the case of every subse
quen t sain t in order to give him an equal pres
ti ge amongst deified men and apostles.
E ven when Chai tanya was on ly 22 vears and
a few mon ths old,the repu tati on had gone forth
that he was Krishna incarnate . Gov inda D as
says, when he first v isi ted Nad ia to see Chai
tanya , people of the coun try - side say that
God Himse lf has come down to Nad ia as the
son of Sach i ; th is has attracted me to the ci ty .
” 1
The reputat ion was natural enough ; for Chai
tanya in his love ecstasies rose to such an exalted
plane of emotion and so tho
tiofe l ief in incarna '
rough ly iden tified himself wi th
the holy name of Krishna, that
people though t him to be KrishnaH imsel f . There
is no doubt that all attempts on the part of the
people to dei fy Chai tanya met wi th a sternrebuff at his hands . But after he had left
Nad ia for good,the band of his fol lowers found
an unobstructed “
course left to them in their
1 Gov inda Das’
s Kai cha, p . 2.
64 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
attempts to dei fv him ,when the control l ing
hand of the Master was wi thdrawn . I n do ing
so, thev themselves raised their posi tion in the
eyes of people . The companions of God were,
as a matter of course,acknowledged as d iv in i ties
themsel ves . A dwaita became Sh iva, N ityananda
became Balarama and Murari Gupta figured
as the great ape-god Hanuman in popular
estimat ion .
Moreover in those days i t was not customarv
wi th the H indus to wri te b iograph ies of anyindiv idual , other than a sain t or an incarnation
of Godhead . I t was not con sidered becoming
to record the even ts of a worldly man’
s l ife,
however great he m ight be from a material istic
standpo in t . Hence since the days of the songs
of Pal Rajas and of Goraksha B ijay we have
not had a Single memoir of any great man
wri t ten in Bengal i . The renaissance- l i terature ,
main ly speak ing,
was restri cted to legendary
accoun ts of spec ial religious cults. The first
b iography to be wri tten of a youn g Brahmin
ascetic who l ived in flesh and bodv before the
people , needed an explanation . The on ly
explanat ion wh ich could sat isfy them in th is
respect was a proof of his d ivin i ty . Thus we find
Murari Gupta striv ing to explain to D amodara
why Krishna incarnated himself in Chai tanya,by quot ing chapters and verses from scriptures— a course wh ich was latterly followed bv
Lochan D as and other b iographers of Chaitanya.
THE N A D I A -TA LES 65
These scholars were all zealots ‘
and propad
gandists who did not care much to record
historical facts, but strove wi th '
al l their
med iaeval learn ing to find texts for provingChaitanya to be Krishna h imse lf . Free fromal l propagandism and van ity of scholarsh ip is
the one book,Govinda Das’s Karcha, where we
find a fai thfu l h istorical accoun t of Chai tanya’
s
tour for two years. Nowhere in th is book do
we find Chai tanya declaring that he was God
h imself . IV
hereas in the accoun ts deri ved from
Nadia-sources,we find him receiving tribu tes
of worship from his devotees, as the supreme
God of the uni verse . We have li tt le faith in
these stories . I t may be that when in his
trances he lost all consci ousness of his
environmen t ‘
Some of his followers eulog ised
him or offered flowers at his feet ; and these
smal l inciden ts were latterly magn ified in to
tales of Chai tanya ’
s h imself admi tt ing his
d iv in i ty . We kn ow that Gov inda D as recorded
each even t that dai ly occurred duri ng Chai tanya’
s
tour in the Deccan for two years. Therein we
find Chai tanya lost in God ’
s love, full of
humi l i ty , sweet in his discourses and sometimes
passing days and n ights in mystic v isi on , uncon
sci ous of the material world ; and nowhere
haughty , proud , call ing h imself the lord of the
un iverse and assaulting aged scholars as we find
him in the descripti ons of Murari Gupta and
Brindaban D as. I n fact th is Nad ia period o f
9
66 CHA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
his l ife is full of wild myths and exaggerated
Stories which originated from an ardent and
enthusiastic desire of his followers to dei fy him,
when he was no longer presen t there t o con trol
the ardour of his Bhaktas. I n the more faithful
accoun ts of him,we find him fast ing for God ’
s
love,—his frequen t trances making him lean and
pale, so that his friends could scarcely suppress a
tear at the sight of his emaciated figure . But
we find some of his b i ographers recording that
at A dwaita’
s house he ate meals wh ich many
How W i ld mythsmen could not by their j oint
about Qhavij anya ori efforts. I Ve know how suchgwataam M M
legends originated . I t wasdue
to the ardour of the orthodox souls to prove that
he was like D amodara,the infan t Krisha, who
could put the whole un iverse wi thin his stomach—the bm hmaazdab/tandodam as hewas cal led . I n
Chaitanya C hari tamrita we find Satir mata,wi fe
of Sarbabhoum,mak ing vast preparations for
his dinner,th i s was taken object ion to by her
son -i h -law A mogha who asked why should there
be such rich meal for an ascetic . But we are
not inclined to credi t any accoun t that says that
he ate more than human beings could do, as
these were eviden tly manufactured to prove that
he was bralzmandabbandodam .
"
On page 1 55 of
the A dwai ta Prakasa we find a d istinct reference,shewing that the devotees wished to prove that
their deified hero could swallow the whole
universe if he liked , as he was the same as
C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
(6) N arahari Sarkar" s Songs .
For some of the earl iest materials of
Chai tanya’
s l ife we must fal l back upon the
songs of Narahari Sarkar of Srikhanda,some of
wh ich are exqmsrte from a poetical point of
v iew. Prev ious to the adven t of Chai tanya in
the field , Narahari had composed many songs
about Radha and Krishna . l But after 1 508 A .D .
when Chai tanya had become lost in God ’
s love and
attracted admirers—of whom Narahari himself
was one of the greatest—he took up the
Chai tanya- theme for his songs. H e had already
achieved renown as a poet before Chai tanya was
born ; so i f we take him to be 25 years
old In 1 486 , the year of Chai tanya’s birth
,
he may be presumed to have been born
about the vear 1461 A .D . H e was a constan t
compan ion of Chai tanya at Nad ia . We refer our
readers to pp . 100 1 03 of my“ Chai tanya and
H is Compan ions for further particulars about
Narahari . Un fortunately , however, we cannot
attach much h istorical importance to the songs
of Narahari also, though being a close assoc iate
of theMaster, he was pre-eminently qual ified for
acquainting us wi th particulars abou t his boy
hood and early youth . I have already stated
that he had comp osed many beautiful songs
about Radha and Krishna before Chai tanya was
Goura Pada Turangin i , compi led by Jagatbandhu Bhadra , p . 456 .
NA RA H A R I ’S SONGS 6 9
born ,
1and when Chai tanya was accepted as an
I ncarnation of Krishna, n one was more forward
than Narahari in preach ing the Chai tanya-cul t .
The amours of Krishna wi th the Gopis and
sports on the banks of the Jamuna had so great
a hold upon the imagi nation of th is poet and
devotee , that be ascribed all these to Chai tanya,
however incongruous th is m ight seem to usi lay
people . Chai tanya was a prince of ascet ics ; his
sexual puri ty and rigid abstinence are wel l
known to all . But Narabari makes the women
of Nadia yearn after him j ust as the Gopis of
the old legend are said to have done for Krishna;
The poet represen ts himself as a woman who is
over head and ears in love for Chai tanya . The
women -folk of Nad ia,by whom the poe t pro
bably mean t the devotees, are spoken of as
charmed by C hai tanya’
s handsome person and
a ttractive manners and they are represen ted as
confessing their love for himi
in hundreds of
songs in the same manner as the Gopis did in
the B hagavata . Narahari’
s songs describin g the
pain of the Nad ia women at their separation
from Chaitanya are on the l ines of the songs
of Vidyapati and Chandi D as— sometimes the
very words bear a strange and unmistakable re
semblance . We know that Narahari suffered
cabin? arm was, fafaastfait aimsash Si ifitFW sits 1
”
Gaura l ’ada Tarangin iby Jagat Bandhu Bhadra, p . 456
70 C HA I TA NYA A N D HIS A GE
intensely. from his separation from Chaitanya on
“
his tak ing Sanyas ; and as woman ly love; symbc;l ised best the yearn ings of his emotional nature,he took recourse to this mode in expressing thte
ardour of his fee l ings . I t i s like the emotion of
those r my stics who accepted Christ
bridegroom . There were many people amongst
Chaitanya’s followers who liked these songs in
which love for Chai tanya was expressed in the
language of women . Curiously in some of these
s ongs Narahari d iscourses in a myst ic language
as regards his propriety in attributing love for
Chai tanya to the women of
Naggai ta
§321539d
Z‘
S
'
Nad ia. E very one,”he says
,
loved by “ knows the crystal purity of
Nadia women they are reputed
to be virtuousand chaste ; at the same time the
strict character of Chai tanya who never looks
upon a woman wi th o ther than very proper fee l
ing, is beyond questi on . Why then do I write
in th is strain,one may j ustly ask .
” l I n reply
to th is he gives a h in t at the psychology of those
devotees.
who would express best their tender
feelings in the language of women . That many
Vai shnabs do still l ike to adopt not only the
phraseology of women,but wear their costumes
and ornaments and assuming their names
pass for such,is a well-known fact and those
1 See Gaur Pada Tarangin i , Padas Nos . 164,165, 166 , 167 and 17 1 ,
pp . 229-234.
72 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
ears and shows how Narahari’
s exquisi te songsshould be righ tly in terpreted and understood .
Chaitanya is here the bridegroom of the poet
C hai tanya the bride .
mystic Howevermuch we may
giggl
y;of the poe t appreciate th is mode of poetry ,
there is no doubt that this isnot the right wav to lead to a comprehension of
h istorical facts . That th is mod e of at tribut ing
a passion for Chai tanya on the part o f devotees
represen ted aswomen ,did not commend i ts elf to
many readers,wi l l be known from the fol lowing
passage in the Chaitanya Bhagavata. I t refers to
the boyish pranks of Chaitanya H e indulged
in such prankswi th al l, but hewas very care fu l in
regard to women . I n this incarnation (ev iden tly in
contrast wi th Krishna) the lord very particularly
avoided any touch wi th women . H e studiously
kept aloof from the fair sex . 8 0These songs not
always approved by al l W i se men should ave1d men
’he vaishnavas'
tion ing him as a lover for th is
is not the right way to sing praises of the lord .
Though all k inds of praises may be g iven him
yet wise men should describe him as he was.
”1
1 mi na slrl‘
cvm aw m l
vi tanai l win an? cmzl can calmu
531 canWW<2n as? marsha lclams 311 s ti nt, fait s W ilts II
w as as amenW l
C‘illfi Walas can as an? W 1 n
WMfists caHQN sti lts I
b alms s is-lacaanWmM
C ha i tanya Bhagavata ,A tul Goswami ’s ed i tion , A di . 10 , p . 1 10 .
BR IN D A BA N’S QUA R REL 73
Th i s 1s eviden tly a commen t on the songs of
Narahari wi th whom , i t is trad i tional ly known ,
Brindaban D as had a quarrel . Th is passage
d istinctly supports the tradi ti on . The fact i s
the wri ters often confounded Krishna wi th
Chai tanya in their en thusiasm to establish the
latter’
s d ivini ty and attributed al l things of
Krishna’
s legends to Chai tanya, j ust as some of
them ascribed to him a hunger that could not
be appeased by eating enormous quan ti ty of
food,wi th a view to pu tting him on the level of
brahmandabhandodara .
We findmany of these Nad ia-tales and legends
far away from history .
I
They grew like wi ld
plan ts everywhere , as the presence of the
Master was no longer there to keep the path of
Bhakti clear from al l such outgrowths. I t is
often seen in world’s re lig i ous h istory that feel
ings of admiration and love on the part of the
followers of a great teacher, however in tense they
may be, take an uncouth shape when his con
trolling hand and ennobl ing personal i ty are
removed .
(0 ) The Chai tanya B hagavata .
Next,we come to a considerati on of the
Chai tanya Bhagavata, the standard biography
of Chai tanya . This book was wri tten in the
year 1 573 or 40 years after Chai tanya had passed
away . The inspiration of th is book came
from the Nadia-veterans whose imagination was10
744 C H A I TA NYA A N D HI S A GE
thorough ly charged wi th the faith that Chaitanya
was an incarnati on of Krishna . A ll the wi ld
myths and legends spoken about the Master
were read i ly accepted by Brindaban D as whose
own birth was enshrouded by a supernatural
tale in wh ich also he bel ieved more than any
body e lse.
But Brindaban had a power to fol low the
sequence and chronology of even ts l ike a true
historian,though on accoun t
of his being brought up in the“mg" orthodox circle he shared in
the belief of the supernatural and extravagant
th ings ever spoken of one ident ified in popu lar
estimati on with Godhead . I t is his perspect ive
that g ives us a better glimpse of h istorical facts.
The Master’
s sketch is i tself sometimes blurred
by over-colouring . I f we look to the subsidiary
figures— the attendants of a god or goddess
made of clay by our potters for worsh ip , we note
that these are often li fe- l ike and true to nature ,whereas the main god or goddess as the case
may be , in compl iance wi th t ime-honoured
trad itions, is made u ltrahuman and grotesque
wi th eyes that reach the ears and often wi th
more hands and head s than usual . I t is just
the same th ing that we notice in the ease of
Brindaban D as. When m i nor even ts are described
inciden tal ly they have al l the interest of his
torical facts, bu t when he speaks of the Master,the myth ical elemen t is allowed to preponderate .
76 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
again and then shu tting his eyes as beforementa l ly ded icates the food to Krishna . The
imp, who was lurk ing somewhere near, at th is
stage reappears and sudden ly takes a handful
and flies away and th i s he repeats a third time.
O f course he was qu i te justified i l l doing so in
respect of the food ded icated to Krishna, if we can
only bel ieve that he was iden tical wi th that god .
This is exactly what Krishna did in regard to
C oincidences wi thGarga
,the sage who had become
gl
fagaa
fac
p;n t of the his father’
s guest for a day. A l l
these are no doubt told to
prove the ident i ty of Chai tanya wi th Krishna.
A snake is in the room,and C haitanva as a baby
is found to make a bed of thi s poisonous worm
and sleep on i t . Th i s wi ll remind the reader
of the sleep of Krishna in his A nanta Shayya
or the bed formed by the snake A nan ta . I n the
footprin ts of the young Chai tanya are the marks
of d iv in ity discovered by wondering Jagannath,
his father, and as the paren ts move about in the
courtyard , they hear the sound of sacred anklets
in the room where the baby l ies, though he wears
no anklets on his feet . A baby of five months,he kicks from near his bed the pi tchers con tain
ing curd andmilk and the paren ts wonder how
such a l i ttle helpless th ing could do so great
a feat , but th is is exactly a repeti tion of the
tale of sakatablzmzj ana— the break ing of the cart
con tain ing mi lk and but ter-pi tchers as related
of Krishna in the Bhagavata . I may refer to
C HA ITA NYA C HA R ITA MR ITA 77
further inciden ts of th is nature with wh ich
the Chai tanya Bhagavata is replete , but i t is not
needed after al l that has been said . My readers
wi l l see that the foremost thought I n the mind
of Brindaban D as was how he could best prove
that Krishna was incarnated as Chai tanya . The
Vaishnab Masters at Brindaban considered the
book to be thoroughly successful from this poin t
of v iew and changed its name from Chai tanya
Mangal to Chai tanya Bhagavata for l ik e the
Bhagavata t his book also was regarded by them
as an authen tic record of Krishna’
s domgs in his
incarnation as Chai tanya .
But as I have already stated that barring the
account of a supernatural and legendary charac
ter ch iefly ment ioned in regard to Cha itanya,
the book con tains much valu
ma
n
ia”
able h istorical in formati on
about the period it describes,and for this it deservedly occupies a h igh place
in popular estimation .
(d) The Cha i tanya Chari tamri ta .
The greatest work on the life of Chai tanya,however
,is the Chai tanya C haritamrita of
Krishna D as Kaviraj , begun in l 574a and com
pleted in 1 58 1 A . D . Krishna D as liveda l i fe of
celebacy in tlie Brinda groves,and was a scholar and devotee,held in h igh regard by al l .
But from the h istorical poin t of VI ew we
The A dikhanda fu l l ofl egends.
78 C HA I TA NYA A ND HIS A GE
cannot rely on the book in its en t irety . I n
wri ting the first part of the work—the A dikhanda— he had to depend , as he h imsel f
acknowledges, on the accoun ts of Brindaban D as
and other b iographers . H e accepted the mi racles
and supernatural tales as they were found in ‘ the
previ ous books wi thout exercising any discrimi
nat ion . H e could not help do ing so , as being
an orthodox Vaishnab,he could not d isbel ieve
the statements of those whom he considered as
sain ts and authori ties amongst the Vaishnabs.
But his own weak po in t however l ies in the
fact that being a great scholar h imself he
represen ted Chai tanya main ly as a scholar and
the founder of a school of theology,though
towards the last Khanda Chai tanya in his descriptions gradual ly asserts h imself as a lover of God.
The great love lead ing to mystic v isions and
trances g ives him a far greater
cofrl’
s
e
es
’h
zflfifitzddi
fg prominence than his scholar“Ob a lways
sh ip . Chai tanya in th is book
frequen tly holds learned dis
courses and propounds the ph i losophy of Vaish
n ab rel ig ion to Sanatan,R amray and others .
We no doubt find many of his v iews in these
i nstructive d iscourses but cannot vouch for the
absolu te h istorical accuracy of some of them .
We find in th is book that Chai tanya,wh i le
d iscoursing on theology,quotes Bhaktirasamri ta
Sindhu— a work wri tten long after the time .
Similarly at Benares he quotes Haribhaktivi las
80 C HA I TA N YA A ND HI S A GE
v ision of her and roll in the dust like a mad man
sing ing her name . Radha said, H ow shall I
bear to see you fal l down for the sake of my loveon the dusty ground that wi l l hurt you ? I wi ll
,
therefore ,cover you wi th my body in that incar
nat ion of yours so that the ground may hurt meand not you my beloved , when you wi l l fal l downin your trances.
”So Krishna ’
s dusky colour inhis incarnati on as Chai tanya lay h idden under
Radha’
s fair colour, brightas that of the Champaka
flower. Radha covered him wi th herse l f and
Chai tanya in the eyes of the orthodox Vaishnabs
represents the un i ted figure of Radha and
Krishna . These and many such legends wh ich
i n some cases developed in to theology by the
scholarsh ip of learned Vaishnabs could not have
possibly get any approval from the Master.
A nother theory that the Vaishnab worthies were
incarnat ions of the Gopies of the Brinda groves
formed a part of Vaishnab theology and we find
in many learned works an attempt to prove i t .
The theological school of Chai tanya ’
s fol lowers
was founded to a great extent on th is theory of
incarnation to which Chai tanya was far from
g iv ing even an ind irect support . So in many
poin ts d iscussed by Krishna D as in his Chai tanya
Charitamrita we find his accoun t more of a
legendary than historical character. Bu t i tmust
be admi t ted at the same t ime that al l the
orthodox biographers of world ’
s saints and
apostles have this tendency to bel ieve in miracles
LOC HA N A D A S 8 1
and legends. We have St. Paul , St . John and
otherwri ters of the Gospel record ing such th ings.
I f we do not lose our respect for them,and i f we
regard the Lal i ta B istara and other works of th is
k ind as great authori t ies, why should we proceed
i n a fastid ious sp iri t in regard to the wri t ings
of Vai shnab sain ts ? Human m ind when ‘
it
comes in con tact wi th extraord inary greatness
is carried away by admiration ,and indulges
in the bel ief of th ings wh ich do not belong
to th is world . We must not assume an atti tude
of arrogance , and si t in judgment , even on a
plea of scien tific cri t ic ism ,_
over the wri tings
of saint ly men and brand al l miracles and
supernatural even ts related by them as false ;but as ours i s a h istorica l treat i se we must not
put down anything which is against the l igh t of
our reason as i t is consti tuted at the presen t
momen t .
(6 ) L ochana D as’
s Chai tanya Manga la .
One of the main objects wh ich insp ired
Lochana D as in wri ting his Chai tanyaMangala
was ev idently to record facts about Narahari
Sarkar, whose name was left out by Brindabana
Dasa owing to his quarrel wi th him,to
wh ich we“ have already referred . Followi ng
his Guru, Lochana D as cares more for poetry
than a stric t narration of h istorical facts.
For instance the long description wh ich1 1
C H A ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
Lochana g ives of the sweet d iscourses said to havebeen ll
The poe tica l e le8 1dby C hal tanya W l th hl S
men t shadows the li l s WI 16 V i shnuprlya on the evetom a l mmof his leav ing Navadwip can
not possibly have any foundation in fact . Cal l
i t very exquisite poetry i f you l ike , but i t is far
from what really occurred . Chai tanya heretakes leave of his wi fe l ike a lover burn ing wi th
roman t ic love ,with manv a sigh and tear. We
know Chai tanya was so maddened by God’
s love
that the romance of sexual love had absolutely
no attract ion for him . lVe quote the fam i liar
lines of Bri ndabana D as in th is connection to
d ivert her son ’
s mind to wordly pleasures Sach i
used to bring his wi fe,a charm ing young woman
,
and made her sit near him ; but Chai tanya did
not even do so much as glance at her. Where
ismyKrishna gone ?’
he cried aloud , reci ted slokas
and wept . ” 1 I n the Chaitanya C handrodaya
also we find him n ot taking any not ice of
V ishnupriya though she was reputed for her
beau ty and accompl ishmen ts . Gov inda D as says
in his Karcha that when the news of his reso
lut ien to take sanyas had spread at Navadwip
and B ishnupriya wept at the report,Chai tanya
1antics Wfisl «fies elmW i l l
gleam yfssle etc all? Sl it u
mam malw m m mfistfwfil cats rife am m e n
C hai tanya Bhagavata, A di .
C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
war is said to have been fough t by Rama at
Lanka wi th his help,he comes to Puri about
the vear 1 530 , knowi ng that Chai tanya was no
other than an incarnat ion of V ishnu and identi
cal with Rama to whom the Rakshasa k ing was
bound to pay his homage . I do not know whose
ferti le brain first conceived th is fable , but i t was
bel ieved by Murari Gupta ,the great scholar, and
had been recorded in his Chai tanya C haritam
from wh ich L ochana D as no doubt cop ied i t .
What I have said above is more or less
true of all other b iograph ies of Chai tanya .
The same ardour for bel ieving in the super
natural marks the Chai tanya C handrodaya
Natali a by Kabikarnapura who records the
legend of the birth of the heaven ly nymph
Urbash i,
and of how Krishna resolved to
incarnate h imse lf as Chai tanya and other
such stories wh ich carry us far beyond th is
physical plane of ours . Lochana states that
when Chai tanya in one of his trances pro
c laimed that he was Godhead , Sach i , his mother,bowed down before him and addressed him a
Sanskri t hymn . We find in all these the charac
teristic excess and prolificness of imag inati on that
mark the Nad ia tales . I n the subsequent career
of the Master we have occasional men tion of
simi lar legends , but they are not certain ly so
extravagan t and numerous as those related in
regard to that period of his l ife which he had
spen t at Nad ia . The Chaitanya C handrodaya of
GOV I N D A D A S 85
Kabikarnapura is a masterly work , and though
legends and miracles are to be met wi th in these
accoun ts, they are also store-houses of h istorical
informat ion wh ich we cannot ignore .
Though these au thors yielded occasionally
to the genera l tendency of the age , to a belief
in”
the supernatural , ,they exh ibi ted
,however,
great i ndustry and en thusiasm ,inspired by
love alone , in collecting/
materials on which
we must bu ild a h istori cal biography of
the Master“
. Wi thout their aid i t i s impossiblefor us to proceed , however greatly we may
regret their wan t of h istorical sense,j udged
by the scien tific standard of the modern times .
A nd our commen t for the purpose of ascertain
ing h istorical facts should not be taken as
indicat ing any disrespect for these authors .
(f ) Govmda D as’s K OW'
OILCL.
The works, referred to above,seem to have
been wri tten under the same insp iration . Murari
Gupta was the man who he ld the pioneer’
s
flag in the field , and what he had wri ttenwas followed more or less closely by otherbiographers, so far as Chai tanya’
s boyhood wasconcerned . A l l these works are held in h igh
esteem and the authori ty of these is neverquestioned by orthodox Vaishnabs. But there
are two biograph ical works wh ich do not belong
to th is class . They have never been recogn i sed
as works of authority by the orthodox people .
86 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
Of th is the first is Govinda Das’
s karcha . I t
was wri tten i n the form of notes taken by the
author who was a compan ion of C hai tanya in
his tour in the Deccan from 1 510 to 1 51 1 . The
author says that he took notes every day very
privately ; for the Master would not tolerate
anyone record ing the part iculars of his own l i fe
wh ich might lead to worldly van i ty . I t is the
same spiri t that actuated Lokenatha Goswami in
after-t imes to request Krishna D as Kaviraj ,the au thor of Chai tanya Chari
sugee
rsf
ftifi tamri ta,
not to men tion his
name in the work . Govinda
Das’
s [rare/m is plain h istory . I t holds to us in
a v iv id light what Chai tanya was . I t is not a
scholarly work i nsp ired by propagandism . No
where in thi s book is recorded any fact that jars
wi th our h istorical sense . I f the author cal ls
Chai tanya here and there as an incarnation of
Vishnu i t is the language of common courtesy
used by al l in that age in regard to him , and
indeed in regard to al l great sain ts and Sanyasis
of that peri od . There is no ment ion of six arms
shown by Chai tanya to people to show that he
was the same that had been Krishna and Rama
in prev ious Y gas, as stated abou t him in many
of his biograph ies. N owhere i s to be found i n
th is book the extraordinary tale of Chai tanya ’
s
sowing mango-seeds , and l ike a magic ian creat ing
in course of a few m inu tes trees wi th ripe frui ts,as recorded in the Chai tanya Chari tamri ta. Nor
C H A ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
come to light . Several very old manuscripts
of Jayananda’
s Chai tanya Mangala confirm that
Gov inda D as accompan ied Chai tanya in his tour
in the Deccan ,and a song by the poet Balarama
D as who flourished in the l 6th cen tury, to be
found in the work Gourapada-tarangin i , comp i led
by late Jagabandhu Bhadra,also substantiates
th is statemen t . The reason why manuscripts
of Gov inda Das’
s Marc/m arerl‘
he gen u in en ess o f
the kaw ha . Why the not. nu‘
merouslv found i s becauseorthodox commun i tydoes not. cred i t i t as the orthodox people wan t toanthemic ' hear that Chai tanya is K rish
na h imself more than an accoun t of his love .
They wan t to hear that he is iden tical wi th the
great Hog— the D araha,an incarnation of Vishnu ,
and cou ld assume the shape any t ime— that he
was ready to prove h imsel f to be Vishnu by a
display of many arms . A simple h istorical
narrat ive does not commend i tself to lay people
or make any impressi on on them . For th is
reason the book has not been held in that esteem
wh ich it deserves for simple truths, often the
h ighest , are general ly ignored by ord inary people,
who love show more than true meri t . Yet
old MSS. of the work are by no means rare .
The one that was 250 years old was in the
custody of late Babu Sisir Kumar Ghose, ed i tor
of the A mri tabazar Patrika ,for some t ime , and
from another, about 200 years old , Pand i t
Jaygopal Goswami of San tipur had collected
the first portion running up to the 51 st p age of
JA YA NA ND A 89
his prin ted edi tion . Nowhere in the whole
ran ge of the Vaishnab l i terature is the true
greatness of Chai tanya shown wi th so much
force as in th is book . The minute description
of the places i n Sou thern I nd ia v isi ted by
Chai tanya wi l l be of great h istorical in terest
to studen ts of the topography of the d ifferen t
parts of I ndia . We need‘
scarcely say that in the
presen t memoir of C hai tanya wh ich wi l l follow,
we shal l depend a good deal on the fai thful
records of Gov inda D as who was an eye-wi tness
of the even ts that he describes in his book .
The language of the'
book seems to have been
refined here and there by the ed i tor Jaygopal
Goswami but there i s enough of archaic expres
sions to be found l ingering in its pages.
(9 ) J ayammda’
s Chai tanya M anga la ,
The next work to wh ich orthodoxy refuses
to give its support is Jayananda’
s Chai tanya
Mangala ,a curious work in
‘
wh ich al l k inds of
legends and fables have been given a placetogether wi th statemen ts of facts. But sti l l it
differs in some respect from works bel ieved to
be au thori ties according to orthodox Vaishnab
noti on . l t , begins wi th hymns i n praise of
The book does notGanesh and other gods. I n the
belong to the orthodox orthodox works such a th ingchool .8
would not have been possible
as their authors would not recogn ise any god or
12
90 C HA I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
goddess except Chai tanya and Radha Krishna .
We find many facts in th is book not men tioned
in other b iographies. For instance there is
the importan t d iscovery made from th is book
that Chai tanya’
s ancestors belonged to Orissa .
The manner in wh ich Chai tanya passed
away from this world is a revelat ion wh i ch we
owe to th is hook alone . The poli t ical cond i tion
of Navadwip immed iately before the b irth of
Chai tan ya ,the origin of P iri li Brahmins, the
fact of Chai tanya’
s first wi fe Laksmi hav ing a
maid -servan t named Chi tralekha and his being
attended to as a baby by a nurse named
Narayan i ,— of his meet ing at Gaya a great sage
named Mun indra who had observed the vow of
muteness for 1 2 years, —of Chai tanya’
s hav ing
a dog which he had named Gangadas,— al l these
and many smal l detai ls of th is nature are to be
found in this book alone and not in any other.
Though Brindabana’
s Chai tanya
Bhagavata had been wri tten a
few years before th is work,and
this Jayananda h imself admi ts,we find the book
not based on Murari’
s Chai tanya Chari ta,
as
Chai tanya Bhagavata ,Chai tanya Chari tamitra
and some other works are— I mean as far as the
account of the Master’
s boyhood is concerned .
I t is a truly independen t work d iffering in somerespects from those works in the matter of
chronology of even ts and other part iculars. For
instance in th is book it i s men tioned that
I t con tai ns much
new i n forma t ion .
C HA I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
(h) Prembi lasa ,B haktira tnakara and Songs
on Cha i tanya .
There remain to be considered some h istorical
works such as the Prembi lasa , the Bhakti
ratnakara ,the A nuragbal l i and books of th is
class in wh ich inciden tal ly many even ts of
Chai tanya ’
s li fe are described . Prembi lasa was
wri tten about the year 1 6 10 . Bhaktira tnakara
about 1 725 and A nuragbal l i in 1 696 . I n
these books though now and then we come
across many new facts in regard to the Master’
s
career, he is represen ted as God and Saviour
wi th much over-colouring . But we shal l use
such materials to be found in them,as wi l l help
us in making a comp lete research in th is field .
The statemen ts made in the d ifferen t works
men ti oned by me are somet imes of a conflict
ing nature. For instance the
Bhaktiratnakara says that Chai
tanya took leave of his mo ther on the morn ing
of the 1 st of Magh , Sak 1430,and proceeded
towards Katwa for Sanyas ; but Jayananda’
s
Chai tanya Mangal says that for 3 days the fact
of his leav ing Nad ia was kept concealed from
her by his friends . We shal l deal wi th these
sma l l questions in their preper place .
We have however omi tted to speak of one
importan t m ine of in forma
C lfi'
i
‘
fidfgfst
mgsl
f‘e Of tion abou t Chai tanya . These
are songs abou t him wri tten
mostly by Narahari and Basudeba Ghosh—his
D iscrepancxes .
SUMM A RY 93
con temporaries. These shou ld not be mistaken for
stray lyrical p ieces composed by the poets for
describ ing momen tary sen timen ts of devotion
or love . They are oftent imes threaded together
in such a way as to describe some of the en tire
episodes of his career. Many of these are
masterpieces of poetry . They create pathos of
indescribable sweetness,reproducing si tuations
wh ich become bright wi th the glimmer of poetic
light upon them . H avmg been wri tten by those
who had a direct and personal knowledge of the
Master’
s li fe,they possess all the in terest of
real h istory and should n ot be m i staken for
mere products of poeti c fancy . Often times
Chai tanya appears in these songs l ike a picturei n l i fe- like v iv idness ; the charm of real i ty is
thus heightened by the touch of poetic hand
that drew these sketches. We shal l take help
from this poetic treasure in the presen t memoircf the Master as we go on .
(U Summary .
New to recap i tulate some po in ts d iscussed inthe foregoing pages, we have classified our
materials in three groups. Firstly, the anecdotes
of Chai tanya’
s boyhood wh ich were magn ified
in to supernatural tales and somet imes owed theirexistence to the fancy of the pi ous people whowan ted to prove him to be an incarnation of
Vishnu . The most noteworthy works of th is
94 C H A I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
class are Murari Gupta’
s Chai tanya Chari tam and
the Icarclza or notes by SwarupaD amodara . The wri ters of
standard b iograph ies of Chai tanya— Brindabana
D as, Krishna D as Kaviraj and Lochana D as
have put impl ici t fai th in these tales and added
to them what they themselves heard from
coun try people , wh i le describing the Master’
s
boyhood and early youth before Sanyus, spen t atNad ia . I n th i s period of his l i fe the supernatural
elemen t predominates in his memoirs, due to an
arden t desire on the part of his b iographers to
make him an A vatar in popu lar est imati on .
These tales went on increasing as no one at
Nadia and in the adjacen t local i ty had the heart
or wish to con trad ict them for they were mean t
for the glorification of Chai tanya . On the other
hand there was a natural tendency in al l of them
to cred i t m iracles wh ich would raise Chaitanya
to the level of Krishna .
Secondly , the description of the latter part of
the Master’
s li fe is con tained ch iefly in the
Chai tanya C haritamri ta .
“
Here the supernatural
elemen t is not at all very prominen t but we find
Vai snava theologyChai tanya in these accounts
gbgedat
tir
ébiiifal
n;gjm sometimes reduced to a product
of the theolog ical school that
latterly arose wi th i ts centre in Brindaban ,
hav ing establ ished theories of incarnat ion and
their ‘
necessary corrolaries, wh ich Chai tanya ,
had he l ived at the time,could not have possib ly
The Nad ia legends .
96 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
that Chai tanya passed away from th is earth ,being attacked by an inflammatory fever due
to a hurt he received on his right foot wh i le
dancing at Puri during the C ar festiv i ties . A l l
other authors are si len t on th is point,and their
si lence lends an ind irect support to the popu lar
legend that Chai tanya passed in to the image of
Jagannath,as his corporal body consisted merely
of spiri t . There is another trad i tion curren t , no
doubt created by the pri ests of the ri val temple
of Gopinath , associating the same legend wi th
the image of the latter god . One author seems to
indicate that th is legend is true by saying we
lost him i n the temple of Gopinath . When
there was noth ing to gu ide us to truth on th is
po int one man at least was found speak ing what
appears obv iously as a fact . Regard ing the notes
of Gov inda D as,we consider them the most
reliable though they record even ts of the Master’
s
l i fe for the brief peri od of two years on ly .
Though th is author was cal led an i lli terate fool
by his wi fe Sashimukhi , we findhim possessed
of a superior li terary talen t , developed no doubt
by the impetus he received from association
wi th the Master. H e is so unassuming that
nowhere does he assert h imself wi th his v iews
in the name of Vaisnava relig ion and following
Chai tanya wi th dog- like fideli ty, as he did
, he
recorded his trances and say ings in l ife - l ikevividness. H e has not one word to say about
his own h igh character, though from inciden tal
SUMMA RY 97
remarks we find that he was a conqueror of the
flesh like a true Yogi and devoted to the Master
as a very few of his fol lowers have ever been .
Govinda D as even tries to expose h imself to
rid icule by showing himself to be a glutton ,but
onewho careful ly reads his pages wi ll find him
a most instructive compan ion ,— a true guide to
the Bengal i Vaishnava li fe of the l 6th cen tury .
( I ) B I BL I OGR A PHY
For present i ng a memo ir of Chai tanya in the
following pages, I have, amon g otherbooks, made
a thorough h istorical studV‘ of the following old
works
Songs of Narahari , Govinda Ghos, Basu
Ghos, Gopala Basu,Narahari Sarkar,
Parameswar D as,Nayanananda, R ai
sekhar and others.
Karcka by Govinda D as ( 1509 to 1 51 1 A .D . )
Chai tanya Chari t by Murari Gupta
Chai tanya C handrodayaNataka,and i ts tran
slation into metrical Bengal i by P remadas .
Svarupa Damodar’
s notes.
Chai tanya Bhagavata by Brindabana D as .
Chai tanya Mangala by Jayananda .
Chai tanya Mangala by Lochana D as.
Chai tanya C haritamri ta by Kri shna D as.
1 3
98 C HA ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
Balya Li la Sutra by Lauria Krishna D as.
A dvai ta Prakasa by I sana Nagara.
P rembi lasa by N i tyananda D as.
Bhaktiratnakara by Narahari C hakrabarti .
Narottambi lasa by Narabari C hakrabarti .
A bhirama L i lamri ta .
A nuraga Vall i .
l 00 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
for learn ing i s so great that even a boy
wi l l come forward to match his lance wi th
veteran professors .
” l We al l know that the
school of log ic founded there by Basudeva
Sarbabhaum and latterly developed and richly
con tribu ted to by R aghunatha Siroman i attract
ed pup i ls to this academ ic cen tre from al l parts
of I nd ia. I n jurisprudence , the word of
R aghunandana who wrote his famous A stavi ngsatt
’
Tatva about th is t ime has become the
one law for al l people of Ben gal
Jagannatha M isra and Nilambara C hakrabarti
as also many other scholars of Sylhet were no
doubt at tracted to Nad ia as studen ts for receiv ing
academ ic laure ls from th is repu ted field of learn
ing. The reason of their final ly settl ing at Nad ia
was, however, differen t . Says Jayananda refer
ring to th is poin t There were fam ine and
drought of a terrible k ind in many parts of the
d istrict of Sylhet at th is t ime . The political
cond i ti on of the country had grown very unsafe
robbery and theft had become the order of the
day. People fled to differen t
coun tries at th is juncture .
Nilambara C hakrabarti and Jagannatha M isra left
their native v i l lages and settled at Nad ia at this
t ime for, in the d istrict of Sylhet no good and
honest man cou ld stay for a momen t . ”2
Fam ine in Sylhet .
1 C hai tanya Bhagavata ,A di Kanda .
C hai tanya Mangala by Jayananda
UPEN'DRA M I SRA 101
Jagannatha M isra’
s ancestor Madhukara
Misra,a Vaid ic Brahm in of Batsayana Gotra,
was original ly an inhabi tan t of Jajpur in Orissa.
Jayan'
anda tel ls us that he too had left his native
ci ty , for Raja Bhramarabara
Syfifé’
fi‘ Jaipur to
the king of Orissa,hadmade i t
impossible for honest Brahm in
folk to l ive at Jajpur by his caprici ous admin is
tration . Madhukara M isra left his native
coun try abou t the year
I have appended a table showing the
pedigree of Chai tanya in my work“ Chai tanya
and H is Compan i ons (p . This ped igree
was collected from some standard works of the
Vaishnavas. Jayananda also gives a ped igree
in wh ich he says that Janardana was the grand
father of Chai tanya ; but the former was his
uncle . I n al l standard works we find Upendra
M isra to be C hai tanya ’
s grand - father. There
cou ld be possibly no m istake abou t the name of
Jagannatha Misra’
s father in such wel l -knownVaishnava biograph i es as Chai tanya Bhagavata
and Chai tanya Chari tamrita . I n respect of theped igree i t is always safe to trust the version sup
plied by the orthodox commun i ty ; for they were
more in touch wi th the relations of the leaders of
their sect than lay men . So the ped igree found
in Jayananda’
s book cannot be re lied upon .
Jagannatha M isra was jun ior by some years
to A dvai ta A charyya who was born in 1434 A .D .
102 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
We fi nd the M isra bowing down before A dvai taas a youn ger Brahm in does to another older than
h imself . Chai tanya was the last_
of the 8 issues
(9, accord ing to Jayananda) that JagannathaM isra had by Sach i Dev i TakingEJagannatha
to be 48 years old (A dvai ta was
abbi
ifia
ll
4
n
3
a
5
fl
i€Dborn
at the t ime 52) at the t ime of
Chai tan y a’
s b irth,we may ap
prox imately accept the year 1 435 as the date
of Jagannatha M isra’
s b irth . We are qu i te
confiden t that the date is not very far from the
actual year.
I t i s stated by all authori ties that Jagannatha
Misra was a scholar of some renown at Nadia.
H e had obtained the t i tle of P arandara for his
learn ing . But he was a poor man . H e once
said to his wi fe Just see , though I am a scholar
I have no mo ney .
” When
agilgiai llatha ’
a leam ed Chai tanya neglected his duties
as professor owing to his great
emotional sen t imen ts and love for God,hi s old
teacher Gangadas reproached him i n th is way° 1
“ i t is not preper that you should neglect these
1 C hai tanya Bhagavata , A di .
51W sis Basra em I
ami ns si enna {as am In
ses scars si ft infest? CENT?!
22512 aw exi st] wants fish n
was? ! fi rsts ca stirsafe“
i s lareMeme fircents we as u
10 4 C H A I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Th is copy of the Mahabharata substan tiates the
statemen t made by b iographers that Jagannatha
M isra was thoroughly learned i n Sanskri t ; not a
Single grammat ical error or spel l ing m istake i s
met wi th in th is large volume . Such m istakes
are found in abundance in the ord inary cop ies of
Sanskri t works.
Jagannatha M isra was con ten ted wi th his
poverty . H is scholarsh ip on ly confirmed him
in his faith in the fairness of d iv ine d ispensat ion
and made him humble and meek . H is eldest son
Bisvarupa ,born i n 1 465 A .D .
,adopted the vow
of Sanyasa when 1 6 years old and lef t him for
good . I t was on his marriage day,that the boy
thought that i t was not the right th ing to marry
as he had reso lved to pursue a high rel ig ious ideal .
But he ven tured not open ly to
stand against the wishes of his
paren ts . H e crossed the Ganges
in the n igh t wi th the sound of drums and
The dread of the
parents.
other musical i nstrumen ts at his house
sti l l ring ing i n his ears . H e wen t far away
af ter hav ing taken the vow of Sanyasa but no
one yet knows where and how he l ived and
d ied . We know,however, that on his j o in ing
the order of Sanyasis he took the name of
Sankararanya Puri . The feel ing of grief that
th is occasion gave rise to may be easi ly conce ived .
Sach i Dev i was completely overpowered by her
sorrows, but Jagannatha M isra was stern as Job
THE BOY eons A STRA Y 105
of the Old Testamen t . H e said in almost the
very language of the Jewish sain t “Krishna has
g iven and Krishna has taken . May his wi l l be
fulfilled . Though he took th i s phi losoph ical
view of l i fe l ike Job,his firmness of character
gave°
way for a t ime . A nd we can wel l sym
pathise wi th th is miserable Brahmi n who had
to figh t con t inual ly wi th;an un toward fate .
Seven daughters had d ied ; the promising son
who was to be the supporter of his paren ts in
old age was lost for ever, yet he con tinued in
his resigned fai th t ) suffer wi thout a murmur.
But when Chai tanya only five years old had ao
quired. the alphabet wi th intwo or three days and
showed a wonderfu l cleverness, the father said“no
,he must not go to school any more .
”The
medieval learn ing insp ired young learners wi th
monk i sh ideas of renunc iati on and asceti cism .
Jagannatha M isra said to Sach i Dev i “ i f th is
boy becomes a scholar, he wi l l feel a con tempt
for world ly pleasures and leave home as a
Sanyasi , i t is no good educating him . Let him
be i l l i terate,but let him remain at home .
”
Chai tanya grew to be a wi ld boy being thus
freed from the hands of the v i llage school
master.. H e began to do al l wicked th ings in
the company of the m ischief-making imps of
the locali ty . Th is became in tolerable to a
degree, and the honest ne ighbours who had to
suffer for the ch i ld ’
s wicked acts appeared in a
] 4
106 C H A I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
body to Jagannatha M isra and requested him not
to al low the chi ld to go astray in that way but to
send him to a school . They all reproved him for
his fool ish fears that educat ion wou ld make his boy
turn a Sanyasi . Jagannatha M isra fel t the force
of thei r argumen t and sen t young Chai tanya to
school again . Jagannatha d ied of fever in 1 506
A .D . when Chai tanya was on ly 20 and had not
yet completed his education . Sach i Devi , as has
been already said , was a daughter of N i lambara
Chakrabarti , ori g i nal ly a native of Sylhet .
Govmda Karmakar descri bes her as“of a qu iet
temperamen t and of a very short stature .
”A s
a dot ing mother she had aA dva i ta A charyya
ii
ggd
ns
iliqi
.
i si ble by great dread for A dvai ta
A charyya’
s teach ings to wh ich ,she imagined
,heryoung sons l istened wi th atten
tion and confidence . H e had no doubt imparted
some of his ph i losoph ical v iews to B isvarupa,Chai tanya ’
s elder brother, and Sach i held him
responsible for turn ing the head of Chai tanya
also . We find her open ly charging A dwaitawi th
putt ing the idea of Sanyasa in the head of her
son B iswarup . Brigh t as the moon ,
”she said,
“was that boy of m ine , and A dvai ta’
s counci l
turned him out from home as Sanyasi . A nd not
satisfied wi th doing so he i s now ben t on lead ing
astray th is young boy of m ine and ruin ing al l
happ iness of my l ife . The lad spends his whole
time wi th the old man and never looks at my
108 C H A I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Were cal led away from them,she could not resi st
the n oble appea l though she had argued wi thhim for a whi le say ing what is that re l ig ion
that condones cruel ty to paren ts ? You wan t
to explain to the world the truth of rel ig ion .
H ow do you th ink yourself fit for do ing so
when you fa i l to do your du ties to your old
mother Though she was persuaded to g ive
the perm ission at last,she became thoroughly
overcome by grief for the t ime being . The
Chai tanya Bhagava ta says,she fasted for twel ve
days after Chai tanya had lef t Nad ia . The
interv iew between Chai tanya and his mother
shortly after the former’
s Saayasa at San tipur is
one of the most pathe tic episodes described in
his b iograph ies. A t her house deserted bv
Chai tanya she l i ved a wretched l ife of sorrow.
One day we find her weep ing over a particu lar
meal that she had prepared to be served to the
fami ly -god . She wept and said : “H e l iked this
sort of meal . Who i s there now left to eat
i t now
its?saffzs 1167 newwas t?“safesaw as? can? ! 211fi sts u
sfiiss’
ws In"
? efi tsaw63531616 Hats sisW {atri al
tw l at) s f? ss’
i His 1
WITtag 311waswas n”
C hai . Bha ., p.
CHA PTER I v
B I RTH A N D BOY I SH FR I VOL I TI E s, E D U C A TI ON , A N D
FOUN D I NG or A TOL . THE D EFE A T or THE
SC HOLA R K ESA V A K A SM I R I
B irth and B oyish Fr ivolt'
ties .
Chai tanya, accord ingto al l Vaishnava biographers and h i storians
,was born on the fu l l moon
day of Falgun ,1 407 Saka ,
correspond ing to the
1 8th Februarv 1 486 , at 6 P .M . There was a lunar
eclipse at the t ime,and just when the p lanet
came out free , bright in i ts ful l
majesty,and the people as usual
in th is coun try after an eclipse, cried aloud God’s
name on all sides,Chai tanya came to the world
am idst th is general j ubi lati on and reci tat ion of
the holy name . A ccord ing to Jayananda the
nurse who took charge Of the baby was one
Narayan i . I t is stated i n the several standard biograph ies that Si ta, the wi fe of A dvai tacharyya,and Mal in i
,the wife of Sribasa, paid a v isi t to
the house and presen ted the baby wi th many
ornaments on the 6th day of i ts b irth .
The boy was given the name of N imai . The
biOgi'apli e i
'
s d iffer as to the sign ificance of thename . One of them savs that as
Of theSachi
’
s ch i ldren were general ly
very short - l ived,th is humble
name was g iven to ward Off all evil influences ;
B irth .
l l O C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
for death or wi tches m igh t not take notice of one
who was called by such a humble name . A ccord
ing to another the baby got fever and the
mother was advised to keep i t u nder a Nim tree
for some t ime,as the air that passed through
Nim leaves acted as a cure in fever cases.
Being placed under the N im tree he was cal led
N imai . On the 20th day of his birth the boy
was g iven a d ign ified classical name,via— Bis
vambhara or‘ the nourisher of the un iverse .
’
N imai,as he was generally cal led in his early
years, often went to the house Of A dvai tacharyya
to cal l back his bro ther B isvarupa who used to
receive his lessons from that veteran scholar.
Nimai was on ly five years Old at the t ime and
ran ahead of his elder brother who was then
a lad of sixteen and led him homeward by
hold ing the edge of his dim /i . Th is p icture
Of the boy is sketched by Brindaban D as in a
charm ing language .
We find N imai sometimes carrying out
smal l orders of Srivasa who was then already an
Old man . But more Often do we findhim doing
al l kinds of m isch ievous th ings that ever a
boy of five did. But how far
the descriptions of his boy ish
pranks are genu ine and how far they are
a repet i ti on of the stories abou t Krishna,
attributed to him for establ ish ing his iden ti ty
with that god , cannot be ascertained . For if
The chi ld ish pranks.
l l z C HA I TA NYA A ND HIS A GE
wen t in a body to Sach i and complained of herson
’
s wicked acts . One said,Look here mother,
he wan ts to marry me Nimai was only fiveyears old at the t ime ! I t was a frequen t th ingfor the young chap to h ide h imsel f in a roomand g ive n otice of his presence by mimick ing thesound of the cuckoo . The plays general ly
played by Nimai and his comrades were the
fam i liar gei'
a play and the monkey play inwh ich the boys showed their expertness by
j umping or stand ing on one leg. The swimmingin the Bal lala Sagara was one of the favourite
sports. N imai is described at th is age as a
very handsome lad wi th a red- coloured dhati
on and three bra ids of ha i r contain ing five smal l
gold j /zapas (pendants) that added grace to his
lovely face . One day he placed h imself amidst
unclean refuses i n a d ra in wh ich a Brahmin
would not tou ch and when reproved by his
mother,said M other I am an i ll iterate fool ,
what do I know of what is clean or unclean P
I do not share your prej ud ices. A l l p laces are
alike to me .
”H is abundan t boy ish energ ies found
their expression ch iefly i n m im icry and j okes,
to one ofwh ich I have already referred . We have
already men t ioned how he stood one day beh ind
the ve teran scholar Murari and moved his head
and hands exactly l ike the latter,engaged in
an an imated d iscussion on some learned subject
wi th another scholar.
N IMA I— A S A STUDENT l l3
E ducati on .
When Jagannatha M isra was persuaded by
his neighbours to put Nimai in some school for
reform ing his conduct , the first tutor appoint
ed for him was Visnu Pand i t from whom
he learned the alphabet . H e read elemen tary
Sanskri t and vernacular wi th another teacher
named Sudarsana and completed his educati on
in the to ? of Pand i t Gangadas, a very learned
professor.
1 We learn from a song by Narahari
who knew N imai from his ch i ldhood , that in th is
tol he not on ly obtained a thorough mastery of
Sanskri t but acquired a respectable knowledge of
Bali .2
H is devot ion to books was great . Savs
Brindabana D as“ he always reads, even when
going to bathe or sleep or to
d ine,one would see a book in
his hands. H e wri tes commen taries on grammar
h imself . What he reads he so thoroughly
masters that no one can hold his own when
arguing wi th him . He beats his opponen t
and establishes a log ical preposition wi th great
cleverness, and then ,
to the wonder of his fel low
studen ts, upsets i t h imself and establi shes the
qui te Opposi te theory formerly held by his ri val . ”
But though he grew to be such a fine scholar,
I n the fol .
1 Jayananda’
s C hai tanya Mangala .
2 Gaura Pada Tarangin i ,
114 C HA ITA N YA A N D HI S A GE
his boyish excesses and faults did not cease .
What cou ld be more appal ling to a veteran pro
fessor like Gangadas than the fact that his pup i l
gave the name of Gangadas to a dog and kept
i t constan t ly wi th him and called i t aloud by
the name of the professor.
‘ The young lad
proudly told the old and respectable scholar and
physician Murari,that grammar was too compli
cated a subj ect for a physician i t wou ld be far
bet ter if that scholar would mind his herbs and
plan ts and n ever trouble h imself wi th Sanskri t
grammar.
2 H e mimiced and rid iculed the people
of Sylhet who resided then at Nad ia,wi thout
wai ting to listen to their j ust al legat ion that his
own father and mother had been born in Sylhet
and that it was ex tremely rid icu lous on his
part to be peacocked up as a coqney and to
mock at the people of his own nat ive place
where the fami ly had l ived for generations.
Nimai,however, would not wai t to argue wi th
them but con tinue his mimicing so that
some Of them came forward to assault him
wi th sticks,but the lad took to his heels
and cou ld not be overtaken ; so some of them
ran to the Kazi to lodge a complain t . Old
scholars of good rep ute would shun the path if
they saw N imai com ing,for they were afraid of
an encoun ter wi th him and of the wi ld pranks
C hai tanya Manga la. by Jayananda.
C hai tanya Bhagavata , A di
C H A ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
The founding of a Tol .
Th is fol was founded by the mun ificenceof Mukunda Sanjaya at V idyanagar
,one
of the wards of Nad ia . Chai tanya Bhagavatasays that N imai Pand i t h imself took the
charge of the educat ion of Mukunda San jay ’
s son
Basudeva . H is nature was
“8
1
1
1
0 11
5 0 9 9 1“ ”f 1 9 ‘
st i l l ful l of boy ish frivol it ies.
“re find him st i l l matching
his lance wi th Murari Gupta whom he found a
qui te form idable oppon en t in learned discussions.
None cou ld defeat the other, and this was n o
smal l compl iment to the young pand i t , for
Murari was an acknowledged scholar,advanced
i n years and commanded great respect . Some
times we find N imai Pand i t try ing to draw out
Mukunda ,an other fine scholar and singer,
from his study and hold discussions wi th him .
But Mukunda always tried to avoid N imai for
he dreaded the scept ical v iews of the young
scholar. N imai did not l ike his conduct at all
and one day told Gov inda Ghosh“ t at does
Mukunda find in these Vai shnava scriptures that
he so d i ligen tly stud ies them ? H e does not care
t o master the science of grammar as I do .
”
I svara Puri , the great Vaishnava apostle, al
ready men t ioned by me,paid a v isi t to Nad ia
abou t this t ime . H e stayed for a few mon ths in
the house of Gop inath A charyya and people
THE PR A NKS 1 1 7
assembled in crowds to see the holy man .
Mukunda frequen tly called there and sang songs
on Krishna . A s soon asMukunda’
s sweet voice,
trembl ing in emot ion, was heard I svara Puri
lost al l control over h imself and passed in to a
trance for he was a mystic and had God-v ision .
Nimai,from whom love for God was yet far
away , strayed about G0 pinatha’
s house,unable to
leave the spot for some strange fascinat ion, yet
in his pride th ink ing h imself to be superior to
these men because of his learning . A mong those
men who had gathered round I svara Puri and
held him in great admiration was Gadadhara,who
though a good scholar, car-cd more for religl on
than grammar or logic Th is young scholar,target - like, frequen tly bore N imai
’
s attacks, for
the latter often overwhe lmed him wi th many
naughty preblems of logic, demand in g solutions
of them on the Spot . Wi th an eye of jealousy
did Nimai Pandi t see that both Gadadhara and
Mukunda had grown to be favouri tes of I svara
P uri .
‘ Th is was but qu ite natural , but for some
reason or other Nimai did not l ike the si tuation .
H e also cal led on I svara Puri now and then
but that was more for the purpose of conv incing
him of his superiori ty as a scholar than for
anyother, and when I svara Puri was one
day, read i ng out to Gadadhara,his en thusiastic
l istener, a portion of his own Sanskri t work
Krishna L i lamri ta ,N imai arrogan tly inter
i ts C HA l TA NYA A N D H IS A GE
rupted and said “ the verb you use, Sir, is not
artnmnepadi .
”1
The people of Nad ia del ighted in the scholar
sh ip of young N imai who was handsome in ap
pearance and possessed of bright in tell igence °
but said some Godhas given th is lad attractive
looks about andgreat scholarsh ip but what is the
use of al l these as he is irrel igious ? One day
we findMukunda arguing wi th him in grammar,
rhetoric and other subjects and expressing
wonder at the all -round scholarsh ip of our young
prod igy . Brindavana D as follows the l ines
of the Bhagavata eu logising Krishna,and says
in a glowing language Scholars see him as a
second Brihaspati , the heaven ly sage women
would fain have him for the ir lover and Yog is
see in his person the signs that would mark him
out in future as the emancipated one .
”
I t appears that he wrote a commentary on
grammar when he was reading in the tol of
Gangadas .There is a reference to i t in many of
his b iograph ies. “l
hen he had
grfflmiemi iiZic.
paid a v isi t to Eastern Bengal
he found studen ts read ing his
commen tary , wh i chwas called‘V idyasagara
’
after
his own t i tle . A n incident is narrated in the
A dvai ta Prakasa ,the tru th of wh ich I cannot
avow,that as a student he had wri tten a logical
l C ha i tanya Bhagabhata , A di .
120 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A G E
I nd ian schools of learn ing, such as,T ibet
,Delh i
,
Benares,Guzrat
,Kan ch i
,Telegu coun tries and
Darbhanga . H e had wi th him a large number
of letters in wh ich the pand i ts of these vari ous
cen tres had acknowledged his superi ori ty as a
scholar. H e was dressed like a prince and came
rid in g on an elephant wi th a large number of
attendan ts . The veterans of Nad ia po in ted ou t
to N imai as the fit person to d iscuss learned
subjects. For th is young lad had ach ieved a
notoriety by chal lenging every one to a free
debate and prided in his talents and power of
conducting a con troversy .
N imai received the great scholar wi th cour
tesy . The latter,however, held the youth in
l i ttle regard as he was so young and taken to be
a mere smatterer in grammar. Nimai asked
the proud scholar to compose some extemp ore
verses in praise of the Gan ges on the banks of
wh ich they had been seated . Says Brindavana
D as A s i f a hundred clouds roared together,the cadence and grand music of the extemp ore
verses fil led every one wi th admirat ion— nay
awe . Even Nimai’
s studen ts were struck by the
superior meri t of the verses.
’
The scholar said
to N imai Pand i t, You have on ly an elementary
knowledge of grammar. How can i t be expected
3
that you wi l l appreciate my verses in which
there are so many excellen t examples of figures
of Poetics,of wh ich you know so l ittle 9” N imai
,
BA D I SINGHA 121
however,dissected the poem as a doctor does a
corpse and showed that each line of the poem had
at least one error from the standpoin t of Poetics.
I n the first l ine was'
the word
W dlti édg spotted wi th the fau l t
called B i ruddhama ti . The next l ine furn ishedan instance of the fau l t Km n ablzcmga in the
word fiv‘fl lfi? and in the word flew? the faul tP unuruktabadobhasa and so forth . The great
scholar cou ld not hold h is own and, havmg been
thoroughly humi liated , fled away .
The scholars of Nad ia al l assembled and
gave N imai the t i tle of ‘Badisingha
’
or‘the
l ion of debate’
on th is occasion . I t is said
that people held him wi th so much regard that
even mi l lionaires as they passed by him in
palankins, would stop and bow to him and
then resume their j ourney . Some referred to
the old prophecy that a Brahm in of Nad ia
would be the ki ng of Bengal “Who knows,he might be the same man O thers said very
justly ,“We never saw a man so bri l l ian t as
N imai Pand i t . ”
L i on of debate .
’
CHA PTE It V
M A R R I A GE—TO UR, I N E A STER N BE NGA L—VI SI T
TO GA YA , RET URN TO HOME . TR A N CES
C LOSI N G or TH E Ton,SA N K I R ’
I‘
A N P A R TI E S
R E FORM A ’
I‘
I ON or JA G A I A ND M A D H A I
Just before found ing a tol of his own N imai
had married Laksm i , the beautiful daughter
of Ballavacharyya of Nad ia . Curiously D r.
Mac ll ichol in his book on I nd ian Theism m is
takes th is man for the leader of the Ballav i sect
who bore the same name . N o I nd ian scholar
would make such a m istake . Bal lavacharya of
N adia— N imai’
s father- i a - law,
.and Ballava
charyya o f Brindavana— the founder of the l ine
of the Goku l Gosains were al together two
d ifferen t persons . The marriage of Nimai wi th
Laksmi , accord ing to al l accounts,took place by
mu tual select ion . Nimai and Laksmi had oftenseen each other on the banks o f the Ganges and
conceived a l ik ing mutually .
"W “ “m" Banamal i A charvya ,a match
maker,was appomtedby Ballava
to negotiate the marriage . But Sachi Dev i rejected
124 C HA I TA NY A A ND HI S A GE
wore golden rings on his ears . H i s memo irs
praise the beautv of his long curl ing hair scented
with oi l and washed w ith cmzlaki . A golden
locket t ied to a string of the same metal hanged
on his breast and i t was usual in that age to
wear floral wreaths. Th is is his portrai t as a
professor of Nad ia and the Nad ia potters sti l l
make clay images of their beloved Nimai Pand i t
as such . They wou ld never recogn ise him as a
monk and ascet ic that afterwards he became,
imply ing his severan ce of all connecti ons wi th
Nad ia .
Tour i n. E astern B enga l .
A s a Vaishnava he would never touch fish or
meat . A t his home excellen t vegetable and
mi lk -preparati ons were made by his mother.
Gov inda K armakar g ives us a menu of the dai ly
food prepared by her,
amongst wh ich the
mooharghan /a and saki a,besides various pre
parations of m i lk,are emphasized as rel ished
most . The beta sat often occurs in the descript ion as inv i t ing appet i te by i ts sweet smell .
A t the age of 21 N imai pa’d a v isi t to Eastern
Bengal . The obj ect of the trip was to earn
money ,as the v i llages in those
132121
51.i“ Ram ” days v isi ted by d istinguished
Brahm in professors used to
con tribute lump sums as honorarium to them .
Chai tanya Bhagavata says that he v isi ted various
DH A KA ‘ D A KSH I N A N D OTHER PLA C ES 125
15913 on the banks of the Padma,where he found
students read ing his commentary on Sanskri t
Grammar. Lochan D as errs in the chronology
of even ts and says that N imai had converted
hundreds of men to Vaishnava fai th duri ng his
tour in Eastern Bengal . A s yet he was innocent
of al l rel igious zeal , nay,people at that period of
his l ife,
regretted his scepti cal tendencies.
Jayananda i n his memoir says that when
N imai v isi ted Eastern Bengal there was a
considerable number of Brahma-Kshatriyas
there . I Vho were these Brahma-K satriyaé?
Were they of the caste of the Sen k ings of
Bengal ?
N imai’
s tour in Eastern Bengal accord ing to
N ityananda extended up to A ssam but the last
two and a half can tos of that au th or’
s metrical
h istory wh ich con tain the accoun t,are held as
unreliable . The poin t , however, has not beenfinal ly decided . I n this book we find N imai
v isi ting the v i llages of Nurpur, Subarnagram
Beta] and Vi tadia . The last named vi llage was,i t i s said , a great cen tre of Sanskri t learn ing ; and
N imai met there Loknath Lah iri whose mother,
a daughter of Jayarama Chakrabarti hailed from
Nadia . Loknatha’
s step-brother Purusottama took
sanyasa and was known as Svarup D amodara—a
name wel l-known in Vaishnava h istory . From
V i tadia he came to his ancestral place Dhaka
Dakshin in Sylhet , where his uncle and even his
126 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
grand-father Upendra M isra,
accord ing to theaccoun t , sti ll lived . I t is said that here he made a
fair copy of Markandeya Chand i for the use of hisgrand- father. For further detai ls of these tour I
refer my readers to pp . 225 -26 of my Chai tanyaand H is Compan ion s . The trad i ti on curren t in
the d istrict of Faridpur is that Nimai Pandi t
v isi ted the vi l lage of K otal ipar at th is t ime .
Th is v i l lage,as every one knows, is even now a
seat of large Brahmin population . The authen
tici ty of these pieces of in formation are called
in question on the ground that i t should be
nobody’
s care to keep notes of his tour at that
t ime,when N imai had not ach ieved distinction
as a rel ig ious leader. A ll that has been said
wi th regard to th is tour by subsequen t wri ters is
based on vague memcries and trad i tions,and i t is
not improbable that some vi llages put in their
names,wi thou t any sufficien t ground
,simply to
heighten their importance ; just as we find
in the case of the Kirnahar peop le who have
tried to associate their place wi th certain
incidents of Chand i Das’
s l ife .
When tak ing leave of home, Nimai is said
to have made over his sacred thread to his wife
Laksm i to be preserved as a token . The wi fe
had behaved exceed ingly wel l as we find in
Murari’
s Chai tanya C hari tam , and Sach i Dev i
was we l l pleased wi th her. But the youn g wife
was not destined to l ive long . She was beaten
1328 C HA I TA N YA A ND HI S A G E
N imai sought his mother’
s permission to go
to Gaya for v isi t ing the shri ne . H e said that
for the good of the sp iri t of his father, p inda
offerings should be made to the lotus feet of
Visnu at the place . But his mother before
gran ting the permission got him married again
to B isnupriya ,a daughter of the famous P andi t
Sanatana of Nad ia . N imai was not at al l wi ll ing
to marry . I t appears that
thfi‘
fifigpfisffs
gf‘t
ifigif
w i thou t wai ting for his assen t
{Jiffsf’ r‘d yields af’er '
Sach i Dev i wi th the help of
K asinatha Ghatak , a match
maker,had already n egotiated the marriage
and Sanatana was engaged in mak ing pre
parations for the ceremony on a large scale,aided by his friend Buddhiman ta Khan . But
when the report of the proposed marriage
reached Nimai’
s ears he said wi th vexat ion“ what marriage are you speak ing of ?
whose marriage ? I do not know anyth ing .
The mother was very sorry and sen t
word to Sanatana that all preparat ions should
be stopped as her son was n ot wi ll ing . But
N imai afterwards repen ted his conduct,as much
pain and worry were not on ly caused to hismother, but to Sanatana and his fam ilv who had
already spen t much monev for preparat ions .
N imai cal led Kasinatha Ghatak to him and
said,“ Go and te l l mv mother that I cannot.
go against herwishes . H ow can I undo what she
VI SIT TO GA Y/1 129
has already done ?”
The marriage was thus
performed wi th great eclat.
Immediately after marriage Nimai Pandi t
started for Gaya wi th some pi ous p i lgrims bound
for that shrine . A t a place cal led Mandar he
got fever and drank water
touched by some Brahmin ’
s feet
which,i t i s s aid , cured him of
his i l lness. H e did not speak much . A turn ing
poin t had come in his li fe . One given to prol ific
speak ing and frivoli ties had become a good
quiet boy and his compan i ons were al l struck
by th is change . En tering Gaya he saw I shwara
Puri,that sain t and scholar whom he had so
often ridicu led . H e longed for a sight of him .
Never did I shwara Puri appear in such a l ight to
the young scholar. Chai tanya in great emotion
held him close to his breast and said “ My
v isi t to Gaya i s a great success. I have seen
you ,Master. You are the hol iest of Shrines.
I f offering-p indas to the sp irit of my forefathers
would save their souls,a mere sight of you
would do So a hundred times more . Gaya
and al l the shrines put together have not that
sancti ty wh ich you have .
”H e trembled in
great emoti on as he said th is ; for the great
scholar, the haughty youth of Nad ia, did no
longer exist,and i n his place
,behold a young
Brahmin ,low and humble , yield ing to the emo
tions wh ich fai th brings in .
1 7
N imai starts for
Gaya.
130 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
I n the temple he found priests offering
flowers and scen ts to the'
LotuS feet of V ishnu .
They were sing ing the pra i ses of the Feet in the
language of devoti on and reverence . N imai
heard i t reci ted that from the div ine Feet
flowed the Ganges to save human i ty from
sin —i t was under these Feet that Val i,the k ing
proud of his liberal i ty , was humi l iated — sages
and Rish is have con templated the Lotus Feet
of Vishnu from age to age . The reci tat ion
of the beauti ful Sanskri t slokas gave rise to
strange emotions in N imai’
s mind . H e saw, as
i t were , the whole world bend ing low before the
Lotus Feet , the emblem of d iv ine power and
love . H e could no longer bear to hear the sweet
reci tation , but wept and fel l senseless under the
spel l of an overpowering emotion .
Trances.
The compan i ons of Nimai thought that all
these were but the after-effects of the fever from
which he had recently recovered . H e had grown
weak andnervous and they tended himwi th care,
but when he recovered hi s senses,he said , Oh
Krishna,my father, where art Thou ? I thought
I had found Thee , but Thou art not now wi th
me .
”Saying th is he recited some Sanskri t
verses and began to cry vehemen t ly . H e told
his fel low-p i lgrims to return home .
“ Th ink of
me as one lost . I have no other home than the
C HA I TA N Y A A ND HI S A GE
not stop . H e could not tel l what he had
seen . H is at tempts to do so brough t on a
trance .
Poor Sach i Dev i was in great fright . People
came in crowds to see him and al l of them said
that i t was madness ; the physicians prescribed
shivadi ghri ta and some med icated oi l . I n order to
divert hismind Sach i made the beaut i ful Vishnu
priya sit near him ,but N imai did not care to
glance at his bride . H e reci ted Sanskri t verses
and always wep t o ccasional ly bursting in to ex
clamations,such as
,Oh Krishna
,where art
thou ? ” Lochana D as describes his cond i ti on at
this stage, One always finds him prostrate on
the ground , weep ing . A t noon -day he asks what
time of n ight i t is . Wi th j oined hands he
bows to some one ; and then reci tes the name of
Krishna wi th tears.
” Jayananda says H e does
not wear his usual apparel , nor perfume h imself
wi th sandal as was his won t .The curl ing hair is al l uncared
for. H is golden rings and lockets he has thrown
away and he walks in Slow careless steps
absorbed in someth ing unknown, when Sach i
Dev i cal ls him aloud from beh ind he does not
pay any heed to her. The costly couch is there,
but he sleeps on the bare ground . The even ing
and morn ing prayers and worsh ip wi th the
tnlshi leaves he has eschewed , act ing as one
who is lost to this world .
”
Lost to the world .
N EA R THE KUND A PLA NTS 1 33
They all d iscovered symptoms of lunacy in
Nimai—the physicians and al l,especial ly the
sympathetic women -folk,who said to Sach i
“Why do you seem to be yet uncertain about
hismalady ? Know defin i tely that i t is a case of
lunacy , bind him hand and foot , and keep him
under proper treatmen t . ” But the band of
Vaishnabs headed by A dwai tacharya, who often
met at the house of Sribasa, thought i t might besometh ing other than lunacy .
mgi
t’
nfnr ken f“ a No one had yet asked N imai
why he behaved in that way,except ing Srimau Pandi t
, a Vaishnab,who
having put the question to N imai,received
th is answer from him I shal l to -morrow pay a
v isi t to the house of Suklambar Brahmachari
and fully state my case to you .
”
Next morn ing in the house of Sribasa all
Vaishnabs met as usual to pluck flowers for wor
ship ; for in that historic courtyard were rows of
[canola plan ts whi ch suppl ied their treasures of
beautiful wh i te flowers in al l seasons . There the
Vaishnabs, as they gathered flowers in smal l
cane-baskets, talked about the condi tion of
Nimai . One said “ On the barest reference to
Gaya he bursts in to tears and fain ts. What
is the reason of this madness, if i t be so
indeed
Srimau Pand i t said ,“ Th is even ing by the
wish of Nimai all of us should meet at the house
134 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
o f Suklambara where he has promised to speak
out his mind .
”
Just when th is conversation was going on ,
a man came to Sri basa wi th a message from
Sach i Devi that she was in great distress as her
son had gone off his head . Sribasa forthwi th
wen t to N imai’
s house and Sach i began to
weep b i tterly . But Sribasa said I Shall privately
see N imai and find out i f i t is real ly madness or
not. A nd Sribasa en tered the room whereN imai sat al l alone .
They had a long talk and when Sribasa came
out from the room ,his own
Sri ajif’
s
s
i ei‘
fifiiff”ew
eyes were full of tears. He said
to Sach i that her son was a god ;he had brought such sp iritual treasure from
Gaya that She should thank God for it .
H e returned to his comrades to say that he
had beheld what he had on ly read of in the sacred
Scriptures. N imai was a second Suka or
Prahlad. H e has seen the Unseen . H e cannot
for a momen t forget what he has seen . I t is a
bliss to behold his great love .
”
Sach i had great confidence in Sribasa and
felt reassured . Med ical treatmen t of her son
was given up . N imai in the course of his con
versation wi th Sribasa had said You have heard
al l ; say i f I am mad to wh ich Sribasa had
repl ied “ I f you are mad,we al l covet a bit of
such madness . I t wi l l at once sancti fy our
C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
in great d istress as their professor would not
teach them any science but con tinual ly d iscoursed
on sp iritual devotion . The old teacher cal led on
N imai and reprimanded him saying Why shou ld
you give up teach ing your studen ts Your
father Jagannatha M isra was a great scholar
andyour grand- father N i lambar was also repu ted
for learn ing . They were both p ious men . Both
on your father’
s side and mother’
s side there is
no one who did not at tain h igh reputat ion as a
scholar. Do you wan t to say, N imai,that puri ty
of soul and devotion are not compatible wi th
study ? H ow,then
,were your father and grand
father pi ous and learned at the same time ? You
are yourself a great scholar. Why should you
behave in this way ? N imai told him that from
that day he would pay atten tion to his work and
that his old professor would no more have any
occasion to find fau l t wi th him . The next dayhe attends lot and goes on v igorously wi th g iving
notes on grammar ti ll even ing . But he sudden ly
hears R atnagarbha, a friend of his father, reci ting
some slokas from the Bhagavata and he loses al l
con trol over h imsel f, and weep ing , passes into a
trance . Com ing to his senses he runs to meet
R atnagarbha and says What you have reci ted , is
so sweet , say i t again .
”A nd then he passes again
in to a trance and m istakes all objects of senses
for his Krishna . Thus his proper professi onal
work as professor was con t inual ly in terrupted .
HI S A DDRESS rro THE STUDENTS 137
Krishna is my father and mother ; and all of
you, I pray on my knees, sing his praises.
”
Saying so he ferven tly speaks on God ’
s love and
discourses on spiritual ph i losophy . But he was
a teacher of grammar and rhetoric . However
highly the studen ts appreciated his devotional
fervour they j ustly remarked that it was not
that which they wan ted to hear from theirprofessor at school . A l l that you say, Pandi t,is very right , but what about our text-books
”
they said . Sti ll for 10 days more he continued
his lectures. They looked with wonder on his
fervent faith ; they were charmed by his most
engaging trances. I t seemed to them as if a
Suka or Prahlad, a Narada or Vyas had
assumed mortal Shape again to redeem fal len
human ity by teach ing devotion to God. But
they were justified in complain ing that they
had made no progress whatever in their studies
al l these 10 days. Then came a confession from
the professor, wh ich was plain enough . I quote
the following from the Chai tanya Bhagavata.
He was pleased wi th what the students said
and addressed them thus
What you say is true enough .
My own sen timen ts are such that I cannot
speak of them everywhere . I am persuaded bya v ision from which I cannot escape . A l l
sounds bear a message of Krishna to me . A ll
space to me looks like H is abode . My prayer to
18
He closes the tol .
138 CHA ITA NYA A ND H IS A GE
you to-day is that I have no further lessons to
give to you . I give you permission whole
heartedly ; go wherever you like and read wi th
some other professor. For mysel f I cannot
speak of anyth ing wh ich is not connected with
Krishna. What I say is true and you may rely
on me .
”Saying so with tearful eyes he closed
the book that was in his hand . Then he blessed
them say ing , I f for even a day I have believed
in Krishna and done any act worthy of H is
servan t , I pray to H im that you may prosper.
” 1
The San/clrtan p arti es.
N imai thus formal ly closed his school and
formed a band of Vaishnabs with Narahari ,
1 “so efi mmW fi awm l
Essa gas amcatficn‘
s arts 11
comawaits on? 613W W 1
amhas sawan s tats
mam a as an we as !
fit?! i t? 9h? wi thfirsts sean
W fairwas staratwasW is
aw wtfii 25m its s tasis n
6 1? cats asters aw? arti st l
fires fitfiltifi cet?! sal t the
{R am awwtfii a? arm 1
was its 53 crewwasW rits 1
C h. Bha.
140 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
a devoted servan t of God. Then turn ing to
others he said I f I serve you,my friends, I find
devotion for Krishna grow in me saying so he
carried the basket of some one
vice:£1
233 “is S? ” frOm the banks of the Ganges
to his house inspite of his
protest . H e sometimes washed the clothes of
humble bathers to their in tense fear, for i t was
considered a Sin to accept such men ial services
from a Brahmin . Sometimes Nimai helpe aman
by carrying a part of his load , and sometimes
he was found to gather hasha grass and dig
sacred earth from the banks of the Ganges for
some Brahmin -worshippers. Where they tried
to st0p him,he said Forbear, my friends,
these li tt le Services make my v isi on of Krishna
clearer 1 Nimai preached a doctrine of love
which may be thus put here .
1 . To reci te the name of God, considering
oneself humbler than a straw.
assist y16 1CW GIw refs! ai ? 1
use sfit sstzrawtfts fi tfi n
first?! anW 1arti stW 1
ifi anvi taW at era'
s “511915 1 11
T‘i firstNew2:51amcmW : 1
atts at? can firs we as YIN n
atte sti sffi swawt stfi ssm l
am News as wtfii as 11C h. Bha.
A NOTHER YOUNG MA N JO I NS 14d
2. Wi thout seek ing honour for one ’
s own
self to g ive i t free ly to others.
3 . To hear all i lls patiently like a tree .
The tree does not defend i tsel f if one! cuts
i t to pieces. I t does not seek a drop of water
from any one though it dries up. I t gi ves
flowers,frui ts and shade even to one who cuts
i t . This ideal ‘love i s of Christ , for did he not
give love to those who crucified him and was
not his last word a prayer for their forgiveness ?
A t Sribasa’
s courtyard the Vaishnabs sang and
danced wi th Nimai in their midst ; and songs of
exquisi te poet ic beau ty were composed by Nara
hari,the insp iration comi ng from N imai
’
s trances.
A t th is time another young man,older than
Nimai on ly by eight years,
paid a v isi t to Nadia . H e
'
was Nityananda . H e resided at the house of
Nandanacharya . H e wore a blue coloured
dhntt and a large blue turban'
. I n appearance
he bore a resemblance to Bishwarup, N imai’
s
elder brother, who had gone away as a sanyast.
This made Sach i Dev i cal l him her son . H i s
eyes were large and beau ti ful,and Brindavana
D as says poetical ly “Where are the lotuses
that could be compared to them Nityananda
as a young sang/asi had travel led over the whole
of I ndia, v isit ing al l her shrines . H e had come
to Nadia at last in order to meet N imai . H e
thus explains the object of his v isi t ,
N ityananda .
142 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
I saw many shrines —in fact all associated
wi th Krishna . There are many temples, but I
did not find Krishna in any of them . I asked
sain ts and holy men H ow is it,revered -
sirs,that
I see H is throne empty— the God I seek I do not
find anywhere ? ’
One of them adv ised me to
return to Bengal say ing I n Nadia you wi l l
find H im . H e is there to redeem the fallen .
’
A nd I have forthwith come here,—for none is
so sinful and fal len as I am.
By th is time Haridas, the Mahomedan con
vert to Vaishnabism,who, as stated already , had
suffered al l k inds of persecution for his adher
ence to Vaishnab fai th , came and j oined th is
smal l band of Vaishhabs at Nad ia .
« face wi sts s? 6 121361arts 1
fats fit was was can { aa t? 11
fiw ( sits Stetcvfita WW 1
crfaam s 3131 new new11
311 1m cvfitwas cwfare at 9113 1
teamwas was Eta cater if? 11
fi rms as can art‘
smafi a 1
355 $ 13 as, we cant cans fe e 1
6 1211are as harass cats, cm 1
afe—ces 21s as s isstraw1
SW 931131 ates (NW 111
C h. Bha ,p. 18 1 .
1211 C HA ITANYA A N D H I S A GE
I n th is land where l ove for Krishna had
en tered deep in to the hearts of rural vi l lagers
inspiring the devotee and the poet— the rich man
and the peasan t al ike - insp iration wh ich N ima i’
s
love -ecstasies imparted to the people was almost
overwhelming . Night and day he spoke of
noth ing e lse than Krishna ; he fasted and wept
l ike a maiden in love and yie lded h imself
constan tly to recitat ion and singing of Krishna’
s
name . H is pride was gone , he took no care of
his dress or of personal comforts, andhi s scholar
sh ip was considered by him as mere van i ty .
H e had so thoroughly iden tified himselfwi th"
all that belonged to Krishna, that i t was no won
der that the people soon iden tified him with
Krishna Himself and called him an avatara .
The courtyard of Sribasa,where these Sankir
tan performances were held , was accessible to
only a l imited number of deThe K im” par’y ’
vetees headed by that old and
veteran scholar— A dwai tacharyya. Ni tyanadawas
of course there . Gadadhar and Narahari waved
Chamara ,when Nimai danced and sang ;
Bakreswara was nearly as handsome as Nimai
and excel led in dancing ; there were his old
teacher Gangadas, Gov inda Ghosh , Vasudeb,
Murari Gupta, Haridas and others who sang i n
chorus. The Chai tanya Bhagavata g ives names
of nearly «10 men who formed th is blessed party
andwho met every n ight in Sribasa’
s courtyard
THE MA NOHA RSA I K I R ’I‘A N 145
and occasionally on ly in that of Chandrasekhar
a Vaidya by caste .
The Ki rtan music was heard from outside ;but the non -believers had no entry . The music
was grand . The lays of Jaydev, Chandidas,
Vidyapati and of Narahari had hitherto been
sung in the differen t modes of the Hindu musi
cal system. But it '
appears that N imai gave a
new turn to their sing ing . H e resuscitated the
pastoral tune of beatmen’
s songs adding to it a
lovely musical mode wh ich was quite original ;it sprang from his in tense and fervid emotion .
Th is was the origin of the famous Manoharshal .
I t was invented in a rude form by some people
of the pargana of the same name in the Burdwan
district of Bengal . But its power to create
pathOs was no doubt accen tuated marvellously
by Nimai ’s devotional S piri t . The Manoharshal
became a powerful instrument in the handsmf
the Vaishnabs and it is now unrival led in produc
ing an effect so far. as tender emot ions are con
cerned ; it is for th is reason that when Pratap
Rudra,the King of Orissa, charmed wi th Ktrtana
had asked Gop inath A charyya as to who ori
ginated it , remark ing that he had never heard
a music so sweet, Gopinath said that it was
Chaitanya who created by his intense.
fervour,
the pathos of that musical mode . I n the temple
of Puri the songs of Jaydev were constan tly
sung in Gurjari and other modes. But since
19
140 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Chai tanya ’
s t ime these songs have been sung in
the Jlfanoharshat, wh ich Shou ld not be taken as
a g ift from the musicians but from the Vaishnab
devotees and wh ich have g iven a n ovel in terest
to the son gs of Jaydev, C handidas and others.
I f a material comparison is not considered as
beyond the mark I may say that in subtlety and
fineness of its tunes i t resembles the fine weav
ing of the Dacca muslin ,and in the spiri tual
world there is no force comparable to th is in its
power to appeal to the emot ional side of our
nature . The K i rtan thus in troduced by N imai
Pand i t , was deve loped by the Vaishnabas and
classified in to three different styles, —~ the Mano
harshai , the Garanhati and the R eneti .
The Vaishnabs gradually became a power in
Nadia. But howsoever the layman appreciated
and enj oyed the emotional felici t ies afforded by
the creed,the scholarly people there became
hosti le to i t. They proudly asked as to where
could be the text in the scriptures which justifies
such dancing and this play of
emot ion . One Should silently
offerhis prayers to God. Where was it everheard
that people in the name of rel ig ion shou ld create
such an uproar and d isturb others’ sleep ? A s no
outsider was al lowed access,various rumours
were Spread about the party . One of these
was that Sribasa being a weal thy man served
these people with rich meals every n ight,hence
H osti l i ties .
148 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
says, Think of the matter seriously , what misch ief may not ere long be forthcoming . This
uproar and d isturbance of sleep and rest of honest
people wi ll not long remain unnoticed , and the
Emperor of Gour may anymomen t send an army
to stop all these, and the result wi l l be that
honest people will share the fate of these wicked
men A nother man said The great scholar
Nimai I s now a total ly ruined man . H e had fine
talen ts but he has al together given up his stud ies.
I f one does not read grammar for a month,he
forgets its rules, it is a complicated science.
” l
One says A t n ight these peop le bring five fairies
by witchcraft and incan tat ions,” to which another
css szs s tat fsst firs ts s fss1 1
same swi ms stas i s
sass ashs stts sacs fi sss 1
sts ststsst ss sts fast ss 1
s sfre‘
s st csfsts fis sscs sm
sa ss csfi css szs sst ss n
saw stsé’
t cstcs Sass was 1
m fimmgfi fi sTfl cfi n
si t sist csfas its cat stf‘
s ecs 1
sists sass 25st stfs atfa scs 11
C ha itanya Bhag, p . 224.
css'
sts staf’
ss as 15121111161 1
W at stfscs i s wissts ss 11
C hai tanya Bhag. p . 214
THE HOSTI LI TY or THE SCHOLA RS 149
added They have learned black art from Madha
mahhl—a fairy Others ascribed the famine
that threatened the locali ty then to the anger of
God who, i t was alleged , was provoked by the
great uproar and dance of these false people .
The hostility of the scholars and other people
did not stop here . They appl ied to the Kazi
complain ing of the great uproar which caused
d isturbances of Sleep , and asking him to stop it
at once in the interest of public peace . The
Kazi whose name, I believe, was Gorai , ordered
cs s‘
scs sfsscafsrcss Esses 1
se css css caveatsas”as 11
cs ?“
scs w atts stfs i t? ) 91111 1
smcsfs ifits sfi sts ss ats 11
C hai tanya Bhag. ,p . 3 19 .
The v iew they took of the Vaishnab songs was ful l of acrimoniousattack and i l l -d isguised mal ice .
631317 1Wt 6251‘
s 6 91 CTN ss W17 1 I
W mmfm s fi fis ssm u
crass srsWEI «ass sfisst 1
sits sts sfs sis Lassa“
53st 11
sisatss tfi szs csfitsts scs 1
csfs cs t 1stasis f‘
s csa‘
ssfs sss 11
atssit stssh cs? s? cast27 1 1
ssnfssts scs ass ass 11
as . sfi scs sis est 31112em 1
css st fiss i s sacsl satsTcs 11C h. Bha.
150 CHA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
that no man should be al lowed thenceforth to
sing the name of God in the publ ic streets.
K trtana was thus stepped by the hand of the law.
But when N imai heard of th is order,he
showed a bold fron t ; he saiddefian t that the whole air of Nadia
must ring wi th kirtana songs
in the even ing . Formerly H aridas and N itya
nanda and some other Vaishnabs used to Sing in
the public streets in smal l bands. Their main
dance andmusic had h i therto been confined to the
courtyards of the houses of Sribasa and Chandra
sekhar, But on that memorable n igh t Nimai
ordered that all of them would come out and
hold their performance together in the public
streets and make their round through the whole
ci ty . Great preparations were made,though i t
had been known to al l that in the n ight prev ious
some police officers had assaulted Sridhara and
broken his tabor, wh i le singing in the public
street .
That day the great love in which young
N imai was held by the people
138311
3
1
12Of was strik ingly in ev idence . The
people had all along been
sorry that they had no access in to Sribasa’
s house
to see the klrtana performance . When i t was
announced that N imai with his whole party would
come out in the publ ic streets in the even
ing, every house was i lluminated , picturesque
152 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
that prevai led in the ci ty,forgot their object as
they saw Nimai crying for God, l ike a young
woman for her l over. Balarama D as,the poet ,
says that wherever Nimai wen t dancing in themidst of the procession there hundreds of ligh tswere brought forward by peop le anxious to catch
a gl impse of his face .
1
Th is immense crowd that gathered and
passed through the streets wi th torches mak
ing the n ight brigh t as day,—the deafen ing
sound of tabor and the shrill clang of cymbals
and mandi ra could not remain unnoticed by the
Kazi . The procession passed through Gadi
gaocha, P ardanga and other wards of Nad ia.
The Kaz i probably fel t that it would be impos
sible to stop the enthusiastic
crowd . H e had sen t several
constables to learn all partien
lars. One old man amongst them returned
with the message that as he had been coming
up to preven t the crowd , l ightning fell close
The Kaz i welcomesNimai .
stfszss71t 16 catst 0 1? flats sis 1
scs Hts as W csf'
e‘
sfs as 11
sssssssmfimsfs sts 1certs sinsci ssts ssrss em 11
stfissi tsts first as csts stts 1
sst? asstss ass 6117 1 91105 11”
Gour Pada Tarangin i , p .
JA GA I A ND M A D HA I 153
to him and singed his whi te beard—that wassurely a sign of d iv ine wrath . The fact seems
to be that the defian t atti tude of the crowd
overawed the Kaz i ’s constables and they were
not prepared to meet the si tuation . I t is
further on record that the Kaz i ’s admira
tion was roused by the en thusiasm of the people .
A fter all they had been sing ing God ’s name
and were harm less. Nimai wi th his party
passed by his very gate and some of the crowd
pelted his house wi th stones . But he didnot take
any serious notice of i t. The sight of Nimai had
fi l led his m ind,as it happened in hundreds of
other cases, wi th admiringl ove . So young bright
and handsome—he had foregone all the pleasures
of the world andwas so devoted to One for whose
in terceding love and grace there is need in every
heart . The Kaz i came down from his house and
said to Nimai Sweet words apolog izing for his
order and adding You do not know how dear
you are to me, lad, your fatherand grand -father
were my close friends. Happy am I to see you
to-day, so devoted to A llah .
R eformation of J agai and Madhai .
Then comes the ep isode of reformation of
Jagai and Madhai,two n otor
Jagai and Madhai . i ous ruffians of Nadia . They
were grandsons of Subhananda
Roy . This man had two sons Raghunath and
20
15+ C HA I TA NY A A ND H I S A GE
Janardan . Jagai or Jagannath was a son of
Raghunath andMadhai orMadhaha of Janardan .
They belonged to an aristocrat ic Brahmin fami ly
of Nad ia and were very powerful . Jagai and
Madhai were dead drunkards . Though Brahm ins
they ate beef, burn t houses and took away women
by force . Jayananda says that they not on ly
took beef but also ham . These two rufflans re
solved to assaul t N imai Pand i t and his fol lowers
for singing ki rtan songs in the streets . A ccord
ingly when N i tyananda was sing ing Krishna’
s
name one day,Madhai flung a broken bottle at
him wh i ch cut his forehead and i t bled profusely .
N i tyananda took no offence and blessed
him,andwhen N imai came and saw the condi
tion of his friend , he simply said Madhai,i f i t
was in your mind to strike one of us,why did
you not Strike me ? Say ing th is he Si len tly
took N i tyananda with him and the crowd fol low
ed them in deep bu t si len t sorrow.
Jaga i andMadhai stood wonder-struck . They
had rev i led and assau lted these p ious men and
one of them was badlv hurt . Y et not a word of
anger came from them but they blessed them
instead . They could not sleep in the n ight and
in the morn ing they paid a v isi t to the saintly
men and repen ted . One of the songs curren t in
the coun try -side attribu ted th is speech to Jagai“ Oh Madhai , go and see what sweet sound is
here on the banks of the Ganges ! Formerly
156 C HA I TA NY A A ND H I S A GE
Like al l events of N imai’
s life associated with
Nadia,the simple storv of the reformation of
these two ruffians has become mixed up wi th
marvel lous tales. I t is stated in the Chai tanya
Bhagavata that N imai , angry at the conduct of
Madhai , cal led for the d isc wh ich belonged to
Vishnu and on wh ich he , as that god ’
s incarna
tion ,had every claim . A nd the disc came roll ing
in the air,and the rufli ans were completely
overawed by seeing the d ivine weapon . We shal l
later on find in more authen tic records,stories of
many simi lar reformati o ns ; but there N imai
did his work by the Simp le marvel of his love
and fai th .
Just about th is t ime Nimai organ ised a dra
matic performance at Nadia.
I t was of course about Krishna.
Krishna according to the legend
in the Mahabharata had taken away Rukmini
from her father’
s house by force . The old k ing
her father, had settled her marriage e lsewhere .
But R ukm ini had wri tten a letter to Krishna
saying that she had resolved to g ive hersel f up
to him and none else . So when al l the princes
had gathered to wi tness the marriage, Krishna
carried away the bride in a chariot— R ukmini
herself doing the work of a charioteer. Krishna
shot arrows on all sides to d isperse the army
that pursued them . So it was a very romantic
si tuation .
N imai,as organ iser
of a Kri shna play .
“
THE KRI SHN A PLA Y 157
The performance was held at the house of
Chandrasekhar. Buddhiman ta Khan supplied
the requisi te costumes and jewel lery . A dwai ta
charya became the stage -manager. A s the
spiri tual love in the play mi ght be mistaken for
sexual romance, N imai had said before the com
mencing of the performance Those that have
fully con trolled their passions should be pri vi
leged to wi tness the play .
” Upon wh ich A dwaita
said that he could not say that he was worthy .
Sribasa also in clear language declared that he
was not above human passi on ,upon wh ich Nimai
Smi led and did not press his point . A dwai ta
played the fool ’s part and Srimau that of a
sweeper. The performances of the two created
much humour and mirth . Haridas, as the head
of H isMajesty ’
s police force, came on wi th a pair
of pecu liarly cut wh iskers and a huge turban .
Narada wi th his long flowing wh i te beard and
a lyre that hung down from his shou lders had
so marvellously changed h imself that none but
hiswife Malini could recogn ise him to be Sribasa.
But when N imai came from the green room
dressed as R ukmin i,the princess
,even his mother
could notrecogn ise him . The spectators quest ioned
if the figure before them was Si ta or Lakshmi or
kindness or love that had come there assuming a
human Shape . R ukmln i wrote her love-letter to
Krishna . Here her tears were real , for Nimai hadforgot that he had been playing the part of the
158 C HA ITA N Y A A N D H I S A GE
princess and was in his love -ecstasies at the re
collection 0 Krishna . What he wrote play ing thepart of Rukm in i he
'
cou ld not read , for his voi cewas choked wi th tears . The romance became real
and the aud i ence were taken by surprise at the
emotion of the players , especially of Nimai
e levat ing them to a h igh sp iri tual plane . The
play con tinued t i l l dawn exc i tin g a warm in terest supplied by the real Sp iri tual emotion of thebhaktas, and when the first streaks of the sun
’
s
rays en tered the stage they thought that the happy
n ight had ended too soon . A ccording to Chaitanya
C handrodaya by Kavikarnapur the drama played
by N imai was about Radha andKrishna,and not
about R ukmi n i— N ima i i s represen ted bv that
au thori ty to have play ed the part of Radha . I t
does not materiallv al ter the si tuation . For
whether Radha or R ukm in i,N imai had played
the part of one lost in Krishna ’
s love . That
Sribasa played the part of Narada,a common
figure in both the plays,i s admi tted by
both accoun ts . A ccord ing to one accoun t Ni tya
nanda played the part of an old woman who
carried R ukmin i’
s love letter to Krishna and
accord ing to the other he figured as Y ogamaya,
who was also an o ld woman carrying Radha’
s
love messages to Krishna . There are certain ly
some poin ts of d ifference be tween the two plays
but I th ink we Shou ld cred it the accoun t of
Chaitanya Bhagavata, the au thor hav ing heard
160 C HA I TA N Y A A N D H I S A GE
wi thout any cause . Why does he look so sad
to-day Some one wi l l come to me’ 1 he says
and sheds tears 1” Th is abstraction and ecstacy
proved a fascinat ion ,and each word that fel l from
him wh i le in a trance sounded sweet as a note
of a lyre, irresistibly attracting peeple'
s minds .
The pain caused by love for Krishna became
more and more in tensified as time passed on,
t i l l he entirely lost all touch wi th his env iron
s is i ts is casassaa 13s 1
ssecs ss ? ssts ssss
as: as : avatars ss ssss 1
a ma m{Fi sts am 11
sass ssts sss sfssts 1
ss as gas s sss ass ts 11
W cs s csfist‘
ttws fsss sss
cs sass cs 6 113s s‘
ts ss ssss 11
Gour.,p .
stii‘
etzs frstfifs s tsa isscs si ts
szss ests ss”
cva‘
s 1
amsaw as sacs as“
fs ests
csn‘
sts s tatsmas s 1a mmesaan st sts sfssi saw
was ass s sts fists—315 .
sass was crust G15?W 1
stars st 1ms css ars { sfsstGown ,
p . 317 .
MOTHER ’S M I SGI VI NGS 16 1
men t and seemed to l ive in the poetic plane ofhis godly Vision . A nd Sach i Dev i now felt that
the fam i ly tie was held in very li tt le regard
by her son . She fel t greatly depressed in
spiri t and frightened whenever she saw any
sanyasi coming to Nimai . Keshab Bharati , the
reputed Vaishnab ascet ic,had come to Nad ia
and N imai was observed to pay more than usual
regards to him . Sach i si len tly approached
Nimai and said softlywi th tearfu l eyes,“Why
have I th is weakness that i f anybody speaks
of sanyasi s, I feel a ch i l l in my heart ?
The other day you paid “great reverence to
Keshab Bharati . Why did you do so ? My heart
was filled wi th terror at the sight . Tel l me
my dear, assure me, that you wi ll not turn
sanyasi .
”N imai said in reply ,
“ Why do you
indulge i n all these fool ish fears ? H ow can I
th ink of cutting my t ies wi th Nad ia ? ” Then
said Sach i again , My eldest son Bishwarup had
g iven me a manuscript and told me that i t should
be kept for N imai for his use when he would
grow up and become a scholar. I had kept the
manuscript wi th me long,but
t' t f thP resen ‘men 0 9
when B i swarup had turned acomi ng di saster.
sanyasi and left me, I thought
that it con tained a message of sanyas foryou and
I burn t i t.
”Nimai was very sorry at having lost
the preciousmanuscript— a gi ft from his brother.
But when Sachi Dev i expressed her remorse and
21
162 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
prayed for pardon,he said
,I t i ll becomes you ,
good mother, to ask pardon of me,your son .
There can be no offence for wh ich you can do so .
I n all matters i t is I who should ask pardon .
”
Thus a few mon ths before N imai resolved to
turn a sanyasi , a presen t imen t had been already
work ing in the m ind of Sach i Devi . I n the court
yard of Sri basa where ki rtana songs and dance
wen t on every n ight , on ly a selected party,as I
have already said , had access. A t the gate of the
house , Ganga D as, the old teacher of N imai , acted
as a guard to keep out crowd .
Once a Brahmin who was an
ardent admirer of Nimai wan ted to en ter but was
not al lowed . The next day he met N imai on the
banks of the Ganges . I n great rage he tore off
his sacred thread and u ttered a curse , A s you
kept me outside and d idn ’ t al low me to hear the
Ici rtan ,may you remain outside your home
,the
rest of your life .
” N imai smi led and said “ This
is not a curse Brahmin,i t is a blessing .
”
The Sankirtan party now came out in the
public streets oftener and there used to be
immense gatherings on such occasions . So great
was the fascinat ion created by N imai ’s presence
that,whereverN imai was found to sing and dance
in themidst of the procession ,hundreds of torches
were l ighted to get a sight of his face . I n
such processions fourteen tabors usual ly sounded
together, and a poet who was an eye-witness
A curse on N imai .
CHA PTER VI .
(a) C haitanya’
s Sanj as.
(6) His tour—visi t to San t ipur.
(c) The inciden ts at Puri .
( fl) H is resolve to go to the Deccan .
N imai nowresolved to take the step so dreaded
by his mother and friends . I n
ato turn
the first week of February , 1509 ,he d isclosed his in ten tion of
turn ing scmyasi to Mukunda . H e said The
scholars of Nad ia are sti l l host i le to me . They
have gone so far as to threaten to assau l t me . I
shal l see how they do i t ; for I shal l be a beggar
at their doors for Krishna’
s l ove .
”So long as he
was a house-holder the coun try wou ld not accept
his sp iri tual serv ices to mank ind as absolutely
d isin terested and prompted by the h ighest of
motives. A tang ible proof of renunciation in the
shape of the severance of al l earthly t ies was the
inst inct ive demand of a people that was accus
tomed to associate religion wi th the en tire self
ded ication of an ascetic . I t was d ire news to
the peop le who were fondly attached to him , and
they numbered thousands. They al l , however,
THE GENERA L MOURN I NG 165
knew that his word was inexorable . On the
30th of Magha (mid-February ) 1 509 A .D . he
took leave of Sachi Devi and with a single fol
lower Gov inda started early in the morn ing for
Katwa . The mother lay unconscious over
whelmed wi th grief,for a somyasi would never
Visi t his home again . The morn ing marked the
beginn ing of a un iversal mourn ing throughout
Nad ia .
“The images of god,
” describes a poet,
in Nadia-temples looked pale .
”A n other ao
coun t says that al l the shops were closed in that
ci ty and no one smi led . Vashu Ghosh asks in a
song,What are i on doing
, Oh people of Nadia,
this is not the t ime for you to si t stupefied by
grief,stretch your hands to stop him .
”Ni tya
nanda cries l ike a chi ld, and Sribasa at hi s court
yard,where there were music and dancing every
n ight,sobs aloud and is mad wi th grief . “
H e
spoke of noth ing but of N imai after his deserti on
of Nadia and dream t of him in his sleep . Often
wh i le gathering flowers forworship he recollected
N imai and the basket of flowers fel l from his
unconscious hands as he lay lost in reveries.
Some times go ing to the banks
of the Ganges he missed his
great compan i on and sat for
hours together med i tating on him who was dearer
to him than everything e lse in the world , and he
forgot that he had come there to bathe . I n his
own courtyard the Sankirtana party sang the
Sribasa’
s grief.
166 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
praises of the Lord again wi th the h igh sound ing
cymbals, the tumbre l and dance and he stood
there listen ing to the singers ; but often his voicewas choked wi th tears and he fel l down on the
bare earth in grief cry ing l ike a chi ld . Some
t imes he fel t that the God of his songs andN imai
were the same,so that wh i le offering flowers to
Krishna,instead of say ing I bow to thee
, Oh
Krishna he said unconsciously I bow to thee,
Oh Nimai . ” A nd,as he remembered h imself ,
tears rol led down his cheeks.
”
When Sribasa met Sachi Dev i on the day of
N imai’
s desertion,she said E veryth ing that you
see in th i s house belongs to you all . I have
n oth ing to do wi th these . I have noth ing i n th is
world to cal l m ine .
”Bishnupriya, the young
wi fe,practical ly gave up eating . She never l ifted
her face to look at any one,on lv one or two maids
remained wi th her. On the day prev ious to that
of Nimai ’s deserti on of home she wen t says
a poet ,“ to bathe in the Ganges. She heard
someth ing there and when she came back she
was in tears. The mother- in - law asked, What
is i t that ails thee , ch i ld ?”
But she wept and'
could not speak . A nother poet describes her
seek ing N imai in her sleep in the bed,when he
had gone away , and then wi th her mother- in
law runn ing in the streets enqu iring of every
passer-by if he had seen him going . When
Sach i Dev i heard that her son had gone to
168 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
bi ographer, swept by rush ing wind . Some
t imes he embraced a tree in the way m istak ing
i t for Krishna, and fell senseless on the ground
at the sight of the Ganges m istak ing i t to bethe Jamuna . A t K anchann agore he stopped .
Govinda K armakar’
s wi fe came there and soli
ci ted Nimai that he m igh t al low her husband to
return home . Nimai told her that i t was good
for his soul to devote h imsel f to spiri tual pur
su i ts and to the good of the world . But the
import-unate cryings of ‘ Sash i -mukh i ’
moved
him and he ordered Gov inda to go back home .
But Gov inda after a stay of a few hours at
Kanchannagore ran in al l haste to overtake
N imai who had gone a few mi les ahead of him .
N imai reached Katwa on the even ing of the
30th March , Saka 1430 correspond ing to 1 509,A .D . There hundreds of men andwomen gathered
to see him . From under a bel tree he gave
i nstruction to them . They listened to him wi th
great respect and atten ti on , but al l people re
gretted his samyas as he was young , and the
women - folk particularly . They said H owwou ld
his poor mother and wife l ive,parted from him
for ever ? Keshab Bharat i was to be his Guru .
They al l tried to persuade Keshab to refuse him
in i tiat ion in to scmyas at that young age . Keshab
acced ing to their request told N imai that his
was not the proper age for sang/as. But Nimas
said , I f I die early , I shal l be deprived of the
KR I SHNA -C HA ITA NYA
chance of following the best path for men .
H is great love for God and e loquen t appeal cou ld
not be resisted,and the Bharat i consen ted . A
barber named Deva1 was cal led to shave his
head . The women of the town said “Deva,do not
do such a cruel th ing . Do not cut off such fine
curling hair.
” Th is shav ing of the head impliedthe cutting off of al l fami ly ti es, so when the
barber appl ied the razor to his hair the women
stood there like si len t pi ctures and shed tears .
H e had his head shaven, and when wearing
an ochre coloured cloth , the young sanyasi stood
up“he looked” as a poet says “ like mount Sumera
clad in c louds of deep purple .
” This was the
ideal l i fe towards wh ich the en l ightened in I nd ia
have always moved —the severance of the fami ly
ties and adopt ion of a cosmopol i tan l ife for the
good of the world . N imai as a sang/ erst was given
the name of Krishna Chai tanya or one hav ing
God-consciousness. Though not l i teral ly , the
name Chai tanya has nearly the same sign ificance
as the Buddha or the en lightened one . We find
in an old record that the name Krishna Chai tanya
1 '
I he popu lar belie f i s that the name of the barberwas Madhu. But
i n Gov inda D as’
s karcha we find the name Deva d ist inctly men toned
and therefore cannot di sbel i eve the word of an eye-wi tn ess. Madhu
seems to be a genera l name for the barber who shaves a man be forehi s sanyas. I n the Mainamati songs, we find Madhu shav ing RajaG0 pichandra on the eve of hi s sangas. 1f Madhu i s a trad i ti onalname gi ven on such occasion s, the popular be l ie f and the ev idence of
the eye-wi tness may both be accepted i n this case .
170 C HA ITA N YA A N D HI S A GE
in the place of Nimai , sounded strang e to the
ears of the Nadia people . Henceforth , however,we shal l cal l him Chai tanya the name by wh ich
he is popularly known everywhere .
The news of his sangas had by th is time
spread all over the coun try , and at Nad ia i t was
received wi th great sorrow.
E ven the non -bel ievers who had
rev i led Nimai repen ted of their conduct and j oined
the general mourn ing . A fter sanyas Chai tanya
came to Ku l ia , where a large crowd from Nadia
andneighbouring places assembled to see the new
sanyasi .“ So great was the exci temen t ” says
Brindaban D as “ that hundreds of men tried to
cross the Ganges to go to Kulia and though
al l the ferry-boats were engaged and fi l led to
their utmost capaci ty they were not equal to
the demand . Many swam across the ri ver,
others seated in earthen jars pl ied them
across the Gan ges . Some cut banana-plan ts
and made rafts . Many boats sank in mid
Ganges owing to the excessive crowd and these
people had to swim across the river.
” They
were all eager to have a sight of their God-man
who was never to v isi t Nad ia again ,and Bashu
Ghosh the poet regrets his w ages in these words“ Those days of music and dance and God- intoxi
cation are over at Nad ia,we shal l not have them
again— the thought pierces the heart like a
dagger.
H is tour.
C H A I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
rural v i llages of Bengal and see how the poor
people— the artizans,the labouring classes
,the
beggars and the d iseased ones throughout th is
great prov in ce— have placed in their heart a
throne for Chai tanya whose heart wept for their
sorrows. This throne is far more glorious than
that of an Emperor who has ever laid claim to
recogn i tion and immortal fame . I n the even
ings go to the huts of rust ics in any v i llage of
Bengal however insign ifican t,and you wi l l find
the artisans and peasants gathered in a room
at the close of their day ’
s work and sing ing the
name of Chai tanya “the friend of the fallen .
The merry sound of the cymbals and mandim
accompan ied by the deep -mouthed voice of the
khola,g iv ing a sweet and solemn grace to the
songs sung in chorus . I n the morn ings the
Vaisnava ascetic v isi ts every house and sings
the praise of Chai tanya in th is strain Name
him,my good man , and I shal l hold you dear
as my l ife . What prince at the dawn of the
day and towards i ts close receives such a un iver
sal tribute of sincere affecti on and esteem ?
A s he proceeded on his way to the south,
his emotion gave him no rest and he so total ly lost
himsel f in his felic i tous commun ion wi th God
that he cared not for food or the needs of his
physical body . Once for three days he fasted ,and wherever he saw a river
,the memory of the
Jamuna in whose stream Krishna had sported
INTER VI EW 1 73
came so vehemen tly into his mind that he ran to
jump in to it weep ing and cry ing . N i tyananda
took advan tage of th is, and when Chai tanya
told him that he was going to the Brinda
groves, he said I wi ll lead you th i ther. The
Ganges was shown him and falsely cal led the
Jamuna, and Chai tanya in great love followed
his guide along her banks ti l l they reached
San tipur. H e brought Chai tanya by this trick
to A dwaita’
s house . A nd Chai tanya,when he
knew that he was duped,was not sorry
,for
he was glad to see A dwai tacharya again .
A dwai ta was 76 years old at the t ime , but his
devotion to God and Chai tanya was wonderful .
H e was a rich man and l ived in a great man
sion cal led the Up akarika’
or the benefici ent
home .
’
H e had longed to meet the young
scmyasi and made great prepara tions for his
reception . H e , besides, sen t a message to Nadiaasking Sach i Devi to come and see her dearson at his own . The message was received by
Sach i Dev i wi th tears and she said H ow shal l Ihear the sight of his shaven head ? I shal l not
go to Santipur to see that
A dffat
i
l
t
’ e house O fsight
,
—rather I wi l l go to theGanges and drown myself . ”
Though she said so i n grief, she left Nad ia for
Sant ipur in great haste . The in terv iew be
tween the mother and the son was ful l of
pathos. Chai tanya found his mother reduced
1 7 41 C H A ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
to a skeleton owing to grief and fasts,and she saw
him,i n the words of the poet
, shaven of hisbeauti ful curl ing hair, and greatly reduced he
wore a Icaup i n as the sa izyasis do , wi th an ou ter
cloth hanging from his shou lders . H is body
was besmeared with dust and he looked l ike a
mad man abstractly gazin g at the sky and
shedd ing tears. Then the mother said You are
go ing to preach relig i on to the world . I s
desertion of a poor mother and wi fe a part of
that rel ig ion Behav ing in th is way, how can
you be fit for teach ing relig ion to others ? Don ’ t
you know that I have none else in th is world
besides you ? Return home and go on singing
God ’
s name with Sribasa and others as you used
to do . I shal l engage Brahmins to invest you
wi th the sacred thread again though you have
left them .
”N imai seemed to be greatly moved
but said “For the cause of un iversal good
,
mother, this renunciation must he made . Th ink
of Kausalya who gave permission to Ram to go
to the forest ,— of D evahuti,who perm i tted
Kap i la to turn an ascet ic Y ou and Bishnu
priya wi l l surely find me ever near you ; for in
sp iri t , good mother, I can never be far away .
I n your ki tchen where you prepare food , you
wi l l feel my presence for there is n oth ing so
1 For a Brahm in who g ives up h i s sacred thread , a penance isnecessary to resume them invo lvmg the observance of some sacredri tes.
176 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
passed away from th isworld having an infiamma
tory fever caused by a hurt on his foot from such
a fall at Puri .
Then he left San t ipur, as already stated,after
a stav of ten days . A dwai ta was disconsolate
and wen t some d istance wi th him wh i le bidding
him farewel l the old man cried li ke a ch i ld ;upon wh ich Chai tanya m i ldly admon ished him
saying I f a veteran scholar and aged man l ike
you behave in th is way,how can I trust my
poor mother to your care ?”
(0 ) The i ncidents at P ziri .
On leaving San tipur C hai tanva came to
Kanchannagore i n the d istrict
of Burdwan and then crossing
the Damodar came to the house of a rich man
named Kash i M isra who had made great prepa
rations for his reception . A verv fine rice was
served him and he asked What d o you cal l th is
rice They said “I ts name is Gopalbhoga
(Li t . ,meal of Krishna)
’
On hearing th is, at the
men tion of Krishna ’
s name,tears rolled down
hi s cheeks,and he passed into a trance . Then
for somet ime he was i n a state of unconscious
Ou the way to Puri
ness,runn ing after and pursu ing his v ision l ike
a mad man with tears wh ich never ceased .
N i tyananda followed him l ike a shadow . One day
he stopped and staring at Ni tyananda sai t“Who
ON THE WA Y TO PU RI 17 7
are you ? N i tyananda was grieved to see him
in th is state of fren zy . From Kash i M isra’
s
house he wen t to Haz ipur where a rich young
man named Keshab Samanta called on him and
oflered him money say ing , Here accept this gi ft
from me and satisfy your desires. Leave this
professi on wh ich is wicked , for you wan t to
deceive people,— surely one so young cannot be
an ascet ic .
” Chai tanya gave him many instruc
tion s in course of which he remarked Just as a
man drowned in a river cannot see what takes
place on her banks,even so does a man fai l to
realise his real condi tion , being lost in world ’
s
desires . I t appears, however, that Keshab
Saman ta was not conv inced . Chai tanya said to
Gov inda,his compan ion ,
“Let us go to Narayan
pur. There is no good stay in g at Haz ipur.
”A t
the latter place two very respectable and wealthy
men came rid ing elephan ts, gaud i ly caparisoned .
They were Bireswar Sen and Bhawan isankarwho
werewonder-struck by seeing Chai tanya’
s fervourof devotion . From Hazipurhe wen t to Jaleshwarand here he crossed the Subarnarekha and thenv isi ted Balasore . H e crossed the Bai taran i and
the Mahanad i and v isi ted A marda and R am
chandrapur. Here a h i gh official named RamChandra Khan helped him to cross the river.
The triden ts of the con tend ing chiefs were
plan ted in the place mark ing boundaries, and no
one was al lowed to go from one country to
23
1 78 C HA I TA N YA A N D HI S A GE
another on pai n of death . Th is refers to the an i
mosi ty carried on wi th great force between
Raja Pratap Rudra of Orissa and Hussain Shah ,the Gour-Emperor. The boatmen employed by
R am Chandra Khan adv ised Chai tanya and those
that fol lowed him not to Speak aloud as the
spies of the Mahomedans were everywhere . But
Chai tanya,qui te fearless
, sang aloud God’
s name
saying that the reci tation of the holy name
wou ld drive away al l danger. H e next v isi ted
Jaj pur on the banks of the Papahara,and Jaya
nanda states that he stayed there at the house
of one Kamalalochan,who was a member of the
fami ly of which Chai tanya was a scion . I t
should be remembered that the ancestors of
Chai tanya were original ly inhabi tan ts of Jaj pur.
From Jaj pur he marched to the shrines of
Shiveswar, Jameswar and then came up to see
the famous temples of Kanarak andBhubaneswar.
Reach ing A lalnath he saw from far the great
flag of the Puri temple, sparkling wi th i ts gold
embroidered decorations in the morn ing sun .
The sight fil led him wi th strange ecstasy . H e
wept for j oy and cried aloud,
— “I have found
H im at last . ”
A ccounts d iffer about th is tour to Puri .
Chai tanya C hari tamrita says that after having
v isited Puri , Chai tanya started for Brindaban
but going up to the vi l lage of R amkel i near
Gour he came back to Puri via? San tipur.But
180 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
g ives a difi erent account . I t says that Chai tanya
as a young ascetic had attracted Sarbabhaum’
s
attent ion from the very first,and before going
to v isi t the Puri temple,he had accepted the
hospi tal i ty of Basudev, and stay ing at n igh t
wi th him,early in the morn ing of the day after
he had reached Puri , paid his v isi t to the temple .
The descript ion given by Kavikarnapur is very
poet ic . The doors of the temple are opened
and a sweet music bursts forth announcing the
time for public en try . From the doors rushes
forth the fragrance of a thousand li l ies and other
flowers . Chai tanya en ters the temple delighted
and en tranced by the sweet smel l and by the
sight of a hundred blue gems in the temple that
reflect the rays of the morn ing sun . However
poetic th is description may be, we prefer to
bel ieve in the accoun ts of Chai tanya Bhagavata,the Chai tanya C hari tamrita and other biogra
ph ies on th is po in t . For i t seems by no means
credi table , that Chai tanya, reach ing Puri , would
brook the delay of a momen t in v isi ting the
temple . I n regard to the accoun t of subsequen t
even ts at Puri , all biographers are , however,unan imous. I t is certain that
Basudev Sarbabhaum ,the great
champ i on ofnon -dual istic creed ,
had l i ttle regard for the lflzakéi cult . H e took
Chai tanya for a young man led astray and sei zed
by a man ia. H e said to one of his people, Hav ing
The con vers ion of
Vasu Deva .
VA SUD EV A ND C HA I TA N YA [ 81
left home he feels a great sorrow and recollect
ing his wi fe , he weeps wh ich they take as a sign
of his devotion to Krishna . H e is barely 24 .
Th is is not thecage for sang/ 018 . Let him return
home subjecting h imsel f to preper penance 1and
acquire a knowledge of the Upan ishads which
wil l teach him hi s du ties. Dancing and singing
do not become an ascetic . A nd how is it that
every t ime meal is served to Jagannath in the
temple he partakes of i t . A sanyasi must noteat at al l t imes.
” Mukunda, Gopinath and other
followers of Chai tanya were sorry at th is remark
but they said nothing . Basudev cal led Chai tanyato his presence and said Young man
, you knowthat I shwar Puri and others took sangas when
two-th irds of their li fe had passed . What righ t
have you to become a sanyasi at th is tender
age ?” Chai tanya replied meekly “ Yes, Sir, it
is even so . But why do you mistake me for a
sang/asi P I have lost all con trol over mysel f ,parted from Krishna . I t is for th is that I have
shaven my head and torn off the sacred thread .
Do not , Sir, th ink me to be so exalted a person
as a sanyasi . I am a very humble person . Bless
me that my soul may find rest in Krishna ’
s
love . A s he said th i s he wept,and Basudev
was impressed wi th the meekness and sincerity
Penance i s to be undergone by one who hav ing once adoptedsanyus, would like to return to home - l i fe .
182 C HA ITA N YA A N D H I S A GE
of the lad. He advised him to listen to his discourses on Vedan ta Ph i losophy that he del ivered
every even ing and Chai tanya meekly sat
amongst the aud ience every day‘and said not a
word . On the day when Basudev fin ished his
lectures,he said Many of those who attended
my d iscourses raised poin ts to be cleared by me,
and I tried my best to solve the quest ions. But
you ,who are reported to be a scholar, never
spoke a word, but sat plunged in your own
emotions, apparen tly not heeding my lectures.
Wi l l you tel l me what you have learn t from my
d iscourse ?” Chai tanya replied very humbly
Sir your learn ing is vast . Your e loquence is
great and you have the power of creating a
wonderfu l impressi on by your speech . bu t your
v iews have not always appealed to me .
”A nd
Basudev,the veteran scholar, wonderingly asked
What could your v iews be, ch i ld , that do not
agree wi th m ine ? Then a regular d iscussion
took place in which the dual istic v iews were put
forth wi th so much force by Chai tanya that
Basudev waivered in his argumen tat ion to up
hold the pan theisti c theory . The God wi thout
qual i ty , wi thou t form ,inacti ve , and inert , man i
fest ing himself in every object of the un iverse and
iden t ical wi th i t, cou ld not hold H is own against
the God, k ind , lov ing and merci ful and even
wi lling to save people from the i r Si ns . A ndwhen
Basudev in terpreted the text of the Bhagavata
181 C HA ITA N YA A N D H I S A GE
though in some cases his scholarly ardour cloud
ed his h istorical sense . The Chai tanya Chandro
daya does not speak anyth ing regard ing th
debate We have rejected the statemen t madein the Chai tanya C hari tamri ta that Chai tanya
wen t to R amkel i shortly after he had arrived
at Puri . H e must have done so after return ing
from the Deccan about the year 1 51 2 A .D .
Somet ime before Chai tanya came to Puri ,Raja Pratap Rudra of Orissa had gone to
B ijaynagar in the Deccan to
p rffaa
gt
fiifiia’m R aj a fight wi th the k ing of that
place . On his return to the
ci ty Pratap Rudra heard of the great impression
on his people that Chai tanya’
s v isi t to Puri had
produced . A t first he had his doubts. We
read in Sterl ing’
s H istory of Orissa that th is k ing
was at first a Buddh ist . H e often cut pleasan t
j okes at R am R ai , his min ister, for his ferven t
fai th in Vaishnabism . I t is therefore qui te
natural that the si ght of a sanyasi , who dis
played so much emotion and lay besmeared
wi th dust , weep ing l ike a woman ,should pro
duce an unfavourable impression . The Chai
tanya Bhagavata tel ls that th is was real ly the
case .Chai tanya C hari tamrita says that the k ing
once said to Sarbabhauma“ H ow is i t that the
ascetic takes meal wi thout bath ing or shav ing
h imself ? The rules of the shrine do not al low
i t.
” But though at first he had his doubts, he
PRA TA P RUDRA 185
soon felt a great admiration verging on love for
Chai tanya, as he saw him singing the name of
God in the m idst of his fo l lowers. The emotion
and the poetry of the si tuation , a young man
loving Godwi th all his heart , had an effect wh ich
1rresistibly appealed ; and the Raja is said to have
exclaimed as he saw Chai tanya passing by the
streets from the roof of his palace : “ I never saw
such a sight,I never heard such music, I never
saw such dance .
”The k in g wan ted to be al lowed
to see Chai tanya . But the young ascet ic told
Basudev Sarbabhauma, who commun icated the
king ’
s wish , that as a sanyasi he shou ld keep
h imself aloof from the foun tain of power and
weal th . I t is stated in the Chai tanya Chandro
daya and Chai tanya C haritamri ta that Pratap
Rudra felt very sorry at this refusal , and asked
Basudev and others to in tercede for him again,
regretting that the humblest of his subjects had
a privi lege wh ich was den ied him because he was
a king . But though a k ing he was poor in sp iri t
and c laimed admi ttance to theMaster’
s presence
on that ground . I th ink there is an exag
geration in the accoun t g iven by some of these
biograph ies that so grieved was the Raja at not
getting the permission that he fasted for ten
days . The in terv iew,however
,took place
shortly after. Chai tanya was lving in an un
conscious state in the house of Gop i nath A charya,when the Baja stole into the room and held
24:
186 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
fast the Master’
s feet wi th imploring looks.
A p icture drawn half a century later showing
Chai tanya and Pratap Rudra in th is si tuati on,
wi l l be found reproduced in my work “Chai
tanya and his Compan ions .
” When Chai tanya
recovered from his trance, he drew his feet off
and said “A h l I have touched a man gi ven to
worldly power ! But when the Raja bore the
remark humbly , and said that he was ready to
give up his power and wealth for the sake of the
Master, Chai tanya,conv inced of his sinceri ty
,
embraced him in deep love . A nd R am R ay, the
min ister and poet , in his celebrated work the
Jagannath Bal lay , wonders as to how such a
great warrior as the Raja was, whom al l I nd ian
wrestlers dreaded and who was the most for
m idable enemy of the Pathans, could be so over
powered by emotions as t o mel t l ike a soft th ing
at the Master’
s touch . Govindadas wri tes
When the lci rtana party passed by the publ ic
street wi th Chai tanya in the cen tre,the k ing
Pratap Rudra walked beh ind them al l like the
very humblest of his subjects.
Chai tanya’
s fame had by th is t ime spread al l
over I nd ia, and p i lgrims came to Puri to visi t him
as they did to v isi t Jagannath in theGreat Temple .
We read in the accoun ts, that presents of rich
food came to him in large quan t i ties from his
Nad ia-friends and admirers,
and the young
scholar Jagadananda was the custod ian of these
188 C H A I TA NYA A N D H I S A G E
temple where the lamps would burn wi th that
oi l at the time of E vening -Serv ice . Jagadananda
fasted for three days in anger,and when
Chai tanya would not st i ll use the oi l,he ran
to the store -room and brought the jar and
broke i t to p ieces, and i ts con ten ts flew down
in the compound . Chai tanya slept on the bare
floor and the stone on wh ich he rested his head
was hard . Jagadananda one day brought a
pi llow for him upon wh ich Chai tanya said
Jagadananda should bring a couch for me
from the palace . This man wan ts that I should
enj oy life as worldly men do .
”
D amodara one of Chai tanya’
s constant asso
ciates, and an ascetic who fol lowed the rules of
his Order to the letter, often reprimanded him for
not observing too closely the sli ci stri c ord inances
for sanyasis . H e even went further and occa
sional ly gave adv i ce to Chai tanya as regards his
morals. A Brahmin boy at Puri,greatly devoted
to Chai tanya, came frequen tly to pay him
respects . The mother of the boy was a youngwidow and very handsome . One day D amodara
said to Chai tanya : You are a
D amodara god in human shape and privi
leged to do as you wi sh . But
how can you step the mouth of the people . Can ’ t
you judge your si tuat ion The mother of th is
boy is very beaut i ful though of course she has
the reputation of good character. You are a
A NEW FA M I LY A T PUR I 189
youth and have adopted stern asceti ci sm . Whv
do you al low th is boy to come to you so often
and thereby give Opportun i ty to scandal-mom
gers A nd Chai tanya said I admi re you for
your sound advice . You should go to Nad ia
my poor mother and wi fe wi l l certain ly need the
help of such a disciplinarian and guard ian .
”
(d) H is resolve to go to the D eeecm.
D ay and n ight visitors came and allowed no
rest to Chai tanya . One day he addressed Ni tya
nanda and others and said “ Permi t me, brethren ,
to leave Puri and go on a tour to Southern
I ndia .
”H e referred to N ityananda
’
s having
broken hi s ascetic ’
s staff on his way to Puri .
H is in ten tion was that by doing so he wou ld be
able to make Chai tanya return to his home and
live there as a house-holder. Turn ing to N itya
nanda he said again I do as you wish me to do .
I have no option to act independently . I was
going to Brindaban after my samycts and you
brought me to San tipur. You deceived me byshewing me the Ganges and cal ling the river
Jamuna . The affecti on of you al l for me is
unbounded . But th is is a great h indrance to me .
Jagadananda wan ts me to taste l i fe ’
s pleasure as
aworldlyman . Whatever he wishes I do for fear.
For if I do not do so he wi l l not talk wi th me for
three days . My friend Mukunda is grieved to seeme observe the austeri t ies of an ascetic’
s li fe that
190 C HA I TA NYA A N D H IS A GE
I bathe in win ter three t imes every n ight and
sleep on the bare ground . I am an ascetic but
Damodar acts as the guard ian of my morals
and admon ishes me for break ing the rules of
asceticism . H e cares for his religion on ly , but
I cannot forget that I am a human being and
have some dut ies to do to my fel low-men . For
al l these reasons, you , my friends, shou ld remain
here and I must go abroad v isi t ing shrines for a
wh i le .
” 1 Ni tyananda said that he knew all the
shrines of I nd ia and would act as his guide , and
hundreds of others offered to accompany him .
Basudev Sarbabhauma is said to have exclaimed
thus at the news of Chai tanya ’
s resolve to leave
Puri I f a thunder-bolt fal ls on my head and
even if my son dies I can perhaps bear that , but
not separat ion from Chai tanya 1” But al l these
were of no ava il . Chai tanya had perceived that
a new fami ly had been created at Puri in the
place of the old one that he had left at Nadia,
and that he must extricate h imself once more
from the t ies of affecti on to be able to impart
to mi l l ions of people his message of love for God.
Then probably recollecting that the news of his
departure from Puri from wh ich his mother
could always have t id ings of him , would cause
great pain to her, he said that one of the missions
of his tour in Southern I nd ia would be t o seek
out his elder brother B i swarup .
The Typical Selec t ions from Old Benga l i Li terature , Vol . I I , p . 1207 .
192 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
notice of the period of five or six mon ths previous
to sang/as, i s somewhat imperfect and seems evi
dently tohave been wri tten from memory,whereas
the notes relat ing to the latter peri od are fu ll
and exhaustive, abound ing wi th graph ic sketches
of al l that had taken place . I t is natural for us
to surm ise that the idea of j otting down notes
orig inated in Govinda’
s m ind in connection wi th
Chai tanya ’
s tour in the Deccan . For at Nad ia
and in Puri there were many scholars who were
Chai tanya’
s compan ions,who, l ike Sarup , Damodar
andMurari,were ever ready to record the inci
den ts of his li fe ; and an unassuming man l ike
Gov inda cou ld not possibly have conceived the
idea of wri ting a sketch of the Master in the
presence of these scholars, as his educat ion was
of a very humble k ind . I t was when no one
else cou ld be near to record the events of his
li fe, that Gov inda fel t tempted to do so and this
surm ise of ours is substan tiated , as already
stated , by the verv nature of the narrati on of
facts,the earl ier even ts being wri tten off-hand ,
as if from recol lection ,and the notes of later
ones possessing al l the freshness and l iving inter
est of a chron icle wri tten on the spot .
The p icture of the Master in th is narrative
i s di vested from al l manner of g lori fication by
ascrib ing supernatural powers to him . Such
exaggerat ion in reali ty in most instances mars
true glory . The l mrc/m shows how the young
THE MA D A SCETI C 193
ascetic wandered from vi llage to village intoxi
cated with God ’
s love and passed into trances
as often as he saw a ri ver, a flower or a newly
risen cloud . The sight of th is trance was so
attracti ve that everywhere i t drew large crowds.
We also read in the karcha that in the m idst of
his madden ing love for God, he every now and
then displayed a great eloquence insp ired by
spiri tual fervour,and defeated
He defeats scholarsand they accept his the scholarly argumen tatl ons ofwe“
the great pan theist leaders of
Southern I ndia, suchas I shwar Puri of Chandipur,Bhargadev of Tripatra and others. Ramgiri
,
the famous Buddh ist leader, hada tough fightwith
Chai tanya on spiri tual questions. The Raja of
Trimanda acted as judge . Ramgiri was completely
defeated and became a fol lower of Chai tanya
adopting the Vaishnab name of Haridas. On
many occasions the extraord inary learn ing of
the young ascet ic made a great impression ; but
when establishing the cause of devotion and fai th
by his scholarship , he recited the name of Krishna
ferven tly with tears in his eyes and followed his
visi on through woods and marshes, heedless of
physical pain ,they al l beheld in him something
more than human and accepted him as God.
A t a place cal led Tripatra we find him
followed by ch i ldren who cried out There goes
the ascet ic mad aft er God.
”Some threw dust
at him his outer robes were al l torn and
25
194 C HA ITA N YA A N D H I S A GE
his body was covered wi th mud Says .Govinda
H e looks l ike a mad man . The name of
K rishna raised him to a state of poet ic fren zy
and completely distracted him . A t Munna we
find him giv ing instructions l istened to by
hundreds of men and women wi th rapt atten tion,
the women shedd ing tears over pathos created
by God ’
s name .
(6) R eformation of Sinners.
Gov inda D as g ives several instances where
Chai tanya reformed sinners . 1he accounts are
so simple that we can qu i te understand how
great fai th is capable of sanct i fy ing the lives of
the fal len . We have seen how a story of simple
fai th , the paral lel of wh ich is so often furn ished
by Gov inda,was magn ified by the Nadia-people
in to a tale of legendary character in which
Chai tanya is said to have assumed al l the power
and d ign i ty of Vi shnu and cal led on the chat/cm
( the d iv ine d isc) to pun ish Jagai andMadhai . But
pun ishmen t is not the adequate means in such
cases . E ven the majesty of Vishnu wi th his
mortal disc can terri fy the sinner but cannot
turn him in to a sain t . Near Bateswar the rich
young man Tirtharam,given to frivolous plea
sures, though t that Chai tanya as a young man
would easi ly be capt ivated by the charms of
young women,and wi th that purpose brought
196 CHA I TA NY A A ND H I S A GE
Chai tanya sat quiet singing the name of
Krishna—unmoved . Lakh i fel t that he was
too far sain tly to be led astray by temptations.
She bowed to him in all humi l ity and
Chai tanya remarked Why do you how to me ,mother, humi li ty of others towards me begets
sin ,for I am the humblest of men .
”Saying
so he sang the name of Krishna,shedd ing
incessan t tears ; he sometimes fel l down on
the thorny ground wh ich hurt him and
somet imes danced in ecstacy of joy . He lost
al l consciousness of the physical world and his
outer mantle flew away . The wreath of flowers
that some admirers had put on his neck was torn
to pieces . H e pushed away
Tirtharam wi th his feet, qu i te
unconscious of the latter’
s presence . So great was
his emotion that i t moved to tears some of the
Buddh ists who were there . Tirtharam wept,fal l ing at his feet and said
,
“ I am a great
sinner, save me O Lord . Chai tanya for
a wh i le could not speak but recoverin g from his
trance embraced Tirtharam and said in a tone
of deep love Brother,you are a piousman .
” This
made the repen tan t young man weep and cry
for mercy . Tirtharam made a g ift of his vast
property to his wi fe Kamalkumari and tak ing
the beggar’
s bowls in his hands turned aVaishnab
mendican t . H is friends all said Look there,th is
fel low is lost .” Kabikarnapur had said of
Tirtharam .
THE FOREST OF C HORA NA ND I 197
Chaitanya ; The effect of a sight of him is
wonderful . Whoever beholds him feels God ’s
love O ther apostles,sain ts and prophets, of
whom we read , commun icated their messages
to the world by instructions and sermons . But
Chai tanya worked wonders in sp iri tual and
moral fields,often wi thout any sermon or
speech . The very sight of him raised people to
a higher plane of existence , . so Kavikarnapur
was right in say ing that the effect of a sight
of him was -wonderfu l .
(c) N aoroyi , Bhi lp antha , Muraris and B armukhi .
I n the woods of C horanandi there li ved a
gang of formidable band i ts inthose days headed by Naoroj i .
Chai tanya marched from Munna tolthe forest of
Bogula of wh ich C horanandi formed a part .
Ramgiri,a sanyasi , said Choranandi is no
shrine .
1 What attracti ons are there for a Sadhu ?The woods are infested with wicked men .
Chai tanya replied What have I wi th me that
these peoplemay robme of Chai tanya en tered
deep in to the forest and sat under a tree . Therewere many bad men there who l ived by robbery .
One fel low spoke a language that was jargon to
me . Chai tanya talked to him in that language .
The man stood si lent for a wh i le and casting
Naoroj i .
Govinda Das’
s Karcha,pp . 146-148 .
198 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
a searching look around, en tered the j ungle .
Then came to that spot Naoroj i himself,their
ch ief, - a strong-bui l t man he came wel l armed
wi th weapons .
Three or four men came wi th Naor0 j 1 and
they al l bowed to Chai tanya (as he was an
ascet ic) . Naorop said Come wi th me, Sir, you
wi l l spend the n ight in my place .
” Chai tanya
said I shal l spend the n igh t under th is tree .
”
He aring th is he ordered some of his people
to bring some alms for the sanyasi . They wen t
away and Chai tanya sat there sing ing the name
of Krishna . Some brought fuel,some sugar
,
mi lk and butter and others brought rice,frui ts
and sweet roots . They brought heaps of these .
A keen appet i te grew in me at the sight of these
th ings. I had travel led wi th Chai tanya in many
countries but nowhere did I find such palatable
th ings and in such quan t i ties. Placing al l th is
food in proper place Naoroj i’
s men stood sur
rounding us. A t th is momen t Chai tanya had
passed in to a trance and lost all consciousness.
A nd as he danced in j oy , his n imble feet
threw away the heaps of food stored before
him for he was unaware of everyth ing . The
m i lk flowed in the ground and fru i ts were
crushed under hi s feet . One or two men among
them said ‘What sort of sonyasi is th is ? H e
is wi lful ly spoi ling the articles Naoroj i said‘ I never saw a sight l ike th is. Why does my
200 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
for preserv ing li fe what is the use of hoarding
money by ev i l ways ? The hollow of your palm
may serve you as cup,why shou ld you care for
securing the latter The foun tain wil l give you
excel len t water. The mi llionaires, I say, shal l
have one day to go to the realms of Death . By
the same path the Emperor and the meanest of
his subjects wi ll go .
’
Naoroj i expressed his wish to accompany
us. H e said ‘ I know al l the j ungly paths and
shal l be able to act as your guide wh i le v isi ting
the various shrines of th is coun try . From
to-day no more shal l I have to do anyth ing
wi th these weapons. Oh how many murders
have I not comm i tted wi th these hands and what
v i le lan guage have I not spoken wi th th is month !
No more do I care to be the leader of the
robbers . You are my sav iour and have shown
me the real path .
’
Saying so the robber-ch ief
left al l that he had and accompan ied us wear
i ng a bark dress. O ther robbers wen t away to
the ir place , but Naoroj i fol lowed us.
”
Naoroj i accompan ied Chai tanya through
Khandal on the river Mula, Nasik , Panchabati ,
Daman,Varouch near the Tapti up to Baroda.
A fter hav ing crossed the Narmada they reached
Baroda “Theref wri tes Gov inda D as, a calami ty befel l us after three days' stay . Naoroj id ied of fever. A t the momen t of his death
Chai tanya sat near him and tended him with his
A T BA NKOT 201
own lotus-hands. When his eyes closed for
ever,Chai tanya san g Krishna’
s name to his
ears. Chai tanya begged a lms from people and
gave Naoroj i a burial there .
”
I n the Bogula-woods there was another
robber named Bhi lapantha, and
Chai tanya reformed him in the
same way. But I th ink it is/
not right to say
that he employed any means consciously for
reformation . Just as a flower smi les, no matter
if anybody sees it or not,—i ts attract ion being a
part of its nature —as a gift from the A l l -Beauti ful
One , Chaitanya attracted . people by the, Charm
and poetry of his devotion and trances. There
was no propagand ism, the very si ght of
him revealed to them the wonderfu l beauty
of spiri tual li fe and the reformation came as
a matter of course wi thout any conscious effort
on the part of the reformer. H is l ife was a
concen trated spiri tual force wh ich proved irre
sistible in most cases and produced a wonderful
effect . Says Govinda of Chai tanya “ Reduced
greatly by fasting, so weak that he can scarcely
walk , he gives the name of Krishna to al l from
door to door. The people of the coun try (near
Bankot) speak jargon , yet he imparts love of
God to them . One who sees Chai tanya has
not the power to leave the spot .” A t Bankot
he lay three days in a trance under a tree .
During these three days he did not t ouch any
26
Bhi lapan thi .
202 C H A I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
food .
“ From Bankot he wen t to G irishwarwhere he met a sanyasi who
A t s
a, G i l -151
1
1
13;“was”
had taken the vow of Si lence .
Th is sang/asi was maddened byemotions as he saw the trances of Chai tanya .
Next he wen t to Panna Narasingha and therecrossed the Bhadra . H e next v isi ted Kalatirtha
and thence went to Sandhi tirtha,ten mi les off.
from the former place,on the confluence of
the rivers Nanda and Bhadra .
H e met Sadananda Puri there
and held a d iscussion in wh ich Puri was beaten
and he acknowledged Chai tanya’
s superiori ty .
Thence Chai tanya proceeded towards C haipal l i
(Trichinopoly ) where he met a female anchori te
hundred years old , look ing grand and beauti ful
inspite of her age . Thence he wen t to Nagar“covered wi th mud
,wi th hair bound into a
knot,speaking of noth ing else but of Krishna
al l the way.
”
We find him pay ing a v isi t to the Muraris,
these bad women who professing themselves to
be the wives of Khandova, the
dei ty worsh ipped in the temple
at J izuri near Poona,led v icious l ives. Their
leader was I nd ira Dev i , an aged woman ,who
struck wi th emotion and sp iri tual fervour of
Chai tanya became thoroughly reformed . The
Muraris are sti ll to be seen near Poona . A bout
450 years have not improved the state of th ings.
Sadananda Puri .
The Murari s .
204 C H A ITA NY A A N D H I S A GE
name . Beh ind them al l I saw hundreds of
women of noble fam i lies assembled, l isten ing to
him wi th devotional sen t iments . The women
were weep ing and wip ing away their tears by the
edge of the ir sari . Many Vaishnabs and Shaiva
ascet ics stood on the spot l isten ing to Chai tanya
wi th closed eyes. By his rel ig ious instructions
Chai tanya maddened the people of th is coun try .
I n ever saw such a wonderful sight . Sometimes
Chai tanya spoke in Tam i l and at others in
Sanskri t .”
The story of the reformat ion of Chai tanya
does not end here . I n the Bhakta-Mal by Navaj i ,
B kh_
th h I ta Hind i wri ter
,we find men
aramu 1,
e ar e .
tl on of Baramukhi a beauti ful
harlot . I t is stated there that a Sadhu reformed
her and she turned a Vaishnab sain t . Navaj i
gathered his in format i on about Baramukhi from
the Deccan af ter Chai tanya’
s name had been
forgotten there . So that the Bhakta-Mal does
not give a ful l accoun t . I t is in the pages of
Gov inda Das’
s I mvc/i a that we find a graph ic
descripti on of th is reformat i on . I shall quote
the accoun t here .
A t a v i llage named Ghoga near D waraka
Chai tanya arrived,accompan ied , of course
,by
Gov inda Karmakar andalso by two otherBengal is
who had met him in the way—Ramananda
Basu and Gov inda Charan Basu . To their great
surprise and del ight they had d iscovered
BA RA MUKH I THE HA R LOT 205
Chai tanya in the shrine of D waraka wh ich they
had come to v isi t .
A t Ghoga l ived a harlot named Baramukhi .
She was immensely rich . She had acqu ired th is
wealth by her bad l ivelihood . H er apparels and
ornamen ts were l ike those of a princess and she
l ived in a large palatial house . She used to
wander about her house and the adj oin ing garden
wi th a View to tempt rich people . H er dress was
l ike those of the women of P eshwar and she had
many male and female servan ts. A ttached to
her residen tial bui ld ing was the garden cal led
P eyari- l mnan . Chai tanya came and sat near
that garden and became total ly lost in God ’
s love .
I had travel led wi th him in d ifferen t coun tries so
long but never did I see so much emotion in him .
Ramananda and Gov inda Charan stood on two
sides and clapped their hands to keep t ime, as
they sang the name of Krishna . There was a
large pit near the road and Chai tanya fel l into it
in an unconscious state . A wicked man came
there andbegan to abuse Chai tanya . H e address
ed him and said ‘Why have you come to deceive
the simple v i l lagers here ? You wan t to take
money from them by feign ing devotion to
Krishna. I shal l presen t ly see what sort of
samyasi you are . I have seen many impostors
like you .
’ When the wicked man spoke in this
way, the v i llagers became exci ted andwere about
to give him a sound thrash ing,but Chai tanya
206 C HA I TA NYA A ND H IS A GE
who had recovered h imself, in terceded on his
behalf and said : Whom are you going to beat ,brethren ? Here is one whose heart is dry,
give
him a bit of God ’
s love . His mind has grownsteri le wi thou t devot ion . I t i s l ike a desert .
P ut in him that wh ich may restore i t to i ts
natural fert i lity .
’ Turn ing to the man he said‘Now,
my pi ous brother,’
wi l l you come to me ,
I shall reci te to you the name of Krishna and
all your sorrows wi l l be removed .
’
Say ing so
he wen t to him and began to sing the name of
Krishna .
“Baramukhi , the harlot , saw and heard al l that
happened from her window and said aloud What
a cursed l i fe I have been lead ing ! th is young
sai iyasi appears to me l ike a god . I shal l leave
everyth ing and go to him . H e has no money wi th
him yet my heart throbs wi th delight at the
sight of him. How long shal l I be in th is house
wh ich is now a hell to me Wi l l not th is god
be gracious un to me H e has saved wicked
Balaj i from a sinful l i fe,by what charm he
knows best . I shall go to him and fal l at his feet
and wi l l not leave him un t i l he saves me .
“From the window of her mansion she
uttered her reflect ions and people who heard her
were pleased . They began to speak on th is
topic in an exci ted manner and laughed and
set up a great uproar. A few momen ts after the
harlot came down and M ira,her maid -servant
,
208 C HA ITA N YA A N D HI S A GE
house-holder. Reci te the name of Krishna dayand n ight and do not live a sinful l i fe . I t
is good to love , but not a decei tful man . Try
to love Krishna .
’
Saying so she took a string
Of sacred beads in her hands and gave hersel f
up to Krishna .
” l
The accoun t of the Bhaktamal detai ls how
Baramukhi made a garden of Tulsi plan ts and
l ived a p ious l ife ,g iv ing al l her property to her
maid servan t .
1 Gov inda Das’
s Karcha pp
CHA PTER VI I I .
(3) Visit to Travancore and other places.
( i i ) Reception at Puri ; meeting Wi th Raghunath D as.
(i ) Visi t to Travancore and other p laces.
From Ghoga Chai tanya started for Somnath .
The detai ls of the tour are given in my work
Chai tanya and H is Compan ions .
’
The harcha
gives a topography of the shrines Of South
ern I ndia, graph ic and full of v iv id interest .
We find how Chai tanya tried to avoid the
big Rajas Of the Deccan . R udrapati , the King
of Travancore , sen t a man asking Chai tanya
Rudrapat i , K ing ofto pay a v isi t to him at his
“m m” ? palace . On Chai tanya’
s refusal
to do so the messenger threatened him wi th
pun i shmen t . But when the Raja heard that the
sanyasi would not come to him ,he wen t him
se lf on -bare foot and in humble dress, and Chai
tanya‘
r’
eceived him kindly . A nother Raja
came“ to see him and Offered many presen ts
wh ich Chai tanya declined to accept . Upon
which the Raja en treated him to accept from
him some alms as he did from ordinary people .
27
210 C HA I TA N YA A N D HI S A GE
Chai tanya in compliance wi th the request sen t
Gov inda to his palace who took on ly a handful
Of rice from the servan ts Of the Raja . The stern
attitude Of the sanyasi is in perfect accord with
the accoun t Of his conduct towards PratapRudra ,
the Raja of Orissa as described in the
Chai tanya Chari tamrita and other works . Th is
also proves why the Brahm ins of olden times
were respected by the aristocracy Of I nd ia .
They were con ten ted wi th poverty but were
proud of their pure li fe and culture and never
showed any sign of humi liation before those
that had power and weal th .
We have seen that Chai tanya held frequen t
learned debates wi th many of the reputed scho
lars of Southern I nd ia . But Govinda D as being
h imself a man of very humble education could
not foll ow them . SO he was natural ly very
brief in his descript ion of these . For instance,when Chai tanya meets R am R ay, the m in ister
Of the king Pratap Rudra,on the banks of
Godavari , Gov inda D as gives on ly a very imade
quate gist of the learned conversation between
him and Chai tanya . H e plain ly tel ls us that
not even a hundredth part of the conversation
is reproduced in his book . But Chai tanya C ha
ritamri ta. gives us detai ls of the d iscussion .
Krishna D as Kaviraj , the author of the latter
work , owed the detai ls to the notes left bySarup D amodara.
212 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Of the d ifferen t countries that he had v isi ted ;for there is no doubt that he had made a verv
great impression .
(i i ) Return to P nri and the recep ti on .
When from Rissa Culla, the weary way
farers came to A lalnath after thei r long
j ourney , the news spread al l over the coun try in
a few hours . The compan ions of Chai tanya,not
perm i tted to go wi th him as attendants,were
awai ting his return wi th great eagerness .
‘ They
all hastened to meet him . We find the party
that marched from P uri to g ive him a reception
headed by the lame scholar Khanjanacharya .
Says Gov inda D as “ though lame he ran ahead
Of others.
”The veteran scholar Vasudev car
ried a drum h imse lf and beat i t wi th his own
hands to indicate his j oy . Murari Gupta came up
in great haste and when Chai tanya embraced
him ,the Old man overpowered wi th his emotion
,
knel t down . Ram D as,the famous musician
,
sounded the horn . Narahari , the sain t ly poet
of Srikhanda, appeared wi th a flag in his hand .
The famous singer Lakhan ’
s voice was heard
above all vo ices, for he sang sweet songs of recep
tion . H aridas, the Mahomedan convert, and
Krishna D as, whose big bel ly was a noteworthy
sight , came up in breath less haste, and hundreds
of others followed . Some danced for j oy and
THE REC EPTI ON 213
others sang . Says Govinda “The j oy of th is
un ion cannot be expressed in words ” They all
began to sing the praises of Krishna , and in their
midst was seen Chai tanya wi th tearful eyes,beauti fully mov ing hi s head in emot ion
,j oin ing
the singers. On the 3rd of Magh 1433 Saka
(1 51 1 A .D . ) Chai tanya reached Puri wi th these
men . Thousands Of men gathered to have a
sight of him ; and Raja Pratap Rudra,throwing
aside his royal pomp , j oined the processi on ,and
beh ind Chai tanya and behind every one , like thehumblest of his subjects, wen t on bare foot .Chai tanya v isited the temple Of Puri and as he
saw it he was absorbed in his love-ecstacy . Basu
dev Sarbabhauma says “ There is the image of
Vishnu in wood , li fe less, but you are living
Vi shnu and Chaitanya when he heard th is ad'
monished Vasudev saying “ That is blasphemy,
I am a common mortal , do not speak in that
way.
”The accoun t of Chai tanya’
s return t o
Puri as we find in the harcha and that givenin Chai tanya C hari tamri ta are very much alike .
Many people had certain ly wi tnessed i t in Orissa,so that Krishna D as could easi ly gather—correcth istorical informat ion from d irect sources.
On his return to Puri Raghunath D as, that
princely youth who had givenup his vast landed properties
and turned an ascetic, met him . H is income
from landed estates was 1 2 lakhs Of rupees a’
Raghunath D as.
214 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
vear,and he enj oyed besides a further large
income from taxes lev ied upon sea-going vessels
and other sources. I t shou ld be remembered
that the value of money at that time was much
higher than now. When barely 1 6,he had
, ere
th is, once come to give h imself up to Chai tanya .
But the latter had then said D O not feign
asceticism,it is not easy in your age to turn an
ascet ic . You are a young boy . F irst go and do
the duties of the world . But be not too much
addicted to i t. A ndwhen by discharging worldly
duties you wi l l be fi t for renunciat i on ,then
Krishna h imself wi l l show you the way.
”A nd
Raghunath spoke not a word but returned h ome
to the great j oy of his father Gobardhan D as and
uncle H iranya D as,— as he was the on ly heir to
their j oin t estates at Saptagram . Raghunath
was dearer to them than all their riches. When
the lost one was found,the j oy Of th is return
sounded through the streets of their city by loud
Nahabat Orchestra . Raghunath had married
one of the handsomest g irls in that part of the
coun try . A quarrel ensued soon after between
his uncle and father on one side and Hussain
Shah the Emperor on the other, and the result
was that the latter’
s troops attacked their palace
at Saptagram . They had however absconded .
Young Raghunath was fearless and came forward
and was forthwi th arrested . Though he was so
h ighly religi ous he knew business tactics wel l .
216 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
cried aloud “ Look there Raghu , our beloved
Raghu comes. How pale and imatiated does he
look 1” A nd Raghu touched the feet of the
Master wi th tears and said D O not leave me
th is time .
” Chai tanya appoin ted Sarupa Damo
dara to teach him Vaishnab scriptures. For a
ful ler accoun t Of Raghunath D as the reader is
referred to my works Chai tanya and his C om
panions.
’
CHA PTER IX.
Proposed visit to Brindaban .
I nterview with Rupa and Sanatan—their sang/as.
Private tour ; Baladev’s account .
Stay at Brindaban ; on the way back, meeting
with Bijali Khan .
(i ) P rop osed vi si t to B rindaban .
A fter a short stay at Puri Chai tanya ex
pressed his wish to go to v isi t the Brinda groves,andNrishinghananda, one of his adm irers, became
ready to devote his whole fortune towardsmaking
a road from Puri to Brindaban on th is occasi on .
H e bu i lt the read up to Kanai’
s
Nagfifgggziggjde by
Natsala near Gour,and Chai
tanya Charitamrita gives a
descript ion Of the magnificence of the plan . The
road was wel l metalled and was paved wi th
coloured stones and on both sides tanks were
dug and rows of flower- trees were plan ted .
When Chai tanyamarched out flowerswere spread
on the way,so that the scmyasi could walk
pleasan tly on bare foot . A rrangemen ts weremade by Raja Pratap Rudra to keep record
28
218 C H A I T A NYA A N D H I S A GE
of th is trip. H e sent three Of his ch ief min isters,Mongoraj , Hariehandan and R am R av wi th
orders that every place where Chai tanya would
bathe m ight be turned in to a shrine . A monu
ment should mark such spots. Owing to Raja
Pratap Rudra’
s con t inued an imosi ty wi th Hussain
Shah the places beyond P ichi lda,the l imi ts Of
the j urisdiction of Uriya Raja,were very unsafe
for the pi lgrims who in tended to trave l bevond
the boundary -l ine . The Mahomedan Governor
appoin ted near P ichi lda was,however
,a great
admirer of Chai tanya and he made friends wi th
the m in isters of Pratap Rudra and arranged
every faci li ty for the p i lgrims . The road made
by Nrishighananda was cal led Nrishinghananda’
s
Jangal and may probably be st i ll traced near
Kanai ’s Natsala . A crowd Of thousands Of men
fol lowed Chai tanya ,but he, overj oyed at the
thought of v isi ting the groves sacred by associa
tions wi th Krishna,heeded not these magn ificen t
arrangemen ts but wen t absorbed in his own
thoughts. When he had come up to R amkeli,
Hussain Shah heard the report of the great crowd
that attended the San yasi and sen t one Keshab
Basu to make enqu iries as to what sort Of
sanyasi he was. The Emperor was eviden tly
struck with the impressi on that Chai tanya had
created in the coun try and wondered how a poor
Brahm in lad cou ld command such a widespread
influence as to be followed by thousands.
220 C HA ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
for they had practi cally given up their H indu
ways though they had been originally Brahmins,and adopted Mahomedan habi ts . The names Of
Sanatan and Rupa were g iven to the brothers
by Chai tanya . Sanatan was a great Sanskri t
and Persian scholar andRupa afterwards became
the foremost Sanskri t poet of Bengal of those
days.
Their visi ts to Chai tanya produced the usual
effect and the brothers saw in him what others
had seen before . Th is sanyasi had actual ly fal len
in love wi th God,h i therto bel ieved to be too
h igh for human comprehension . They beheld
wi th wondering love the beau ty of his mystic
trances and th is fascination did not cease but
grow wi th lapse of t ime . Rupa left the court,
turned sanyasi and j oined Chai tanya at Puri
about the year 1 516 A .D . leav ing a note for
Sanatan his e lder brother. Th is was in the form
Of a San skri t verse wh ich may be thus rendered
in to English Where is, alas, now A yodhya,the
the k ingdom Of Rama ? I ts glories have van ish
edandwhere is the reputed Mathura Of Krishna ?I t is also devo id of i ts former
Rupa and Sanatan . splendour. Th ink Of the fleet
ing nature of th ings and sett leyour course . The Prime M in ister
,however
, could
not so easi ly leave the cap i tal as the Emperor
kept him under watch after his brotherhad fled.
H e asked him to accompany him in his expedition
SA N A TA N’
S HUM I LI TY 221
against a H indu kingdom . But Sanatan plainly
told the Emperor that he could not be a party to
help iconoclasm , upon wh ich the Emperor threw
him in to prison . But his relations bribed M ir
Habul,the jai lor,wi th Rupees andhelped his
escape . H e j oined the Master at Puri . Chai tanya
sen t both the brothers to Brindaban wi th the
missi on to iden t i fy places associated wi th Krishna
and wri te books abou t Vaishnav ism . There might
have been a poli tical reason for Chai tanya ’
s send
ing the brothers away . I f they lived at Puri , the
host i li ties between P rataprudra and Husain Shah
might be renewed on this plea, as both the
brothers had fled from Husain Shah ’
s court and
one had actual ly made his escape from prison
after hav ing bribed the Jai lor. The manner in
wh ich Sanatan met Chai tanya,his great sp iri tual
humi li ty and the pathos Of the si tuati on have been
v iv idly recorded in the pages of the Chai tanya
C haritamrita . He would not al low Chai tanya
to touch his body aflfl icted wi th eczema . But
Chai tanya embraced i t sayin g that there was
nothing so dear to him as that body in wh ich a
self-sacrificing spiri t and love for God dwelt .
Sanatan left the ord inary path leading to the
temple and walked through the sun -burn t sands
wh ich scorched his feet . H e had avoided the
publ ic road owing to the fact that the Pandas
mi gh t Object , as he had on ce adopted Mahomedan
ways. When Chai tanya poin ted to the burns on
222 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A G
his toe ,Sanatan said “
I did not know or feel
these , so overj oyed was I that Master had cal led
me .
”A nd Chai tanya said “
Even the very gods
of heaven would be sanct ified by a touch of
yours. You are the hol iest Of the Brahmins that
I have ever met, yet you did not desp ise the
ord inary rules Of the temple . Th is on ly shows
your superi or breeding and n oble character.
”
C hai tanya gave Sanatan instruct ion s on Vaishnab
rel igion and its tenets for a period of three
mon ths and these were elaborated and comp i led
by Sanatan in his magnas op us— the Haribhakti
B i las, the h i ghest au thori tat ive work of juris
prudence wi th the Bengal i Vaishnabs. Both
the brothers , Sanatan and Rupa,wen t to Brinda
ban and sett led there by the Master’
s command,
and it is they who eventual lv raised the Old
shrine to such a great eminence . Formerlv i t
was a pastoral v i l lage dotted here and there wi th
cottages, but i t now claims some of the most
magn ificent temples Of I nd ia,and is one O f the
most splend id of her ancien t ci ties. The resus
ci tation of the Old shrine is due to the efforts
of a few ascetics led by Sanatan and Rupa,who
had no house to live in ,who slept under trees
and l ived upon the scan tiest of meals by begg ing,
and wore rags . Th is noble renunc iation wh ich
has marked them out as recurring types of
the Buddha and Mahabir in I ndian H istory,
attracted m i l lionaires who bui l t temples to
224 C H A ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
shou ldnot be g iven any report of his departure
from Puri for some t ime ; so that they might
not hasten to overtake him on the way. He
wou ld al low no one to accompany him ; the
en treat ies Of friends and followers were al l in
vain . One Baladev Bhattacharyya was already
proceed ing to Brindaban and the friends Of
Chai tanya i nsisted on his tak ing him as com
pan i on . Chai tanya after a protest acceded to
th is request . The mat ter was kept pri vate for
some t ime,accord ing t o his desire, so that the
whole Puri was taken by surprise at the news
Of his departure Of which they heard many days
after Chai tanya had left the ci ty . A popu lar
song thus describes him as a pi lgrim to the
famous shrine of the Vaishnabs“ Look how Chai tanya goes to the Brinda
groves ! Look at his shaven head , the rag on his
back and the beggar’
s bowl at his hand.
”
Baladev’
s accoun t is very inadequate . H e
did not eviden tly take any note but tried to take
his aud ience by surprise by narratin g m iraclesabout him . H e also sei zes every opportun ity
to emphasi ze the po in t that Chai tanya was
greatly pleased by the manner in wh ich he
Offered his serv ices to him . I t pleased his
van i ty to say al l these and th is no doubt
heightened his importance in the eyes Of the
Vaishnabs . H e said that the plan ts and trees
of the Brinda groves came near Chai tanya to
I N U PPER I ND I A 225
Offer him their tributes of flowers and fru i ts
and that even the tigers on the way reci ted the
name of Krishna,when Chai tanya had b idden
them to do so. K rishnadas Kaviraj , a devou t
Vaishnab and scholar,recorded these in Spiri t of
implici t fai th,nay, threatened the non-bel ievers
wi th imprecations The con trast between
Baladev’
s accoun t recorded in the C haritamrita
and what we find in the horchct of Govindadas is
strik ing . One is mostly a fairy -tale and gib
berish and the other a simple and unassuming
p iece of history . But on th is we need not dwell
any more .
One of the important facts in regard to
Chai tanya’
s tour in Upper I nd ia relates to in
cidents that happened at Benares. Whi le in
that ci ty he put up wi th one Tapan M isra and
later on stayed for some time at the house of
Chandrasekhar, a Vaidya.
’
The leader Of the
sanyasis at th is time in that ci ty
was the far-famed scholar and
sain t Prakasananda. H e was a son of Benkat
Bhatta Of Southern I ndia and brother of Gopal
Bhatta who latterly rose to eminence as one Of
the six Goswam is among the Gauriya Vaish
nabs. Like al l I ndian scholars Of that age
Prakasananda was a pan theist . One accoun t
says that he had suffered from leprosy for a
time. I t is recorded that one of his Mahratta .
d isciples paid a v isi t to Chai tanya and found the
29
A t Benares .
226 C HA ITA N YA A N D HI S A GE
Nad ia-ascet ic merged i n the love Of Krishna .
Prakasananda’
s scholarsh ip was equal to his
pride and he did not l ike when his Mahratta
pup i l came to him and Spoke eulog istically of
the Nad ia-sanyasi . H is love for God was re
ported to be so great that i t sanctified every
man who beheld i t, that his tears created pathos
wh ich were irresistible and taught men a love
forGodwi thout a sermon . The d isciple declared
that he believed Chai tanya to be an A vatar Of
God. P rakasananda on ly sneeringly replied
H e is an impostor ; I too have heard of him ,
I do not know what black art he knows, but he
has certain ly a power to hypnotise people as
he seems to have done you . Benares,however
,
is a city of the learned here al l these emot ional
nonsense wi ll not do . D O not go to him again .
Read the Upan ishads carefully and leave the
mad man alone .
”The Brahm in was sorry to
hear Chai tanya abused in th is way and reported
al l these to him . H e,feel ing how deeply the
young scholar’
s feel ings were wounded, said
I came to sell a l i ttle of the emotional swee t
ness wi th wh ich my soul is charged , to the
people of th is ci ty . But there is no purchaser
here . The burden of my emotion Oppresses me
and fain would I sel l i t to you at whatever
smal l price you would Offer.
”
228 C HA ITA N YA A ND H I S A GE
became so great that i t became almost uncon
trol lable . Baladev Bhattacharya one day told
the Master “ These people who cannot have
an interv iew with you,as you
Often remain in your trances,d isturb me in such a manner that i t is not pos
sible for me to stay here any longer. E very one
comes to inv i te you and how can a thousand
inv i tations be accepted every day ? The great
Mela of the Sanyasi s wi ll take place at A llahabad
on the 30th of Magh and let us go to v isi t i t.
I t was probably the Kumbha Me la of the year
1 51 7 . C hai tanya made no obj ectionand being
accompan ied by Baladev Bhattacharya, a Rajput
Ch ief named Krishna D as and three Brahmin
admirers Of Brindaban , started for that ci ty
I n the way a mi lkman was playing on his flute
at the sound , Chaitanya began to tremble ; the
memory of Krishna’
s flute became vivid and he
swooned away . Ten horsemen headed by B ij l i
Khan,the son of a Pathan Nawab
,came up
there at th is momen t and suspecting that the
five men had drugged the ascetic in order to rob
him Of his money , arrested them . Krishna D as,the Raj put , was a valorousman
Krishna Das s en
Fifi? wi th B i j l i and was not to be cowed down .
H e threatened the Mahome
dans say ing that he had an army behind him
who would soon come up to teach proper lessons
to them . When a hot discussion was going on ,
Leaves R 1 indaban .
BI JL I KHA N 229
Chai tanya recovered his senses and said Bre
thren,your suspi cion is ungrounded . I am an
ascetic and have no money to be robbed of . I
am suffering from ep i lepsy and these fri ends have
k indly attended me during my i l lness. Kindly
release them .
”A ttracted by the sweet courtesy
and his exceed ingly attractive manners, one of
them who was a great scholar in Mahomedan
theology en tered in to a d iscussi on wi th Chai tanya
who at once conv inced him of the superiori ty of
the bhakti cu l t . The eloquence and devotion
wi th wh ich al l was said made a great impressi on ,
and Bi j li Khan wi th his Mahomedan followers
became converted into Vaishnab fai th .
CHA PTER X .
C hai tanya at Benares, discussion Prakasa
nanda .
Tour in Bengal .
A t Puri .
(a) Chai tanya, ( i t B enares ; discusion wi th
P rakasananda .
A t A llahabad , the confluence Of the Ganges
and the Jamuna, Chaitanya produced such a
wonderful impression that K rishnadas Kavirajremarks The j oint streams of the Gauges and
the Jamuna could not plun ge A l lahabad,but the
flood Of Krishna’
s love brought by Chai tanya
did i t.
”A t A llahabad Sanatan met Chaitanya
and both stayed there for ten days. He returned
to Benares and was received there by his two
Old friends Tapan Misra and Chandrasekhar.
The Mahratta Brahmin,the pupi l Of Prakasa
nanda, also came up to meet him . H e stayed th is
time at the house of Chandrasekharwhere Sanatan
also called on to pay his respects. Chai tanya
gave him further instructions about the bhakti
cult . These teach ings occupy a long space of
the Chaitanya C hari tamrita . Then took place
232 C HA I TA N YA A ND H IS A GE
of the bhakti cult ; and Prakasananda who had
so long scaled great in tellectual he ights and in
his arrogance considered God and man to be
iden t ical,fel t that a new fountain of sou l was
d iscovered from wh ich sprang sweetness, resignat ion and love
,capable of thoroughly sp iri
tual ising and sanct i fy ing his l i fe . A nd when
at the end of his d iscourses Chai tanya wept for
love Of God,P rakasananda discovered in him
a new man wi th a far deeper spiri tual force and
wider moral outlook than he could ever con ceive
it to be possible in a human being . The element
of pedantry wh ich had characterised young
Chai tanya as a scholar of Nad ia,though now
thoroughly overcome by his sp iri tual human i ty,
showed i tself, i t is said on th is occasion,in his
startling in terpretat i ons of the verse 1 0,canto 7 ,
of the first Skanda of the Bhagavata,which
he is said to have explained in 61 differen t
ways . The d i fference in the presen t case became
apparen t in the fact that his speech was
not on ly d ivested from al l arrogan t manners
of a young pedan t, but was also sweetly
chastened by emotion and was full of sp iri tual
fel icit ies that made the deepest impression .
So great was the effect of Prakasananda’
s
acceptance of Chai tanya as his Guru that
all Benares and i ts neighbouring locali t ies
gathered to have a si ght of the d iv ine man .
“When Chai tanya wen t to v i si t the temple of
C ONFL I C TING A C C OUNTS
Bishwanath, says Chari tamri ta,
immense
crowds gathered on bo th sides of the road to have
a glimpse of his face .
” When Chai tanya sobbed
for Krishna and cal led H im aloud in a voice
choked wi th tears, the people shouted Krishna‘ Krishna
,
’
wi th tearful eyes, so that the whole
atmosphere , as i t were, rang wi th Krishna ’
s
name .
(6) Tour in B enga l .
On his return to Puri Chai tanya is said to have
again made a trip to Bengal .
“9
123235?accoun ts
Jayananda says that during this
tour he v isi ted Kul ia, staying
at Barokona ghat near Nad ia, where his mother
Sachi Devi had again an opportun i ty of seeing
him . H e paid a flyin g v isi t to Kumarhatta and
stayed for a short wh i le at the residence of Sribas.
H e also met there Bashudev Datta,son of
Mukunda Sanjay , at whose house , it should be
remembered , Chai tanya used to hold his tol at
Nadia . From Kumarhatta he came to Pan ihati
where he was a guest of Raghab Pand i t . He
next v isi ted Baranagar near Calcu tta,where his
sandals are sti l l preserved in the temple erected
by Bhagavatacharya . I am not,however,
qu i te sure of chronological accuracy in regard
to these trips. Most of the biographers seem to
suggest that Chai tanya had paid a visi t to
the above v i llages on his way back from
30
C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
R amkel i , before he had started for Brindaban
a second time . But Gov inda D as,who was
wi th him,
says noth ing about hi s v isi t to
these v i l lages. Th is makes i t doubtfu l i f
Chai tanya had ever v isi ted them before he
returned from Southern I nd ia . But I have
already stated that Gov inda Das’
s accoun t of
the brief period before Chai tanya started for the
Deccan is nei ther perfect nor given in detai l .
Hence with some hesi tancy we are incl ined to
credi t the accoun t of the other b iographers on
th is poin t .
(0 ) A t P art.
His tour in the Deccan and in the Upper
I nd ia al together took six yearsyears in
and he spen t the remaining 1 8
years of his l ife at Puri . H e
became a sanyast on the completion of the 24th
year and passed away from th is world in his
48th year— in 1 533 A .D .
I t appears that King Pratap Rudra used to
appoint reporters wherever Chai tanya travel led .
Kavikarnapur says that one Mal l-abbatta,the
court Pandit of Raja of Karnat , had reported
to Pratap Rudra the detai lsRe orters a o
'
te l
by pfm p R aga)“
of Chai tanya ’
s tour m the
Deccan . The reporters are also
observed to give the Raja detai ls in regard
to the doings of Chaitanya and some of his
236 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
function,could not suppress his tears in recol lec
t ion of Chai tanya . From al l these ev idences of
his great love for the Master and the incidental
references to his appo in t ing reporters to record
the i nci den ts about him,I am almost certain
that i f the old papers and documen ts of the
palace are searched,important biograph ical
sketch of the Master may st i l l be recovered .
Babu Suprakash Gangu l i , a grandson of Maharsi
D ebendranath Tagore,tel ls me that he had pur
chased a large Uriya MS. in six volumes,con
tain ing Chai tanya’
s l i fe,for R s. 1 25 from a
Panda of the Puri temple and sold i t almost
immed iately after to an A merican tourist for
R s. We have Rajas and Maharajas
whose mun ificence in the cause of Vaishnab
rel ig ion is wel l known in this prov ince . Sur
rounded by Urlya scholars and Uriva k ing ’
s
ch ief officers, Chai tanya had l ived 1 8 years of his
li fe in the Uriya coun try where adm irat i on for
him i s sti l l so great that his images are worsh ip
ped in almost every importan t v i llage . Bu t
though popular regard for Chai tanya is great
everywhere , no one has ever though t i t fi t to
ransack the store of old Uriya MSS . and find out
what facts abou t the l ife of the Master m ight
be found from that very probable source . The
poet- laureate of Pratap Rudra’
s court was Ban i
pati . Surely if his verses are sti l l extan t,some
of them may be found to con tain hymns and
A T PUR I 237
adulatory lyrics in honour of Chai tanya . We
cal l upon the aristocracy of Bengal to found
research scolarships for in i tiating histori cal
investigat ions in this verv importan t field . N ot
on ly Ban ipati , but other con temporary poets
andwri tersm ight have, it is presumed,someth ing
to say abou t the i nsp iring personal i ty of the
Master. Rupa and Sanatan saw Chai tanya
occasional ly as they had made Vrindaban thei rpermanen t home . The Bengal i admirers and
fri ends of Chai tanya came to v isi t him at Puri
for some short mon ths of the rainy season, so
the sources avai led of by Krishnadas are not at al l
of an exhaustive nature . I t is in the Uriya
books and records that we may natural ly expect
to find far larger materials abou t the epoch
of Master’
s l i fe spen t at Puri .
On his return to Puri we find Chai tanya
l i teral ly merged in love -ecstasies . When he
wen t to see the sacred images i n the Puri
temple , he became so overpowered wi th emotion
that he cou ld not con trol himself . Somet imes
he ran to the very pedestal,to embrace the
images . Com ing to his senses— he regretted his
conduct and made i t a poin t not to en ter the
temple . H e stood resting his elbow on the
Garur p i llar at the gate of the
Temple and saw through eyesoverflowing wi th tears the images from afar
,lost
to al l other sights or th i ngs of the world .
The Gadura-P i l lar
238 C HA l TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
The mark caused by his elbow, wh ich touched
the p i l lar every day,for a period extending over
1 8 years,is st i l l to be seen . Many i ncidents
of this period of Chai tanya ’
s l i fe are relat
e d in the Chai tanya C hari tamri ta and in
these we find exhaustive n otes on some of
his fol lowers such as Rupa , Sanatan and
Raghunath D as . These 1 have detai led in mywork cal led “ Chaitanya and
La l i t Madhava and
B idagdha Madharu .
ll l S Compan i ons and I need
not repeat them here . lVe
find C hai tanya greatly adm iring B idagdha
MadhaVa andLal i tMadhava , two Sanskri t dramas
wri t ten by Rupa ,the insp iration of wh ich had
come from Chai tanya hini self,
— the famous s loka
in one of these works beg inn ing wi th s de
tandabini , etc . , being specia l lv appreciated .
These dramas were held in great adm irat ion by
al l Vaishnabs Spec ial ly by R am R ay ,the author
of Jagannath Ballava i n Sanskri t,who was
h imself a great d ramat ist . A bout th is t ime we
find a poet of Eastern Bengal who had wri tten
a Sanskri t drama on Cha itanya ,pay ing a v i si t
to Puri and get ting h imsel f in troduced to the
Master by one of his fol lowers Bhagaban
A charya . The young poet was very wi l l ing that
the Master would l isten to a rec i tat ion of his
work . But C hai tanva decl ined to do so on the
plea that he was not the proper cri t ic,evidently
avo id ing to hear his own eulog ies . On the
240 C HA ITA NYA A N D HI S A GE
to v isi t me . Bal lava had thought that therewas none at Puri wi th him he could d iscourseon rel igion except Chai tanya for whom he had
of course a high regard . H e however,did not
much relish the words o f Chai tanya,but for the
sake of courtesy asked where these worth ies couldbe interv iewed . Chai tanya said “ They are al l herenow to see the C ar fest ivi ties.
Ballava i nv i ted
them al l to his house andwas struck by their great
devotion and scholarsh ip . During R athaj atraseven great parties marched to hold K irtana
in the publ ic streets . Sribas,Mukunda
,
Govinda Ghosh and three others led six of
them , Chai tanya h imself , accompan ied by
N i tyananda, lead ing the main party . The j oy
of the procession was great , and the more did
Bal lava see of Chai tanya the more was he
conv inced of his d iv in i ty . Ballava had wri tten
a commentary on the Bhagavata and had an
arden t desire that the Master wou ld see i t.
But Chai tanya said that he was not fi t to listen
to a d iscourse on the Bhagavata,as that scrip
ture was too h igh for his comprehension ; the
two letters 3583 he says were a fascination to him
and bey ond th is he needed no expansion of the
rel ig ious idea . Then Bal lava said that he had
elaborately in terpreted the two letters explain
ing the rel igious import they carried . But
Chai tanya told him that to him the word
was enough and it mean t a simple th ing and
BA LLA VA C HA RYA 241"
further interpretat ions would on ly cloud his
fai th . The truth i s that Ballava had found
fault wi th the establ ished commen tary on the
Bhagavata by Sridhar Swami , and Chai tanya
hadalready heard of thi s. H e did not l ike to hear
any one blaspheming the sain tly Commentator,and hence he tried to avoid Bal lava Bhat ta.
But when one day Ballava vaun ted before him
that he had rejected the Swami ( lit . husband)Chaitanya is said to have made a pun on the word
and said How can one be called true who has
rejected the Swami ?” Ballava was very sorry at
being treated wi th indifference by the Master and
wondered why Chai tanya had changed his atti
tude towards him for thought he When I had
first seen him at A l lahabad he had received me
very k ind ly .
” Coming home be reflected on th is
again t i ll sudden ly he fel t that it had been verywrong on his part to discard Sridhar’
s commen t
ary. Sridhar Swami was the prince of Bhaga
vata commen tators and a sain tly man ; whereas
he proceeded to establish his poin ts beingguided by pride alone “ Th is pride
,
”he thought
,
must be given up ,”and the next day when he
met Chaitanya again ,the Master received him
wi th more than usual k indness,for he hadmark
ed in his remorseful looks that true sp iritual
humi li ty had dawned on him in the place of the
haughtiness and pride of mere scholarsh ip .
Bal lava Bhatta, says Charitamri ta,
was a
31
242 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
worsh ipper of Bala Gopal- child -Kri shna. H e
practical ly changed his v iews in respect of
Vaishnavism by the teach ings of Jagadananda,a young scholar and adm irer of Chai tanya .
”
This accoun t of Ballava Bhat ta i s to be found
in the Charitamri ta and must be substan tially
correct , but as Bal lava is the reputed leader of
another sect of Vaishnavas,
and though a
con temporary of Chai tanya had not accepted
the latter’
s form of faith but founded a new
school , we must awai t a scrut in ising enquiry in to
the l iterature of his school before accepting'
tn
toto the accoun t of the C hari tamrita .
We find in the old A ssamese l i terature
frequen t references to the Vaisnava apost le
Sankara interviewmg Chai tanya . There are
clear evidences of the great influence wh ich
Chaitanya exerted on the great Vaishnav saint
of A ssam of the l 6th cen tury .
A t Puri occurred that melancholy inciden t
causing juniorHaridas to leave the ci ty and drown
h imsel f at the confluence of theThe tra ic end ofjunior 5m m ,
sacred ri vers near A l lahabad .
Chai tanya had heard that this
young ascetic had begged alms from Madhabi,an
accompl ished woman and a sister of Sikh i Mabi ti ,who was a copy ist in the k ing ’
s court. The
Master said ,“ Being a sanyasi he interv iews a
woman ,I cannot bear to see his face ”
and he
never al lowed him to come nearhim. R am R ay
244 C HA ITA NYA A N D HI S A GE
from Nad ia was that veteran Vaishnava
Sibananda Sen , who knew all the paths and
was rich enough t o bear expenses of those who
had not the means. Sibananda was an inhabi
tant of Kanchrapara near Naihati , and his son
Paramananda Sen who is general ly known by his
ti tle of Kavikarnapur, is the author of the cele
brated drama Chai tanya C handrodaya and other
works in Sanskri t .
I t appears that abou t the year 1 520 A .D .
sometime after Chai tanya ’
s return to Puri after
his tour in Upper I ndia, a fewOfpilgrims from Bengal reported
to him that A dwai ta had eschew
ed the bhakti cult and reverted to that of j nan
and was busy explain ing the five- fold paths of
emancipat ion from desi res (Mulcti ) accordin g to
pan theistic v iews propounded by Sankara and
other leaders of that school . Chai tanya did not
put much fai th in the reports of the people wh ich
he took for mere story . Then came a letter
from N ityananda h imsel f , say ing “A dwaita
charya has given up the bhakti cult and is
explain ing the tenets of non -dualistic bel ief . ”
A great discussion took place at P uri amongst
R am R ay, Gopinath A charya and Bashudev
Sarbabhauma as to the course to be adopted for
preven ting the veteran leader of Vaishnava from
the mischievous course he had been fol lowing .
They all expressed themselves against him in
SUSP I C I ON A BOUT A DWA ITA 245
a somewhat free language . But Chaitanya,when he heard their speeches, made l ight of the
whole th in g and sai d wi th a smile I am afraid
i t is a mere trick on the part of A dwaitacharya
to pursuade me to v isi t Bengal once more . For
somehow or other he has conce ived the noti on
that when the interests of the bkaktt relig ion wi ll
be at stake, I shal l not be able to si t quiet at
Puri like a mere locker-on . A dwaita who is mine
in every respect regrets my sanyas and desertion
of home more than any one else The scholars
of‘
P uri , howev er, headed by Ram R ay, sought
divine grace in the Puri temple for [safeguardingthe interests of Vaishnavarel igion and the H igh
Priest came up with reassuring looks, saying
that the cause of Vaishnav ism would flourish
for ever as a sign of di vine blessings he presented
a garland of flowers, 21 feet long,from the
Temple, and in the mean time a reply came from
A dwaitacharya h imself to whom Chai tanya
had wri tten a letter. I t said in a sort of
en igmatic lan guage l ike the Sandhya bhasa— in
which conversat ionswere sometimes carried on
amongst Chaitanya, N ityananda and A dwaita,
that everyth ing was right and that even Ni tya
nanda had misunderstood him . The letter further
assured that it was impossib le for A dwaita
charya to swerve an inch from his loyalty to
Chaitanya . That a sort of quarrel on some minor
points o f rel igion had arisen between A dwai ta
246 C HA I TA N YA A ND H I S A GE
and N ityananda, is hinted by Brindaban D as
himself in many places of his work,substan
tiating the statemen t of the Prembi las fromwh ich we have taken the above accoun t .
Kavikarnapur says, what is reproduced
by some of the later biogra
phers, that Sarvabhauma had
wri tten two verses in honour
of Chai tanya D ev and en trusted them to
Mukunda Datta to be shown to the Master. But
the latter tore off the verses. On ly a portion of
the torn paper could be recovered by Mukunda,
and the Chari tamri ta quotes the portion and
remarks in a language of flourish that the h igh
quality of the verse was like the trumpet-sound
of victory announcing Bashudev’
s unparal leled
poetic talen ts.
Ramananda R ay, the poet and dramatist , and
a great friend of Chai tanya, had four brothers.
One of them was Gop inath R ay— a feudatory
ch ief under Pratap Rudra . Their father Ban i
nath was sti l l l iving . Gopinath Bay was in
arrears of ren t to the Uriya king
to the exten t of R s.
But as he was financially embarassed he made
an appl ication to the king stating that he had a
large number of horses in his stable and that
His Majesty m igh t be pleased to take some of
the best horses in l ieu of money , after having
settled their price by an expert . The king
Gopinath’
s trouble.
248 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
A t th is crisis all the friends of R am R ay
who were also Chai tanya’
s followers,headed by
Swarupa,applied to Chai tanya requesting him to
speak to the k ing in their behal f . They justly
pleaded that the fami ly of Baninath were al l
deeply attached to the Master,and that they
should be saved by all means from the great
danger. One man came at th is stage to in form
Chai tanya that Gopinath was about to be carried
away by k ing ’s men to be put on the Chang.
Chaitanya regretted the inciden t,but sorrow
fully remarked I t is for this reason that I did
not l ike to come in touch wi th the king . A s an
ascetic I can beg only five gandas of kowm‘
(a
l i ttle above one pie) and not more . H ow can I
ask the Raja to remi t R s. I t is not
for me to medd le in matters of State . I am very
sorry for Ban inath, ask him to seek the aid of
God. For me I should not henceforth be near
the Raja andmust at once start for A lalnath,for
these sorrows of world ly men pain me,though I
find no means of remedy .
”H e made h imself
ready for leav ing Puri . The k ing had already
wi thdrawn the order of capital pun ishment that
was on Gop inath by the in tercession of his
min ister Hari Chandan ,and when he heard that
Chai tanya was leav ing Puri , he sen t word that
shou ld the Master take such a step he would
give up his royal throne and follow him .
H e said that he had no knowledge of the
H A R I D A SH
249
pun ishmen t ; i t was passed by his officers. H e
,
not
only cancelled the order of capi tal punishmen t em'
Gopinath but remi tted him the outstand ing dues
of R s . andmoreovermade him a gran t of
a“ Jaigir. Chai tanya had never asked for these
,
nay,‘
he had declined to beg any favour of any
one . But the Raja did al l these toplease him.
I t was about the year 1 530 that Haridas, the
Mahomedan convert to Vaishna
vism ,breathed his last . Chai
tanya had the h ighest respect for him, and he
held Chaitanya to be his God.
' Chai tanya had
once told him “ I have marked that you bless
those who assault you and pray for them . Your
thoughts have ever been as holy as the Ganges.
A ll your acts have in themselves a sancti ty as if
they were the ri tes of a great religion . Your
ideas have the grandeur of Vedic hymns. What
Sadhu or Brahmin is there who may be com
pared wi th you ?” To wh ich Sanatan had added“ There are people who preach relig ious truths
but do not li ve them others there are who lead
pure li fe wi thout caring for the good of others ;but you have preached the tru ths and practised
them in li fe .
” When H aridas’
s last momen t
came, he looked at Chai tanya and said that al l
his spiritual insp iration ,whatever their worth
might be, had come from the Master,and that it
was his greatest j oy to pass away from the
world in sigh t of the Master. Chai tanya
32
The death of B at idas.
250 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
made al l presen t there touch the feet of the
great sain t ; and good Brahmins and ascetics did
so at his b idding . Though Haridas had origi
nal ly been a Mahomedan,Chaitanya and his
men carried his body to the sea-shore where
Chaitanya himself was the first to help in digging
a grave for his burial .
252 C H A I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
th is side of his character we find more v iv idly
portrayed by Gov inda D as than any other bio
grapher, though j udg ing as a whole , the Chari ta
mri ta must always be considered as one of the
world ’s greatest books of theology .
The inciden ts described above,relate however
to poin ts of minor interest — the real man
Chaitanya was absorbed in God ’
s love n igh t and
F ine fren zy of theday. I n the n ights particularly
lover the pain of God d istressed
him greatly . H e somet imes saw Krishna come
to his embrace and at others missed him, and in
that stage he cried and wept like a bereaved
soul . H e Spen t the whole n ight hearing the
songs of Chandidas, B idyapati , Jaydev and
B i l lamangal , sung to him by Swarupa . A t every
stage be in terpreted the songs in a charming
manner, elaborating the sweet appeals and
messages that they bore to a man’
s soul of a love
of the infin i te . H e read the l 0th Skanda of
the Bhagavata and those passages of i t partienlarly where the mi lkmaids
,d istracted by
Krishna’
s love, prayed to kmzda , j atla and other
flower-plan ts to give them t id ings of H im .
Chaitanya’
s tears fel l incessan t ly on the pages
of the Bhagavata spoi ling its letters, and th is
copy was for a long time wi th Bhagavat
A charya who showed i t, according to Prema
b i las, to Srin ibas about the year 1 600 A .D .
Sometimes Swarupa sang and the Master danced
JA I D EV ’S SONGS 253
and wept , unmindful of his physical exhaustion ,
for famished wi th fast and vigi l, he had become
very weak . For hours together he danced and
wept in th is way, and Swarupa would sing
no more, feel ing that the exci temen t would
prove too severe a strain on the nerves of
Chai tanya but with sol ici tous eyes full of tears,
Chai tanya would beg him to go on . One day
Swarupa sang the famous song of J aydev
beginn ing wi th
“arm fans fi sts
serfsW W are-away s l”
and Chai tanya fe l l unconscious on the ground as
he heard i t .
During the last two years these love-estacies
came upon him so often that the emaciated body
could hear them no more . One day a female
musician attached to the Puri temple— a Seva
Dasi—was singing a song of Jaydev in that sweet
musical mode called the Garj ari R ag. A t th is
time Chai tanya heard i t from a d istance and
knew not whether a man or a woman sang the
song . H e ran wi th Open arms to embrace'
the
singer through briers and thorns that p ierced
his feet . Govinda overtook and caught him in
the m idway , and he was roused from his dream
by the attendan t ’s voice saying aloud “ I t. is a
woman that i s singing .
”A nd Chai tanya thanked
him for savin g him from touch ing a woman .
254 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
The fits of unconsci ousness came often and some
times he was taken as dead ; but constan t
recitat ion of the name of Krishna by his friends
brought him back to his senses; and he said on
one occasion on thus coming back to h imself“ A h friends
,I was wi th Krishna, why have
you disturbed the sweet un ion ?” H is body
became so reduced that the hard floor whereon
he slept pained him and Jagadananda brough t
a pi l low for his head . The stern e lemen t of
ascet icism ,however, never forsook him ,
and he
reprimanded Jagadananda for hav ing brought
the pi llow wh ich he called a luxury,not to be
en j oyed by an ascet ic . A nd Jagadananda was
so sorry at seeing his condi tion that he considered
i t pruden t to leave Puri ; for thought he, i t
would pain him very much to see the end of
Chai tanya wh ich every one fel t was imminen t .
H e accord ingly left P uri wi th the permission of
the Master and stayed at Brindaban for some
time . There he met Sanatan , Rupa and others,but was unable inspi te of himself to stay long
without seeing Chai tanya . H e came back to
Puri after a short soj ourn . Mean time Chai tanya
had grown even more restless ; the verses of the
Bhagavata con tinual ly suppl ied inspirat ion to
him and stole away sleep from his eyes, n ight and
day. The clouds brough t on trances by their dark
blue colour wh ich rem inded him of Krishna .
H e fain ted at the sight of the lightning
256 C H A I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Baid Pashara . The idea of being deified and
al lowing people to drink water touched by his
feet was repugnant to him and he had given
strict order to Gov inda not t o al low any body to
go where he bathed . We find one Brahmin
stealing i nto that nook and drink ing the p adodak
wi thout his knowledge . Chai tanya was much
annoyed wi th him when he d iscovered the trick .
A t n ight his reveries and tran ces grew more
and more t i ll he lost al l control over h imself . He
left his bed and sought for Krishna in theflower
garden during his trances ; and one n ight hi
fol lowers found him ou t ly ing in an unconscious
state near the Lion -Gate . A nother n ight towards
its endhewas discovered in the cow-shed attached
to the Temple . On recovering his senses he
wondered as to how he had come there . We
find from the records that he spen t n ine days in
the flower-garden cal led the Jagannath Bal lava,
and frequen t ly bathed i n the tanks called the
Narendra Sarobara and the I ndradyumna Saro
bara . H e l ived for sometime in the Gundicha .
Towards the close of his earthly career we
find him maddened by the passages of the Bhaga
vata describ ing the sorrows of the m i lkmaids
parted from Krishna,and to th is a reference
has already been made . H e passed in to trances
as be interpreted the verses to Swarupa and
Ramananda R ay who were his constan t attend
an ts at th is stage . A Brahmin named Sankara
THE EN D 257
was appoin ted to keep watch over him-
at n ights
so that he might not leave his room in an
unconscious state . But one n ight he stole awayfrom his chamber and came to the sea-shore,and delighted wi th the colour of the dark blue
waters jumped in to the sea,th ink ing that he
ran in to the embrace of Krishna or in to the
waters of the Jamuna, the/
favouri te resort of
his dark blue God. One fisherman who used to
catch fish towards the close of every n ight by
net,caught him up and brought him to the
shore . Mean time Swarup Damodar, R am R ay
and hundreds of his fol lowers were seek ing him
everywhere in the streets of Purl , and Raja
Pratap Rudra was h imself in a state of great
anxiety . When the fisherman brought him back ,the loud reci tation of Krishna’
s name restored
him to his senses,and he looked so pale , exhausted
andweak,that they al l apprehended that his end
mi ght be near. But he gradual ly survived , and
the last act on his part described by the Chari ta !
mri ta was to g i ve R am R ay some practical
adv ice in sp iri tual matters.
“ Become good and consider
yourself humbler than a straw ”he said and
then,
“ Be pati en t as a tree . I t does not com
plain i f any one cuts it. I t does not beg a drOpof water from anybody though it dries up . I t
g i ves freely i ts treasure of flowers and frui ts
to any one that seeks them . I t exposes itself
33
A dvice to Ram Ray .
258 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
to rain and sun but gives al l i ts treasure to
others. A Vaishnab should be absolutely wi th
out pride . H e should consider that Krishna
dwells in every soul and therefore g ive respects
to others,without seek ing any for himself .
One who becomes like th is and then reci tes
Krishna’
s name,is rewarded wi th a love for
H im.
”A s he spoke in this way, a feel ing of
great humili ty came into his soul,and he
prayed to Krishna “ Oh Krishna, make me
humble and gi ve devotion un to my soul .” A nd
then referring to a verse of Padmaval i he said“Neither do I wan t followers, nor wealth nor
learning , nor poetical powers, give unto mysoul a bit of devot ion for thee .
”H e prayed
again and again in the sp iri t of a true servan t
Here accept my most humble services but give
me as my wages—a bi t of devotion for thee .
”
Then he again referred to a verse composed by
himsel f to be found in the Padmaval i A s eager
ness to taste God ’
s love grows in the soul , tears
come to the eyes like drops in the rainy season .
”
H e said next “ The world looks void without
Krishna . Even i f he g ivesme pain that would be
my j oy ; for whatever he g ives me, like a loyal
wife accepting any g ift from her husband,
- be
it il l orbe i t good in the world ’
s eyes,— should be
always accepted as bl iss. I do not covet any
th ing for myself . Whatever he gives is my j oy
be it pain or be it pleasure in the world ’
s eyes.
260 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
enough and that the story of his rescue by a
fisherman was afterwards fabricated,the sea
must have buried the great
apostle under i ts deep waters.
The popu lar supersti tion is that Chai tanya
whose physical frame had noth ing material in i t,passed in to the image of Jagannath at P uri .
The priests of the G0pinath’
s temple relate a
simi lar story in respect of Chai tanya’
s passing
in to the image of that temple,and as an
ev idence to substan tiate their statemen t,poin t
out a sign near the knee of Gop inath wh ich
they say, indicates the spot through wh ich
Chai tanya was incorporated wi th the image .
The latter tradi t ion seems to be upheld and indi
cated by a l ine i n one of the b iograph ies,wh ich
however, says in not a very clear language , We
lost Chai tanya in the temple of Gop inath .
”
There is no doubt that the Vaishnab bio
The reason of their graphers do not speak of thegenera l S i lence '
end of Chai tanya because they
feel a great pain in relating i t. Their grief
was qui te overwhelm ing ; moreover their bel ief
is that i t is a sin to hear of the end of one who
i s for al l times and can never die . For fifty years
after the ti rodhan of the great teacher, the
Vaishnab commun i ty lay enervated by the great
shock .Their K i rtana music wh ich had taken
the whole coun try by surprise stepped for a time
after that melancholy event and was not heard
Drowned in the sea .
WHY WERE THE D OORS SHUT 261
for nearly half a cen tury in the great prov inces
of Bengal and Orissa . We do not ge t authen tic
records of the progress of the Vaishnab com
mun i ty for this lon g period from after 1 533,
the year when Chai tanya d isappeared from the
world .
So we have qu i te a reasonable ground as to
why no men tion of the passing/
away of Chai tanya
is found in his standard biograph ies. But we
cann ot agree wi th those who believe that he wasdrowned . The Chari tamri ta says distinctly that
he was rescued from the sea by a fisherman, and
when we find men tion of even ts subsequen t to
hi s rescue in the pages of that book,and when
no other authori ty con tradicts the statemen t nor
says that Chai tanya was drowned in the sea,
what justification is there for attach ing so much
importance to a mere con jecture that he was
lost in the deep waters of the Bay of Bengal .What happened seems to be th is ; some of
our modern scholars hav ing on ly a superficial
knowledge of the Vaishnab li terature, perplexed atnot finding any clear men tion of the end of
Chaitanya’
s career,made a surmise like th is
,in
order to g ive an easy solut ion to a diffi cult
historical problem . They might have been
excused i f they had spoken of i t in a languageof doubt stating that it was a mere con jecture
on the ir part . But they showed a lack f- of
ord inary h istorical sense by declaring as
262 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
absolutely certain what was at best a mero
surmise on their part .
We have, however, defin i te in formation on
th is obscure po int from Chai tanya Mangal by
Jayananda, brought to ligh t some years ago, by
Prachyavidya-maharnava Nagendranath Basu
and ed i ted by him and publ ished by the Sahitya
Parishat of Calcutta. I t should be remem
bered that th is work is not recogn ised by the
Vaishnavas ; hence the author, who was outside
the pale of the school of Brindaban from wh ich
sprang all canons and censorsh ip in l iterary matters
, could
exercise his own d iscretion in
using hismaterials andwas not handicapped wh i le
wri ting th ings, such freedom not being al lowed
in strictly orthodox l i terature . This book saysthat during the C ar-festival of Jagannath
in A shar 1 455 Saka, Chai tanya got a hurt
in his left foot from a smal l brick in the
coarse of his dancings . Then on the sixth ti tli i
the pain increased and he could not rise from
his bed. On the seven th ti t/i i at ten dandas of
n ight (about 1 1 p m . ) he passed away from the
world hav ing suffered from a sympathet ic fever.
Now th is accoun t seems to be qui te true,
as
several very old Mss. of Jayananda’
s Chai tanya
Mangal have been recovered wh ich proves beyond doub t the genu ineness of the prin ted
edi tion . There seems to be something like an
264 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
the year 1 533 A .D . The on ly poin t that remains
to be settled is that accord i ng to Jayananda the
time of ti red/tan is 1 1 p m . and accord ing to
Lochan D as 4 p m . We may,however, make a
reasonable guess as to the fact of the case.
Chai tanya was in the Jagauath temple when
he suffered from h igh fever When the priests
apprehended his end to be near they shut
the Gate against al l v isi tors. Th is they did
to take t ime for bury ing him wi th in the
temple . I f he left the world at about 4 p m .
the doors, we know,were kept closed t i l l 1 1 p m .
—th is time was taken for bury i ng him and re
paring the floor after burial . The priests at 1 1
p .m . ,open ed the gates and gave out that
Chai tanya was incorporated wi th the image of
Jagannath . So accord ing to one accoun t he
passed away at 11 pm . But the bet ter in formed
people knew that he had passed away at 4 p .m . ,
when the doors were closed .
I n al l our almanacs the ti tli is of births and
deaths of al l d ist ingu ished Vaishnavas are g iven ;but C hai tanya’
s birth ti t/i i is on ly men t ioned
there . The comp i lers of almanacs seem also to
have j o ined the genera l consp iracy on this poin t .
The Vaishnavas bel ieve in the b irth of Chai tanya
but would not be l ieve in his death .
I have clearly put my doub t in some of myprevious lectures ; the question may be asked , if
Lochan Das’s account is true,why did not the
THE MA RK I N THE KNEE 265
priests open the gates ? The answer is a simpleone
, the priests would not l ike to shew him
dying as an ord inary man . They declared thatthey had wi tnessed wi th their own eyes that
Chaitanya passed in to the image of Jagannath .
Th is report would certain ly prove his divin ity
and make i t absolutely beyond doubt . They
buried him somewhere under the floor of thetemple andwould not al low any outsider to enter
i t un ti l the place was thoroughly repaired and
no trace left after his burial as I have already
stated . Th is is the on ly rat ional explanation that
may be advanced for explaining their conduct in
shutting the temple gate . Probably they did
so wi th the permission of Raja Pratap Rudra.
But I th ink I go too far in suggesting that
monarch ’
s conn iv ing at their conduct .
When a report l ike th is got in to the ai r,it i s
not unnatural that the priests of the Gop inath
temple were tempted to g ive out a simi lar story
associatin g the even t wi th their own temple.
The golden mark on the left knee is st il l shown
to the pious pi lgrims,as mark ing the spot
through wh ich the sp iri t of Chai tanya passed
in to the G opinath image,and the priests
certain ly charge fees for shewing i t.
CHA PTER X I I .
Chai tanya as a Teacher.
(a) Love—its various phases in the spiri tual plane .
(6) Service to fel low-men and compassion for the
depressed castes.
( 0) Social reformation,—Vaisnava J urisprudence .
(fl) His commanding personality, many-sidedness of
character and scholarship .
(e) Spiritual emot ions, love for mother, his influence
on the Vaisnava poets .
A European scholar wri tes When al l pos
sible al lowances have been made,i t is diffi cu l t
to acqu i t Chai tanya of the charge of being
lacking in san i ty and po ise .
”1 A nother wri ter of
d istinct ion D r. MacNichol speaks sneeringly of the
sensuousness and lack of moral sense in Chand i
das’
s poems and even does not spare Chai tanya .
H e says“We are told that in his last days he would
spend whole n igh ts singing the
songs of C handidas and Vidya
pati,and we may be sure that they were the
insp irations as wel l of his earl ier vears.
”
Some host i le op in ions .
Underwood 's art icle on C hai tanya and Va ishnav ism in Ben gal , the
CalcuttaR ev iew, No. 295 , p, 50
268 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
not refer to theirremarks in the presen t treat ise .
Chaitanya loved God as no man before or after
him has ever loved . The Western idea of love
for God is general l y embodied in the spiri t
of obed ience that a servan t owes to the master.
I n Christ we see the resigned affect ion of a
child towards father. I n the l ives of European
mystics in a few isolated cases we find human
soul long ing for H im as a bride does for the
bridegroom . Some of the mystics as St . Juan
of the Cross, St. Teresa and A ngela of Fol igno
loved Christ as the bridegroom of their soul .
I n the old Jewi sh concept ion of the Church as
the bridegroom , no doubt conceived after the
idea of the Buddh ist Sangha— in the song of
songs wh ich is Solomon ’
s, the sp iri tual desire of
the soul wi th al l i ts sexual demands is expressed
in a poetical way. But Underwood tel ls us that
in Europe such th ings have always been more or
less of an isolated nature ; and they are no lon
ger held al legorical by the vast maj ori ty of
Christians but read as li terature . Hal lam tel ls
us that Buddhist ideas from the tenth to the
fourteen th centuries had spread themselves in the
rel igious atmosphere of the Christians.
When love for God assumes the form of a
servan t ’s duty to the Master, wh ich is now the
general ly accepted concept ion of man’
s relation
to God in Europe, we know that the whole fabric
( if rel igion would stand on the fu lfilment of
PA TERNA L A N D NOT FI LI A L 269
a man’
s moral duty . Th is i s emphasi zed in
Europe’
s religi ous l i terature of the presen t daywh ich advocates the theory of work to be man ’
s
ch ief i f not the on ly object. I do not believe
that Christ ’s ch i ldl ike dependence on God forms
any real part of the rel igious v iews of modern
Christendom . Had such an i dea developed in
Europe, the idea of God as mother would not
have been inconceivable to E uropean Christians
as i t is now. Once gran ted that man is a ch i ld of
God,the idea of dependence creates a place for
motherhood . Sex l n respect of the Supreme
power barring our acceptance of the dei ty i n the
aspect of a mother is untenable. I n I nd ia God
has been accepted both as father and mother
from the Ved ic age, and a large l i terature has
developed in respect of the Mother-cult along”
wi th that i l lucidating the fatherhood of the dei ty .
Th is paternal relat ion of the dei ty is superior?
in quali ty to that existing between a servant
and a master and emphasi zes the moral aspects
of religious ph i losophy in a far less forcible
manner. The ch i ld resigns and depends on the
word of fa ther wh ich raises him far above
moral obligations. But i t should be presumed
that the moral sense is perfected in one‘
before one wou ld aspire to accept God as a parent .
I f there i s any flaw in one ’
s moral nature one
cannot raise h imself from the posi tion of servant
to that of a ch i ld .
270 CHA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
I shou ld here refer to B atsa lga wh ich
presen ts a un ique aspect in the relig ion of
emotion,i t is not fi l ia l but p aterna l feel ing .
The Vaisnavas have made a departure in their
concept ion of B atsa lga from the ord inary sign i
ficance of th is rasa in the Spiri tual word .
I n ord inary sense God i s the recogn ised
Father of the world and we , as ch i ldren of God,
have fi l ial du ty to perform toThe BM W” " as"
H im . But i t should be under
stood that the Vaisnavas recogn ise no elemen t
in the conception of their sp iri tual experiences
wh ich is not associated wi th emotions of j oy .
A son ’
s feel ing to his paren ts is more or less
connected wi th a sense of duty and reverence .
The paren ts del ight in the chi ld , but in the first
stage the ch i ld ’s posi tion i s one of unconscious
resignat ion and latterly that of one who has
certain dut ies to perform . Nei ther of these
posi tions give him any opportun i tv to enj oy rasa
or bl iss as conceived by the Vaisnavas .
The Vaisnavas, in the higher stages of their
emotional fel ici t ies, al together d ispense wi th every
form of sen timent associated wi th duty or extra
neous compu lsion . The greatest sacrifices are
to be made but the sp iri t Shou ld be such as to
proceed in the path of j oy , not impe lled by a
sense of duty .
Th is sort of sacrifice is made by paren ts, espe
cial ly by mother who suffers all,but the Spiri t
272 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
the loveliest symbol of the preservation of the
world , of l ife in the m idst of death , of hope in
the m idst of decay ing forms,and as one for
whom the greatest sacrifices are made wi thout
a consci ousness of duty on the part of those who
undergo them and on e who typefies in the eyes
of the paren ts, ideal beauty and ideal love . I s
it not real ly wonderfu l that the t igress,the
l ioness and the softest of the woman-k ind in the
human world look upon the new-born wi th equal ly
tender eyes of afiection— eves full of never to be
al layed th irst and unceasing wonder ? The most
beaut i ful , the most attractive has come to the
home,g iv ing promise of the con t inuance of th is
fair world . The dry leaves and the wi thered
flowers here gladly make room for the newwh ich
blossoms to -day in the ful l glory of the present
and giving hope and promise of the future .
Recogn i tion of Godhead in the ch i ld i s one of
the most attractive features of the Vaisnava
theology and th is is their B atsa lga rasa . The
child -Christ of the E uropean myst ics makes an
approach to th is concept ion of the Vaisnava
mind,though not in i ts perfectly flowering
aspect .
I need not en ter in to and d iscuss the n ice
five-fol d classificat ions of a man’
s relat ion to God
as detai led by R am R ay in
his d iscourses wi th Chai tanya,
when the latter met him on the banks of
The Madurya
SEXUA L LOVE 273
Godavari in 1 51 0 A .D . But I must say that
beyond th is Sphere of man’
s duty to God as of
a servan t to the Master and even beyond that
of resignat ion and absolute dependence of a
ch i ld on his paren t i s the sphere of love between
man and woman denominated the M adhnrga
rasa by the Vaisnavas, and it must be said that
each of the lower stages comprehends and pre
supposes perfection of moral duty , and without
this,ascen t to any h igher stage is impossible .
This sexual love— the beauty of wh ich has
ever attracted the human mind,—wh ich hasmade
Valmik i and Homer wri te the grandest and most
charming epics,and Dan te suffer as few have
suffered , —wh ich sounds the sweetest on musi
cian’
s lyre and the shepherd ’
s fiute,— the sexual
love wh ich forms the qu in tessence of every lyric
and song and on wh ich human energ ies are ever
at work , in hundreds of stories, romances and
fables, -th i s love wh ich forms the ch ief attraction
of some of the greatest dramas, mak ing al l other
human action subserv ien t to i t,of which the
whole paraphernalia of natural scenery serves
as the background , this love , i t must be ad
m itted, is the most sign ifican t and the most
powerfu l e lemen t in human li fe, nay i t is
mystic in i ts infin i te strangeness and maddening
force . E very one of us has fel t th is lovemore or less in l i fe, and who can say, that
howsoever in tellectual and sober a man may be ,
35
274 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
he has preserved the po ise and equ i librium
of his head when under love . Shakespeare says
that the lover, the poet and the lunatic have
k indred e lemen ts . I n fact love is not calm
but a storm of nature . The sea when tranqu i l
presen ts a beau ti ful sight,but i t rises to subl ime
beauty in a tempest,and what painter wi l l say
that he did not get the h ighest insp irati on from
the sight of a storm in wh ich beauty and suhl i
mity are m ixed together ? E qui l ibrium and
poise are not the cri teri ons in the region of
poetry and emoti on .
Now if storm is the nature of love, if i ts
romance consists in the excess of poet ic imagina
tion,we cannot d ictate boundaries to i ts sphere,
much less so when i t tries to bring the I nfini te
to the real isation of and in the nearness of the
finite . I t must be admi tted that Chaitanya was
the one man who lo ved God wi th an ardou
which cal ls forth the whole poetry of the
human mind . H e is a poor observer of human
nature who says that Chai tanya Showed a
lack of moral sense . Moral side must be perfect
in a man who th inks of scal ing the height of
lov ing the Highest . H e loved God as a ch i ld
loves his paren ts . H e served H im as a servan t
serves hismaster. But more , he loved God as his
bridegroom who had en tirely captivated his sou l .
That he was ever keen to his great moral obl iga
ti ons wi l l be observed from many instances . Let
276 C H A I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
in the interest of human i ty wh ich the Buddhaand Chai tanya made wi thout bloodshed and
inspired by a real and genuine love for fel lowmen
, cannot be appreciated by Mr. Beveridge !
(6) Servi ce tofel low-men and comp assion
for the dep ressed castes.
H ow far are we away from Chai tanya to
j udge him properly ! We love our wives and
ch i ldren and at best our nat ion, but he alone
loved God,wh ich means lov ing the whole
un iverse - the creat ion of i ts Maker. I t was
not an attempt on his part to reach a h igh
stage of spiri tual l ife by exti ngu ish ing his
desires. I t was the one great factor of his l i fe ,the one great insp irat ion and the one great
poetry that moved his whole ex istence . H e was
certain ly not one l ike us, and i fMr. Beveridge
has any doubt as to what help he did to the
world , let him come and observe the v i l lages of
Bengal . I n almost every house of the rustic
peasan t and artisan his name is chanted wi th
lov in g regards . Th is has sweetened their l ives
and made them the most wel l -behaved and
v irtuous of world ’
s peasan try ; and love of God is
mean ingless, i f i t does not imply the same ardcur
in lov ing human i ty . We have seen him at
the earl iest stage of spiri tual l i fe carry ing the
baskets of worsh ippers, wring ing out waters from
the clothes of old men whose hands shock in their
C HA R ITY 27 7
eflorts to do so owing to infirm i ty , and carrying theclothes of others on the banks of the Ganges . Th is
serv ice to men,he says
,was holy as i t helped to
bring to his sou l devoti on for God. The Maddhya
khanda, Ch . 1 4,Verse 20 of the C haritamri ta
gives an accoun t of how Chai tanya del ighted in
feed ing the poor. A t Munna in the Madras
Presidency he begged clothes and food from
people in order to prov ide a hal f-star'
ved
old woman who stood in need of help . A t a
place named A mjhora in the Cen tral P ro
v inces, we find i t‘
described in Govinda’
s K archa,
Chai tanya had once absolutely no food for
two days and on the th ird day he got a
presen t of 2 Seers of flour wi th which he
prepared 1 6 breads. There were four men to
be served wi th these,—Ramananda
, Govinda
charan , Gov inda Karmakar and Chai tanya
himself . A t this stage one old man came
there wi th a boy and asked for someth ing
to eat and Chai tanya gave him his share though
he had fasted for two days . These l i ttle acts of
chari ty are almost n egl ig ible facts in a man who
had renounced the world wi th al l i ts pleasures
for God ’
s love . A nd I would not have ment ioned
them here but for the reason that these l i ttle
th ings seem to carry an exaggerated importance
now-a-days, especial ly wi th those who hav ing
material istic views of l ife can understand the
value of moral dut ies but cannot real ise the
27 8 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
mystic del ight of the true and beautiful
oriental mind en j oying commun ion wi th the
Dei ty . The moral world is one of mere pebbles
and stones of the foundations upon which that
D iamond Harbour of the soul is bui lt,full of
ecstasies and sweet emotions. The great thing
that Chai tanya gave to the people was a bit of
his love for God wh ich sanct ified the li ves of
sinners and of the fal len and soothed souls
that were weary and heavy- laden— not by
sermons or speeches, but by what Fraser cal ls
about him,
“ the mesmeric influence of his
presence .
”1
Those that would say that he was lacking in
poise should be reminded of his many-sided
in tellectual acti vities and his heroic atti tude in
the reorgan isation of the H indu society . He
selected men from amongst his followers to
work in differen t spheres of li fe for the propaga
t ion of fai th and social reformat ion . We find
i t men tioned in many places of his d ifferen t
biographies that he held secret d iscourses with
N ityananda regarding social matters and so
privately was the conversat ion conducted that
none was al lowed to en ter the room . N i tya
nanda was appoin ted by him to stay in Bengal
wi th the sole charge of social reformation .
C hai tanya had found the caste-system eating
Li terary H istory of I nd ia by R . W. Fraser,p . 350 .
280 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
scholar. Th is hab i t that he had acqu ired from
his youth m ight be construed in to a sort of
fool ish man ia,the whims of an unbalanced mind .
B ut he was in real i ty insp ired by propagandism .
H e had resolved to eat the refuse simply to give
a rude Shock to the popu lar prejud ice that the
man of an unclean caste was not worthy of touch—the food touched by him was unclean . One
could eat from the plate from wh ich a dog or cat
had eaten , but not even touch the plate used by
one of the unclean castes . IVhen the caste-rules
were so stringen t Kal idas’
s conduct was certain ly
held hero ic by the reformers. Once at Puri
there l ived a man named Kanai , who belonged
to the sweeper caste, one of the l owest castes in
Bengal , but a clean lier man than Kanai did not
exist in the country in respect of morals and
devotion to God. Kal idas cal led on Kanai one
day and bowed to him , at wh ich that very
humble soul m i ldly protested say ing that as a
Kayastha he shou ld not h ave bowed to a sweeper.
Kal idas offered him a mango,and when Kanai
had partaken of a part and thrown away the
remnan t , Kal idas p icked i t up and began to
taste i t. Th is was a horror to al l,a Kayastha
eating the refuse of a sweeper. But when
Chai tanya heard of this be praised and blessed
him say ing that God ’
s grace would be on him ,
since he hon oured meri t and not caste . I n his
own l i fe his treatmen t of H aridas,Rupa,
HA R I D A S A ND SA NA TA N 28 1
Sanatan and R am R ay showed that he was no
respecter of caste . A t a feast held at Puri he
ordered that H aridas,the Mahomedan convert
,
Shou ld be first served . I n the Vai shnava commu
n i ty the h ighest respect , generally shown to
the most exal ted Brahm ins,
used to be
Shown to H aridas even at religious funct ions . Chai tanya often touched H aridas say ing“ I feel myself purified by your touch A nd
when H aridas d ied he made al l the good
Brahmins drink water touched by his foot . H is
conduct towards Sanatan also showed the same
catholici ty and affection . Sanatan, though ori gi
nal ly a Brahm i n ,had adopted the ways of a
Mahomedan and had consequen tly been out
casted by the H indu society . I n the early years
of acquain tance when Chai tanya was about to
touch him ,he would shrink back say ing “
No
Master, I am unclean .
” But Chai tanya would
forci bly embrace him and say, You have ded i
cated yoursel f to me say ing ‘ I am yours from
to -day’
; that body of yours is mine in every
respect ; an a ll -sacrificing and al l -lov ing spiri t
dwel ls in i t,i t i s holy as a temple . Why
should you consider yoursel f unclean ? Thus
in vain did H aridas protest against Chai tanyatouchi ng him . When Chai tanya first met R am
Roy he ran in to his arms andwept for joy. The
Brahm ins who were there on the banks of the
Godavari al l wondered and said Look at th is36
282 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Brahm in ascet ic H e looks bri ll ian t as the sun .
Wh y does he touch a Sudra and weep I t
should be borne in mind that there was no relaxa
tion of caste -rules in favour of these men ,
though they were d istinguished as sain ts . I t is
true that Haridas, the Mahomedan,had accepted
the Vaishnava fai th and turned a sannyasi . But
the Brahm ins of San t ipur headed by Jadunandan
A charya'
had at first treated him wi th contempt
and offered him great resistance . We have i t on
the authori ty of several standard biograph ies of
Chai tanya that the people of San tipur had
taken great object ion to H aridas interpreting
the scriptures of the H indus. A tank dug bySanatan in Jessore sti ll ex ists
,the water of
which is held unclean up to this day by the
H indus, because it is associated wi th the name of
one who had once adopted Mahomedan ways .
H is subsequen t conversi on to Vaishnav ism was
not regarded as a sufficien t atonemen t . I n the
coun try -side the character of Chaitanya ,as the re
deemer of the fal len and a reformer of the society ,is held in h igh appreciat ion . I n the humble huts
of the peasants and other low- caste people,praises
and tributes of worsh ip are offered to him every
ni gh t and the song Pra ise un to C haitanva the
god-man of Nad ia,the freiend of the fal len and
one who does not bel ieve in caste is often sung
in chorus. The popular songs from the time of
Gov inda D as and Balaram D as who flourished in
284 C H A I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
Va ishnava commun i tv. The Goswam is of
Khardaha and San t ipur,the descendants of
N ityananda and A dwai ta respect ive ly , opened
their portals of brotherhood to al l men irres
pective of castes. The fal len Buddh ists,main ly
represen ted by the mercan t i le classes of Bengal
wi th a few except ions, had l ived as out-castes.
They were accepted i n the Temple of Brother
hood raised by the Vaishnavas. No Brahmin
would formerly do any rel ig ious function in
their houses. But the Vaishnava Goswamis
accepted them as d isciples, ate at thei r houses
and agreed to do priestly offi ces in their
temples. Had not Chai tanya accepted these
men in his Order, in al l probabi l itv they would
have embraced the I slam,as a large number
of Bengal Buddhists had already done . N i tya
nanda and his son B irabhadra admi tted
in to the Vaishnava Order N eras (Buddh ist
monks) and N eris (Buddhist nuns) . Th isacceptance of the fal len was a great act of
mercy , to commemorate wh i ch these N era -N eri s
held an annual fair at Kharda for about 400years . The h istori c fair was discontinued
abou t ten y ears ago owing to financ ial d ith
cul ties . I t does n ot,however, reflect any
cred i t on the descendan ts ofN i tyananda that thevhave g iven up th is memorable i nsti tut ion . They
could raise funds for i t by appeal ing to the
publ ic . The Spot where th is fair used to si t was
VA I D YA A N D KA YA STHA GURUS 285
about six years ago v isi ted by a European scholar
who designated i t as the place of the death
of Buddh ism in Bengal .
Many were the complain ts that were madeagainst N i tyananda for break ing the caste-ru les,and Sribasa was cal led j ati -naska, a destroyer of
caste, because he had allowed Ni tyananda to l ive
Wi th him . But the Vaishnavas repud iated caste
in an uncompromising way. One of thei r poets
sings,
“ H e that seeks castes among the Vaish
navas is a sinner.
”I n later times Narottam
,
a Kayastha,was raised to the status of a
Brahmin by the unanimous vo ice of the
Vaishnavas gathered at a meeting held at
Kheturi in the district of R ajshalzi . The
leaders proclaimed that one who had real ised
God in his heart was a true Brahmin and one
who merely wears the sacred thread was so in
name . We find Narahari Sarkar of Srikhanda,
the famous poet and friend of Chai tanya, and
Narottam D as of Kheturi who l ived i n the
sixteen th cen tury ,— one a Vaidya and the other a
Kayastha,-rece iv ing Brahmin d isc iples . Nara
hari Sarkar was not an ascetic but a householder.
The exal ted posi t i on of a Guru in our society
is wel l -known . The di scip le has to eat refusefrom the plate of his Guru and drink the watertouched by his foot . The revolution
,brought
about in the world of caste by these acts, raised
a tempest of Opposi tion amongst the orthodox
286 C HA I TA N YA A N D HI S A GE
Brahmins,the extent of wh ich might be con
ceived from the fact that these Brahm ins h issed
and clapped their hands when the dead body of
Narottam was being carried for cremation .
Narasingha ,the Raja of Pakkapall i was inci ted by
the orthodox Brahmins to undertake a regular
exped i tion against Narottam and his followers.
A l l these have been elaborately treated by me
in my Med ieva l Vaisnava Li terature of Bengal . ’
The lay Vaishnavas would not now excuse
any man if he would ask as to what caste
they had belonged before adop ting Vaishnav ism .
One of their wri ters says “if a Mahomedan or a
low Sudra turns a Vaishnava he is better than an
ord inary Brahmin .
The insp iration of th is great revolution came
of course from Chai tanya h imself under whose
instruct ions N i tyananda organ ised the Vaishnava
commun i ty in Bengal . I t is on these topics
that Chai tanya frequen tly talked in private wi th
Ni tyananda, and i t is for the obj ect of leav ing
the latter undisturbed in the course of his recon
struction of society that Chai tanya gave him
no perm ission to leave Bengal and pay him a
V isi t at Puri . Owing,however
,to his great
love for Chai tanya be frequen tly v iolated this
order and came to in terv iew him . Chai tanya
knew perfectly wel l that N i tyananda had not
the least van i ty of caste or learn ing and,devoted
en t irely to God as he was,he was pre
-eminen tly
288 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
gm erncd. I t was not a mere command,but
Cha itanya h imsel f suppl ied the synopsis of th ismonumental work . Chai tanya in an elaborate
d iscourse impressed on Sanatan his v iews on
rel ig ion and drew an outl ine of the work wh ich
Sanatan was requ ired to comp i le for elucidat ing
the ri tuals of the bleakti - cu l t . Sanatan said
You have ordered me , Sir, to comp i le a work of
jurisprudence for the Vaishnavas. But how can
such a work be undertaken by me ? I belong to
a low caste and have h i therto led a l ife, con trary
to scriptures. I t is on ly possible for me to ven
ture to take up the work in hand if vou inspire
me .
” Chai tanya repl ied ,“ When you wi l l be
seriously after i t, i t is God who wi l l insp ire and
help you . But sti ll I wi ll give you briefly a
synopsis of what your work should con tain . You
should dwel l on the following points in an elaborate
manner. (1 ) The necessi ty of Guru in rel igious
l i fe . (2) The respective duties of Guru and his
d isciple . (3 ) The ri tes of worsh ip and ord inary
dai lyduties of a Vaishnava for keep ing his body
andm ind clean . (4) The signs of a true Vaish
nava . (5) The marks to be worn on his person to
d istinguish him from the people of other sects .
(6 ) The sacred plan t Tulasi and the sacred dust
Gopichandana . ( 7 ) 130 k inds of rituals. (8 )The five fold serv ices of A m ti . (9 ) Parti
culars about images. (10 ) The power of the holy
name . (1 1 ) Penances, Japa or recitat ion of the
THE OUTI NG 289
Man tras,sacred hymns
,perambulat ion , prostra
tion,partak ing of the sacramen tal meal . (1 2)
G iving up of the habi t of scandali z ing,of evi l
company . (13 ) To hear the reci tation of the Bhaga
vata. ( 141) Fasting on particular days. ( 15) The
observances of the festiv i t ies of Janmasthami
(birth of Krishna) . (1 6 ) R amnabam i (b irth of
Ram ) . (1 7 ) N rishingha Chaturdashi . ( 18 ) How
Vaishnava temples and images should be made .
This synopsis embod ies al l the detai ls of
Vaishnava religi on . But i t g ives a mere outl ine‘
of what was detai led by Chai tanya h imself later
on in an elaborate manner. Chai tanya h imse lf
did not care to observe ru les and used to say that
D amodara and Swarupa knew them much bet ter
than he did. But when he elaborated the
synopsis for Sanatan he showed a wonderful
mastery of detai ls . These ri tuals and outward
forms comprised restriction of conduct di recti ng
what a Va ishnava should do and should not do .
Though Chai tanya descri bed these ri tuals in
m inute detai ls , he did not recommend them for
those advanced in spiri tual l ife (Chai tanya
C haritamri ta , Maddhya , He declared that
these ri tuals oftent imes recei ved greater atten tion
than they deserved and instead of help ing rather
impeded the growth of real sp iri tuali ty in those
men who were above the average run . So at a
certain stage the rituals should be given up
al together. The great Hari Bhakt i B i las comp i led
37
290 (‘
HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
by Sanafan on the l ines d irected by Chai tanya is
now the one und isputed guide for the Va ishnava
commun i ty in the performance of the i r dai lv
duties and rel i gious fun ctions , and the Master
insp ired every detai l of th is monumen tal work .
When the work was fin ished , Sanatan thought
that as he had at one time adopted Mahomedan
ways, obj ection m ight be raised to i ts acceptance
by the orthodox people . So i t was publ ished in
the name of Gopal Bhatta . But we know both
from the accoun t of C hari tamri ta,the author of
wh ich was a d isciple of Sanatan,and from the
elaborate and scholarly commen tary on the work
by J iva Goswami , nephew of Sanatan ,that the
work was wri tten by the latter under d irections of
Chaitanya D ev.
So we see that the organ isati on of the reform
ed society on the sol id basis of scriptural rules
sat isfy ing the needs of the Aka/aft cul t owed i ts
existence to Chai tanya though the immed iate
labours of the work were done by Sane tan .
(cl ) I fi s command/£720 persona l i ty, many-sided
ness of character and scholars/zip .
Though when Chai tanya passed in to trances
and mystic visions,he remained un conscious of
the physical world, yet we mark frequently a
d igni ty in him wh i ch commanded respect . I n
the Narendra Sarobar where A dwa itacharya,
292 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
renunc iat ion by eschewing temporal glories in
preference to ascetic l i fe , such as Raghunath
D as,Uddharan Datta and Sanatan . But al l of
them had been inspired i n their great works that
d istinguished them by Chai tanya D ev. The
Bhakti R atnakar is right in declaring on the
l ines of what had been orig inal ly wri tten by the
au th or of C hari tamri ta,that Chaitanya man i fest
ed his man i fold glories firstly through Rama
nanda R ay whose l ife was a conquest over
passions of the flesh , secondly, through D amodara
who showed in his l i fe absolu te resignat ion and
unsparing judgmen t on others’
conduct,th irdly
,
through H aridas who showed an unparal leled
power of suffering andpatience , fourthly , through
Sanatan and Rupa great sp iri tual humi l i ty .
“But
i f we are to name one man who comb ined in him
the four- fold qual it ies of conquest of the flesh,
absolute resignat ion ,pat ience and sp iri tual i ty
,
let us name Chai tanya and n one other.
”
We need not refer here to C hai tanya ’
s trances
or emo tional dance wh ich are too subtle spiritual
phenomena in th is material istic age to be righ tly
appreciated outside I nd ia,and wh ich have per
haps rai sed the complaint of “ lack of san i ty ”
i n him . But these social revoluti ons to wh ich
we have referred and of wh ich he was at the
helm are ind isputable facts of h istory wh ich
showed his remarkable powers as a leader of
men ; and a leader he was, as i t has been the
H I S SC HOLA RSHI P 293
lot of few amongst his con temporaries to be .
For the purpose of merely catch ing a sight of
him, whenever he wen t in big towns
, the
crowds pressed so th ickly around him that
they fil led al l imaginable space, ascend ing the
roofs of mansions and tops of towers ; and
old bu i ld ings often crumbled down under the
weight of the ir feet . Wherever he passed
by,people gathered sacred dust trodden by him
,
so that the paths were shorn of a layer of earth.
1
H is scholarsh ip was great . I n fact manv of
the distinguished professors of pan theism who,
so to speak , had monopolised al l med iaeval I nd ian
learn ing , such as Prakashananda, Sarbabhoum
and I shwar Bharati were defeated by him in
publ ic debates .
fA nd even when scarcely above
his teens he had obtained the t i tle of L ion of
debate ”
(Badi Singha) by defeating such a
haughty scholar as Keshab Kashm i ri of the
Pun jab . Chai tanya was also a master of many
languages, the parallel of whom in that
period is difficult to be found in the annals of
I ndia . We learn on the authori ty of Narahari
Sarkar, his friend and con temporary , that he
had acquired Pal i and a thorough knowledge
of Fingal ’s Prak ri t Grammar in the to l of
Gangadas Pand i t at Nad ia .
2 H e had obtained
C hai tanya Bhagbata .
Goura Pada Tarangin i .
294 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
the t i tle of Vidyasagar’
for his proficiency inSanskri t . ‘ H e wrote a commen tary on Sanskri t
Grammar wh ich was taught in the tols of
Eastern Bengal . That he excel led in Poetics is
proved by his successful encoun ter wi th Keshab
Kashmiri . A ccord ing to I shan Nagar, he hadwri tten an excel len t treati se on logic . Some of
the verses he wrote in Sanskri t are st il l extan t
and amongst these eight stanzas are to be found
in the Kavyaprakasha comp i led by Rupa . H is
great proficiency in Vedan ta ph i losophy was
always in ev idence in hi s publ ic d iscussions wi th
the leaders of the pan theist ic schools al l over
I ndia . H is knowledge in the scriptures e lu
cidating the blm lcti cu l t was of course wi thout a
parallel . H e l ived in Orissa for 1 8 years during
wh ich he acquired a thorough knowledge of the
language of that prov i nce and that he actually
did so we learn from a reference in the Chari ta
mri ta to the fact that he rec i ted an Oriya
poem beginn ing wi th J agmnohana P ari fmmda ,
etc .,b idd ing Swarupa to sing i t to him . Gov inda
D as tel ls us that he addressed people i n the
Bombay Presidency in Sanskri t and Tam i l and
in another place of the Karcha i t is stated that
he spoke “a language of jargon to the people
in the Deccan who spoke “ jargon ”and adds
a note further stat ing that travell ing for a long
t ime in the Southern I nd ia Cha itanya had
A dwai t Prakash by I shannagar.
296 C H A ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
the trances of Chai tanya were the most wonderful th ing that men ever beheld in him .
Th is emot ion made his l ife . magn ificen t
as a great ep ic poem . The whole Vaishnavalyrics, masterp ieces of songs
,breathe inspiration
of Chai tanya ’
s emoti ons . True, i t re lated to
man’
s love for God but i t is the most wonderful love - tale that men ever heard .
Supposing for a momen t that a man can love
God as a bride does the bridegroom ,al l the sub
l im i ties of fem in ine emoti ons become as a matter
of course the attributes of such a sou l . Man
can be a servan t i n God ’
s temple ; he may
even cal l God a father. But i t seems incon
ceivable to many how human soul can love God
as the bride does the bridegroom . We talk of
duty everywhere . But when one approaches
his God in love , the question of duty does not
arise at al l . The wi fe gives her all,and this
ideal is lowered by restricting her scope to certain
prescribed ru les for the guidance of conduct .
There can be no question that Chai tanya actu
al ly fel l in love wi th One so long considered as
beyond the range of al l human conception . A nd
he indulged in al l the n icet ies of emot ion relat
i ng to th is roman tic si tuation . Rupa Goswami ,who was appoin ted by Chai tanya to elucidate the
Mi ami cul t by wri ting dramas about Radha
K rishna in Sanskri t , wrote exhaust i vely about
these emotions. H is famous verse beg inn ing wi th
GOD A S BR I DEGROOM 297
Tmzde trmdaveii e was no doubt conceived from
wi tnessing the sol ici tude of Chai tanya for hearingand reci ting Krishna ’
s name . The man ifold
emot ions,so poetically conceived in ki lahinehi t
of Sanskrit poetics, described by Rupa, com
mented upon by Ji va Goswami (who brought out
the whole wealth of the subtle fel icities of the
sou l in love in his annotat ions) bear the stamp of
that inspirati on which came from Chaitanya’s
love-ecstasies. H ow all th is is possible i s not for
me to explain ,but the sexual romance is noth ing
i f i t does not teach us to taste the higher j oys of
the spiri tual p lane . I do not know why the
question of decency so often ari ses in respect of
sexual love,—since it is the purest
,the most
roman t ic and the most beauti ful of all human
sen t imen ts. I f we believe in God and in our
duty to love him,th is sexual love purged of all
its grossness should be the very type of the
sent iments wi th wh ich the highest of us may
approach H im . Like al l th ings of superior
qual i ty , this love i s del icate and may not bear
too rough a touch . Hence Chai tanya did not
speak of i t before the publ ic to whom he con
fined h imself to a mere recitation of Krishna’
s
name . B ut wi th Swarupa and R am R ay he
revelled in the elucidations of the subtler pointsof love-ph i losophy . Swarupa, at his b idd ing
,
referred to the various stages and condi tions of
a lover’
s emotions in his private talk . He spoke
38
298 C HA ITA NY A A ND H I S A GE
of ( lh'ira,the maiden in l ove who being wronged
,
does not reprimand her loverbut g ives him a seat
near her and does not express her anger, speakssweetlv and i f the lover embraces
,returns the
embrace ; of adhim who being wronged takes
away the lotus that decorates her ears and
strikes the lover wi th i t and makes him a captivewi th a string of flowers
,of D him dhim who
being wronged speaks crooked words and cuts
j okes and is sometimes ful l of entreat ies and at
others showers abuses or remains indifferen t ;of Mugdha who being wronged knows not how
to be angrv but covers her face wi th hands to
h ide her tears and forgets and forg ives, i f the
lover smi les and talks pleasan tly . There are also
Maddhyas and P rayer/ lofts . A nd there are sti l l
subtler classifications ; for instance the last
named two are classified into M uir/mm, Mridu
,
Samar, etc . We need not en ter into th is very com
plicated science of love , includ ing other infin i te
varieties of tender emot ions,wh ich was no doubt
deve loped during the days of the decl in ing
H indu power,when the sp iri t of galan try hadmade
i t a fash ion for the learned to in troduce subtle
classifications of femin ine feel ings . These were
no doubt used by Rupa as materials but looked
at and in terpreted from an en tire ly n ew stand
po in t as matters of sp iri tual plane . H ow
Chai tanya thought on ly of his God and H is
relation to man from the nice classificat ions
300 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
experiencing a heightened j oy by the associat ions
of these places wi th worsh ip . For to each andal l
of these shrines p i lgrims have travelled for cen
taries, sincere]y seek ing One who is the final stay
of the world . Though on account of his pecul iar
ben t of m ind favouring the emot ional side of rel i
g ion,he is iden tified wi th the Vaishnavas , yet his
was the un iversal cathol ic rel ig ion that made him
approach every spot of prayer and worsh ip held
sacred by the devotees wi th reverence , and he
fel t equal spiri tual ecstasies at the temple of
Kal i at Padmakot as he had done before that of
D warakadhish atD waraka . H e rejectednothing in
the sp iri tual world,however low i t migh t appear
to superficia l lockers on,just as science rejects
noth ing as useless but by mach inery turns rags
and b i ts of paper to some fine usefu l purpose .
H is fai th created flowers out of fil th . The house
of harlots or the resorts of robber-gangs he raised
to the rank of temples by his fai th . H e paid a
v isi t to the image of Kal i in the A shtabhuja
temple at Padmakot in 1510 A . D . and when
a Brahmin brought a goat for sacri fice he
approached him and said H ow can you bel ieve i t,friend
,that theMother of the un iverse wi l l take
meat and wine l ike a drunkard P The scriptures
have been wrongly interpreted . H is ecstat ic
fervour i n the temple and his tears had already
produced an impression as usual and the
Brahmin as he heard him speak swee tl y thought
RA TI ON A L I SM
that he heard the voice of God. H e let loose
the goat and worshipped Kali wi th simple
offerings of leaves, flowers and sandal .
Though temples and shrines were helpful in
awaken ing afresh his emotional fel ici ties and
serving as signs and rem inders, he did not share
at all in popular supersti tions. I n the Brinda
groves some people came and in formed him that
at a certain place in the Jamuna,Kri shna
appeared every n ight towards i ts latter part
riding the great snake Kal iya and many men
bore testimony to hav ing wi tnessed the wonder
ful spectacle . Chai tanya sm i led and said H ow
foolish are you to bel ieve in such a nonsense I
and he appoin ted some of his in tell igen t people
to find out what had deceived the eyes of the
i gnoran t men of the shrine . I n due course the
report came stat ing that a fisherman used . to
ply his boat in the Jamuna every n ight . H e was
mistaken for Krishna and the boat was taken
for the snake Kal iya and the l ight in the boat
was thought of as the red eye of the snake . I n
Beroch his spiri tual fervour became so great
that a large thron g gathered to behold i t. One
man wickedly said Don ’
t you see your Krishna
is in the yonder tank . Chai tanya stood up and
breathed heav i ly . H is eyes shed incessan t tears
at the men tion of Krishna . The man again
said aloud “ Just see there,your Kri shna i s
in the tank . Then Chai tanya stretched his
302 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
hands as if to run into the arms of his lover and
flung h imself in to the tank and became uncon
scious . H e was rescued by the help of the people
who began to reproach the wicked Brahmin who
had said the Krishna was in the tank . On
coming back to his senses, Chai tanya said Why
do you reproach the Brahm in ? Where is H e not
in earth,waters and in the sky above ? The
al l -pervad ing de i ty was the object of his worsh ip
and all things that he saw or heard here a mes
sage to him from the M ost H igh. Th is message
m igh t have been writ ten i n a language wh ich
i s Hebrew or Greek to us,— one that may find a
paral lel i n the Song of Songs, or in the song
celest ial of Joydev. or in the phraseology of
human passi on in the Dohas of K anupad and
other myst ics and sain ts, but that he received
such a message,madden ing his sou l wi th love
and elevat ing i t to a plane in wh ich the eyes of
God and of Man met and exchanged mutual
glances, adm i ts of no doub t
But howsoever the roman tic love of Krishna
may have softened his nature,the Brahmin ic
ascet icism by wh ich such lovewas fed andnourish
ed was the dom inan t characteristic that is marked
in his career subsequen t to smmyas . We find
him declin ing to keep Gov inda Ghosh of A gra
dwip on the l ist of the ascetics of his Order as
he was found to keep the remnan t of a Hari taki
fru i t after Chai tany a had partaken of i t, for use
304 C HA I TA NYA A N D HI S A GE
subject of harsh comment ; i t is l ike a p i tcherful l of m i lk spo i led by a drop of wine .
”
I nstances of such sp iri tual meekness l ie strewnal l over his l i fe as a smmyasi and are too numerousto be men tioned .
Though he had cruel ly cut h imself off from
home,his love for mother never forsook him
,
and i t was one of the most lovable features of
his character. H e interv iewed his mother on ly
once afterhis swi ng/es, and accord ing to a doubtful
authori ty twice . During such interv iews
he showed his feel ing and affectionate regard
in an unamb iguous language . A t one of them
he said Whatever y ou bidme do I wi l l do and
complying wi th her request he promised that as
sannyasi he wou ld l ive at Puri from wh ich place
she would have an opportun i ty of receiv ing fre
quen t messages about him . I n the last year of
his l ife he sen t the following message to his
mother through Jagadananda Mother,I left my
immed iate duties to you and came away as
samig/asi . I turned mad and laid axe to the very
root of all rel igion by discard ing you . Pray
excuse me for th is . I am your affectionate son
and am ent i tled to every i ndu lgence .
” Whenever
any one came from Nad ia he asked him to tel l
his mother that her k i tchen was the one place
wh ich he cou ld never forget . I have never
rel ished any food so wel l as that cooked by mymother.
”H e said often ; and we have seen
VA I SHN A VA TRA NCE 305
how Sachi one day prepared some meals l iked by
Chai tanya for offering to Krishna and wept saying Who wi l l eat these— myNimai has forsaken
me On one occasion when D amodara told
Chai tanya that he had derived his sp i ri tual nature
from his mother,he embraced D amodara with
love and said that he had spoken the tru th .
A l l that Chai tanya said about his mother,his
remorse and al l,shou ld be taken for their worth .
The v ision of Krishna was ever before his eyes
and it attracted him to a higher world day and
n igh t,and when occasionally on ly he came down
to the consciousness of his material surround ings,
he fel t temporari ly as ordinary good people feel .
But a momen t after he beheld the v ision beat i
fic and passed in to a trance forgettin g all his
worldly ties.
What were these trances ? Mr. Underwood
says that they were simi lar to those experienced
by men durin g what is called Wesleyan Revi val .
A t a rev ival in he says, at R ed R iver,Oh io , many dropped to the ground cold and sti ll
,
or wi th convu lsive twi tches of face and limbs.
O thers leaped and bounded about l ike live fish
out of the water. O thers rolled over and over
on the ground for hours. A s the exci temen t ih
creased i t grew more morbid and took the form
of “ jerk ing or in others it became“ bark ing
exercise and in yet others i t became the“ holy
laugh .
”The jerks began wi th the head
,wh ich
39
306 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
was thrown v iolen tly from side to side so rap idly
that the features were blurred and the hair al
most seemed to snap , and when the sufferer struck
an obstacle and fel l,he wou ld bounce abou t l ike
a bal l . Men fancied themselves dogs and gathered
abou t a tree bark ing and yelp ing tree
ing the dev i l . ” Christendom knows the psy
chology of th is form of adolescence in the h istory
of Quakers and other sects also . Bu t i t is a
great m istake to con found these wi th a Vaishnava
trance . We have these in I nd ia st i ll and no one
herewi l l mistake them for Vai shnava experiences
of emotion . On the day of the Charak and other
Shi vai t fest ivals low-class i ll i terate men do
nearlv al l the th ings described by Hal l and
James from whose works Mr. Underwood
has taken his extracts . On these davs people0 ather by hundreds, to see these wi ld scenes of
rel ig ious exci temen t . One man takes an incense
pot in his hand and runs followed by drummers
who beat their drums aloud and other people
gather together to form a procession . A t a
certain stage the man wi th the burn ing
incense in his hand steps and throws his head
from side to side v i olen tly wi th twi tches
of the face and eyes . The jerk ing becomes so
V i olen t that the man seems to lose a l l conscious
ness, andhis example i s followed by several others
who do the same th ing . I n Eastern Bengal they
cal l i t B di lpri rci . A fter doing many th ings
308 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
beautv and by an exposi tion of the emotional
doctrines based on the text of the scriptures
of the Bhakti cu l t . The barbaric act ion of the
i ll iterate Shivai t m ight have orig inal ly had some
elemen t of mysticism in i t,but i t has been re
duced now to a mere physical d isplay of morbid
rel igi ous exci temen t . The Vaishnavas on the
other hand have, by scholarly exposi tion of their
subtle rel ig ious phi losophy, classified al l experi
ences of emotion in such a manner that the A shta
Se te ie B ike r or the eigh t sorts of spiri tual
fervour accord ing to their classifications bears
now a scien tific scrut iny and stands on the basis
of an analyt ical and masterly grasp of the whole
problem of human men tali ty in respect of
tender emot ions . A vast l i terature g iving a
scien t ific rev iew of the A shta Sateie B iker is in
ex istence, lay i ng down canons for the cu l ture of
the emotional side of the mind . There seems
to be hardly any aflfin i ty between the savage
excesses of rel ig ious experience of the Shivai ts
and the cul tured mysticism of the Vaishnavas
i n thei r respect ive forms at the present.
day.
The my stic tran ces according to the Vaishna
vas are beyond the reach of an ord inary man’
s
real isat ion . Chai tanya ’
s adv ice to regulate one ’
s
l i fe before one can reach the h igher plane of
mystic bl iss i s comprehensive . Some of them
I give below.
BA SI S OF EMOTI ON 809
One should be k ind wi thou t hosti le feel ings
towards others . H e shou ld adept tru th to behis greatest stay and be fau l tless in morals
,
magnan imous,pure in body and m ind
,humble
,
a un iversal benefactor, calm ,resigned to God
,
wi thout desire,a con troller of passions
,tempe
rate in d iet, not add icted to pleasures,giving
honour to others,but not wishing for any h imsel f
,
d ignified , ful l of compassi on , friendly to al l , not
given to talk ing , effi cien t in work and of a poeticturn of mind .
”
I n another place his advice to the rel igiouspreceptors was
Do not take too manydiscip les, do not abusegods worsh ipped by other peeples and theirscriptures, do not read too many books and donot pose as a teacher con tinually cri t icising and
elucidat ing rel ig ious v iews . Take profit and lossin the same li ght . Do not stay there where a
Vaishnava i s abused . Do not l isten to vi llagetales. Do not by your speech or thought causepain to a l iv ing th ing . Listen to the reci tation ofGod
’
s name . Recol lect his kindness bow to him
and worsh ip him . Do what he wi lls as a servan t,
be lieve H im to be a friend and then ded icateyourse lf to H im .
”
The last advice is the quin tessence of Vaishnavareligi ous ph i losophy -A lma m
’
bedan or self-ded ication implies the absolute surrender of one ’
s bodyand soul to the Dei ty in the sp irit of a bride
3 10 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
offering herself to the bridegroom . When th isstage i s reached trances become n atural to thedevotee . So that a mere physical d isplay or ner
vousness is not m istaken by the Vaishnavas forany h igh degree of sp iri tual advancemen t .
The trances of Chai tanya were often the most
exal ted sight to those who wi tnessed them . The
lever sees i l lusions at every stage of the inten
sity of his emotions showing his k indredness wi th
the poet and the lunat ic . R am seeks t idings
about Si ta in one of such felici tous moods from
the pomegranate and mango trees and Valmik i
gives a pathetic in terest to his unmatched poetry
by describing them . Bhababhut i keeps a con ti
nuons flow of his charming poetry by a descrip
tion of the i l lusions and trances of his hero ,and Jaydev makes his R adha absorbed in her
reveries wi th her gaze fixed at the l ovely
clouds wh ich she mistakes for her dark -coloured
god . These tender and romantic si tuat ions
described in l i terature are exceed ingly attrae
t ive . But when we find one who actual ly
m istakes a z‘
ama l tree and a summer cloud for the
god of his v ision and remains for days together,unconsci ous of the material world lost in mystic
bl iss,the poetic in terest that gathers round him
becomes real ly insp iring . The creed of emotional
rel igion lays stress on our capac i ty of real iz
ing god as lover— the soul of man being his
bride . I f Godmay be obeyed as a servan t,if He
3 12 C H A ITA NYA A N D 1118 A C E
another sings of his love ly eyes that became ful l
of tears at the sigh t of flowers . R adhamohan
the poet says H e talks wi th Some One not
seen by others,—his lotus eyes are tearfu l and
they betray a strange emotion . The l iterature
of lyrics describ ing the emot ions of Chai tanya is
considerable,and we recommend our readers to
the excel len t work Gaurapadatarangin i comp i led
bv Jagatbandhu Bhadra and publ ished by the
Sahi tya Parishat of Calcutta wh ich contains
the largest collection of these songs .
The influence of Chai tanya on the Vaishnava
songs is enormous . H e turned the very t ide of
them from the sensuous to the ideal istic course .
TheK i rtwh a songs afterhi ssazmyaswere inevitablyintroduced by Gaurachandrikas which gave a
sp iri tual tone to the Radha-Krishna songs much
more than they had possessed formerly . The
Radha-Krishna songs are d ivided into several
classes. There are some that treat of the pastoral
l i fe of Krishna in the m idst of his fellow cow
herds and these are called the Gostha songs.
There are besides those wh ich describe the
roman t ic position in wh ich Radha and Krishna
fel l in love and these are the Purba Raga songs .
The D outya is the message of love sen t by one
to the other. Then comes the un ion or M i lan .
The stages of M i lan contain the varied phases of
Khand ita , Kalahan tari ta, Bipralabdha,
and Man
in wh ich Radha feels herself wronged and is full
9 )
G A U RA C HA ND R I KA 313
of anger because Krishna does not come to her
bower as expected , wh i le she spends the n ight
imagining his approach at every fal l of leaves.
The last of all is the Mathur, where Krishna
leaves her for ever and goes to Mathura, supple
mented by Bhabasanmi lan in wh ich Radharealises his presence in her spiri t and thus findshim real ly and truly
,though physical ly separated
from him . I need not dwe l l on these differen t
classes of songs,wh ich for poeticbeauty, tenderness
and pathos, have a quite un ique place in world ’s
lyrical li terature, fed as they are by the great
spiri tual cul ture of the H indus and by Vedan tic
ph i losophy,which give to apparen t sensuous
descriptions a great mystic import . The Gaura
chandrikas are the songs describing Chai tanya’s
emotions. These songs are introduced as pre
lognes before each class of Radha-Krishna songs
is sung . Each of the above classes is sung for
four or five hours, but the inevitable prologue
theGaurachandrikamust be sung first . I refermyreaders
'
to pp . 538 -42 of my H istory of Bengali
Language andLi terature for a ful l account of the
hearing wh ich the Gaurachandrikas have on the
Radha-Krishna songs. The Gaurachandrikas by
al luding to Chaitanya’
s emotions give a realistic
in terest to the Radha-Krishna songs. A l l sensu
ous matters are thus purged o f materialistic
elemen ts and become thoroughly idealised by the
exalted al lusion ; and th is forms a sort of commen t
AO
314 CHA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
upon the songs in terpreting the whole in the ligh t
of spiri tual ity . The aud ience thus become insp ired
by the sp iritual side of these songs,which
becomes so apparen t and strik ing that the
romance of ordinary love on ly heightens the
spiritual felici ty of the musical performance . I n
the Swapnabi las and D ibyonmad by the poet
Krishna Kama] , born in 1 810, we finda systematic
and successful attempt on the part of the poet
to portray Chaitanya ’
s spiritual fel icities in the
outward form of the R adha-Krishna legend .
Radha goes to Kunda and Juthi flower plan ts and
seeks the tid ings of Krishna from them, j ust as
Chaitanya is said to have done , as described in
the A n takhanda of the Chai tanya C hari tamri ta .
The v isi on of clouds bearing i ts ever-beauti ful
message to the Vaishnava devotee is attributed to
Radha. She trembles wi th j oy and with j oint
hands offers praise to the clouds think ing them to
be Krishna, for staying a while to l isten to her
lamen ts. But the clouds pass away andwhen
Krishna actual ly comes to her doors sheweeps and
says Say, my maids, i s it real ly H e or merely
the clouds ? A re th ose the peacock feathers
of his crown or the rainbow ? A re those that
look l ike strings of pearls on his breast real ly
so or the flocks of cranes in the d istan t clouds P
I s th is his purple dress or a flash of l ightn ing ?
Th is is the th in l ine beyond which the fine frenzy
- the trance of Chaitanya often steps forth . The
316 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
believed . H ow can th is si tuation be explained
wi thout a reference of the hearing wh ich
Chai tanya ’
s ecstasies had on the Radha-songs ?
I n many places Chai tanya is described as rest ing
on the shoulders of Narahari and Gadadhar and
lamen t ing the pain of God in the most poet ic
way. R adhamohan the poet describes Radha as
lean ing on her mai ds and lamen t ing in the
same strain . I n the accoun ts of A bhishar after
Chai tanya’
s samiyas Radha is described always
in such a way as to remind us of Chai tanya’
s
leading the K irtana profession . There are
very direct references wh ich cannot be in ter
preted wi thout their hearing on Chaitanya’
s
l ife .
These whose cry is that some of the Vaishnava
songs are erot ic,lose sight of the sp iri tual back
ground against wh ich the Badha-Krishna songs
are set. One who attends a K irtan performance ,must be struck wi th the edi fy ing effect
inevi tably produced on the hearers. The
singers and thei r audience feel the inspiring
presence of the spirit of Chaitanya in the Gour
C handrikas and al together lose sight of th is
material world be ing gradually carried into the
higher reg ions of Div ine grace and love . One who
has witnessed the solemn i ty of these perform
anecs wi ll not doubt for a momen t the
exal ted character of the songs when properly
in terpreted .
THE NERA NER I S 3 17
Last of al l we refer to the cri ticism which
has been made in certain quarters regard ing the
immoral l ives of layVa ishnavas asdue to a defect
in the system of emotional rel igion founded by
Chaitanya. The immodesties complai ned of as
existin g amongst the Sahaj ias and Nera Neris
who at the presen t day profess Vaishnav ism ,
should not be attributed to anyth ing wrong i n
the Vaishnava creed ; since we have seen that
Chaitanya and his fol lowers from whom the
religion emanated were stern ascetics of purest
morals and i t is not fair to suppose that fromasceticism and puri ty immoral i ty
‘
can spring, any
more than we can expect N im fru i t from a
mango tree . These Sahaj ias and Nera Neriswereorig inal ly Buddhist Bhikkhus and Bh ikkhun is
(monks and nuns) amongst whom great sexual
vices prevailed . I nstead of being an instrumen t
of degenerating their morals Vaishnavism has
reformed them to a great exten t and the work
of reformation is sti l l going on . They were
celibates and their profligacy i s due to a fal l of
the moral standard during the decl ining daysof Buddhism . Vaishnava leaders have
,however
,
in troduced marriage system amongst them, and
th is has gone a great way towards reforming theircharacter. A nd if sexual vices sti l l prevai l intheir society , they are l ike the dregs in awine
bottle—the remnan ts of bygone depravities, and
the faul t of this must not be fixed on the
318 C H A I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
Vaishnavas. That theirmorals hadbeen gradual ly
but stead i ly improv ing wi l l be proved by the fact
that the markets or fairs where women used
practical ly to be sold forR e . l -A perhead are grow
ing scarcer day by day. A nd wi th these people—the Sahaj ias and Nera Neris— the Vaishnavas
had noth ing to do formerly , though their leaders
out of great compassion admi tted the fallen
people wi th in the fold of their relig ion . The
subject wi l l be dealt wi th elaborately in Chapter
I I of the Supplemen t of th is book .
We have quoted a song by the Emperor
A kbar in honour of Chai tanya on the t i tle page
as our motto . I n the inscriptions of Govindaj i’
s
temple at Brindaban the statemen t is found that
Rupa andSanatanawere the Gurus of Mansingha.
I t is therefore quite natural that the Emperor
had heard a good deal about Chai tanya from his
favourite general and others, and conceived an
admiration for him . Growse tells us that the
Emperor paid a v isi t to Brindaban andwas struck
by the piety of the Vaishnava Gurus. H is famous
court-musician Tansen sang before him songs in
honour of the Hindu gods and goddesses and
i t is well-known that both had cathol ic v iews
in respect of religion though they were Maho
medans. I t wi l l be seen that the Emperor
in that Hindi song uses onomatopoetic ex
pressions much on the lines of the songs of
Chandvardai .
SUP PLEMENT
CHA PTER I .
CH A I TA NYA ’
S REL I G I OUS Vi Ews.
The D wai tcidwai tabcid.
Chaitanya gave an elaborate account of the
Vaishnava creed to Sanatan,and to th is we have
referred in several p laces in the body of this book .
I t is curious to observe that one who was en tirely
given to fel ici tous excesses ofemotion and always
carried the people by an exuberence of them,
quoted scriptural texts in supporting almost all
his views, when in a quiet chamber he sat with
Sanatan dictating the l ines on wh ich his
book of Vaishnava Jurisprudence should be
written . There he appeared more l ike a sound
scholar and theolog ian than a man given to
devotional ardour. But with all th is, it appears
that he had but l i ttle regard for Shastric ord i
nances. Th is he explained by a parable . A poor
man sought the help of an astrologer to tel l him
when his evil days would come to an end. H e
was told that his father had dug a cavity under
THE PA RA BLE 321
the plinth of his sleep ing-room and there stored
great riches forhim . But the astrologer cautionedhim against seek ing them in the north
, south
and western plin ths. Only the surface of the
eastern one should be superficially dug in to and
then the man wou ld come to find the treasure . I f
you dig in the south,
” he said,bees wi l l come
out in swarms and sting you . I n the north,there
is an awful black snake and in the west there
is an ev i l sp iri t who , if disturbed , wi l l stand in the
way of your getting the riches.
”The shastras
,
the heri tage left by our fathers, in their differen t
phases represented by the four d irect ions,are not
always a safeguard to rely on . By pract ising
austerities, penances and methods of the yoga
and by mortification of the body , on ly evi l results
may befal l you . This is the mean ing of the
parable . H e po in ted to the d irection of the
l igh t,of the rise of the sun
,symbolised by the
word east in the parable and wan ted that the
spiri tual soul must come in d irect con tact with
God—on ly a li ttle communi on wi th saintly men
and the Guru would serve to awaken in him
a rel igious curiosi ty and inspire him wi th devo
tion in his pursu i t . Superficial digging of the
surface is a caution against fal ling a victim to
excessive book -study leading to orthodoxy intheological matters, wh ich was the vice of the
age .
H e preached what has been cal led the D wai ta
dwai tabdd or“non-dualismwithin dual ism.
”The
41
C HA I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
A dwai tabdd of Sankara advocates the theory
that Un i verse is iden tical wi th the Dei ty . The
l ine of demarcation between the human soul and
the Great Soul embracing all , is more fancied
than real—the origin of the fancy being thephenomenal world denominated Maya in the
midst of wh ich we l ive . The momen t we attain
J acmor true knowledge, the phenomenal world ,which is a mere il lusion , passes away
,and the
l i ttle soul becomes merged in the Great Soul ;so that al l that has created the difference ceases
to ex ist . The D wai tabdd orDualism is of course
the ordinary theory accepted by most people ,which promulgates that God and Man are eter
nal ly d ifferen t, the latter having to rely constant
ly on His mercy , help and compassionate grace .
The D wai tddwai tabdd of Chai tanya advocates
Dual ism in rel igious speculation but lays stress
on the devotional side, say ing that when faith has
reached the state of perfection ,the human
soul forgets i ts own self, the eyes see
nothing but Him—the sight of al l sights,the
ears hear nothing but the sound of H is flute,which fi lls al l space, and every touch isHis. The
senses in fact instead of leading to the conscious
ness of many make the devotee aware of the
presence of H im on ly,so absolutely , that he
forgets his own ex istence . That is Chai tanya’
s
non-dualism with in dualism ,—on ly a refined
form of dual ism in the highest stage of
devotion .
324 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
The rules of eondnci , —the theory of devotion .
The codes for dai ly observance and for the
train ing of the mind to devot i on,preached by
Chai tanya,are on the l ines of asceticism and
con trol of passions. Chai tanya advocated absti
neneo, wished men to avoid tak ing rich meals
and wearing fine apparel . H e was always
against too much study . Th is i s perhaps
due to the fact that at his time much pedan try
was rampant , wh ich made people vain ,con
ceited and proud . He would not allow men to
l isten to gossip or become news-hunters. He
would not bel ieve in moral i ty wi thout fai th .
Howe ver acute the moral sense,however whole
hearted one’
swork,however comprehensive one’
s
knowledge— they are l ikely to lead to error and
confusion ,un less man makes fai th his gu iding
star. The rules for guidance of one ’
s acti ons
are fully detailed by him in his instructions to
Sanatan and are to be found in Chaitanya
Charitamri ta (Chap — M adhya Khanda) .
Lochan Das’
s“ D urlabha ssr, and Narottam
Das’s Prembhaktichandrika also give us some
of his views in regard to action (Karma) and
knowledge (J nan) as Opposed to Bhakti .
From the Buddha to Sankara, t i l l the time
Of Chaitanya, much spiritual and moral ground
had been trodden ,when the human soul real ised
that the principle of good action and se l f
control could not be its safeguard , until
THE BUDDHA A ND C HA ITA NYA
it fixed its anchor on God ’
s love wh ich leads to
the unerring percepti on of truth,not to be
attained ei ther by ‘
Jm m or Karma’
divested
from fai th . The latter often t ime en tangled the
soul in the meshes of selfishness and concei t .
Chai tanya showed the force of th is fai th,
often wi thout any sermon or speech. I t was
his eyeswi th tears that attracted al l , i t was the
sweet face beaming wi th the l ight of myst ic
trance that acted as a charm on the mu lt i tude .
What country has produced such a galaxy of
poets to sing hymns and melod ious songs in
praise of their prophets as Bengal has done in
honour of Chai tanya ? The whole Vaishnaval i terature of Bengal , rich in its twen ty thousand
songs,in i ts concept i on of devotion in the
imagery of Radha expressed in i ts numberless
P adas,
is the flower- tribute to the feet
of the Nad ia Brahmin,
a poor sarmyasi in
l ife, but the prince of her princes in the
domain of sp iri tuali ty . The compassionate and
self-con trolled majesty of the Buddha has faded
away from th is country yield ing i ts throne to
Chai tanya, whose name i s now on the lips ofthousandsof crypto Buddhistswho have embraced
Vaishnavism .
The Buddha showed us the precipitous andrickety ladder of moral li fe unsupported by fai th
to scale inaccessible he ights ever- lost in the
summer clouds, butwhat of theman who actually
open ed the'
gates of the Region of L ight and
326 C H A I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
thus gave us some tangible good to be real ised
by al l . Thus to -day in Bengal the blacksmith
forgets his hammer,the ploughman his bulls
and the good housewi fe of the peasan t herhusk ing , as a song on Chai tanya is sung by thepeasan try , making al l hearts leap forth in j oy
and adorat ion .
The Buddha had laid great stress on the
con trol of, nay a total extinct ion of passions.
Chai tanya looked at spiri tual truths from quite
another angle of vision . H e perceived that
passions and emotions were the great motor
powers of the soul . God has given these t o men
for some defin i te object . I t is their proper u se
and not m isuse that would help in serving their
purpose . I n the‘ Prembhaktichandrika
’ by
Narottam D as and in many other works of the
Vaishnavas,this idea is clearly set forth . I f we
give a
‘
sharp weapon to a child , it wi l l prove
dangerous, but the sharp weapon is not to
be destroyed because the child has cut his finger
with it .
The world is not to be renounced , nor are the
t ies that bind us to it to be g iven up . These
t ies are sacred , and if properly understood , lead
us to the real isation of permanen t bliss. I have
referred to the santa,dasy/a , sak/zya, vdtsalya
andmadhurya of the Vaishnava creed of Bengal ,as embodying thehighest truths of their rel igion .
I have explained some of them in a loose and
general manner in the body of th is book and
328 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
The next is service or ddsy/ct , where the"
devotee, after having grown fit by bring ing his
restless soul under discipline is eager to establish
a relat ion between h imself and his God. Th is
relation is that of a servan t to his master ; he‘
has for his motto “ duty H e considers al l
work holy in th is ' stage and longs to hear the
applaud ing word,
“We l l done from his Lord
after his day ’
s labours. This stage, says the
C haritamrita, includes the “shctnta
”or
the “ quiet ” and is a step forward in the
sp iritual progress of a man,inasmuch as
he has been able now to establ ish some
defini te relation between himse lf and his
Maker.
The next stage in thi s progressi ve faith is
the ‘sakhg/a
’
or“ friendsh ip .
” Here the devotee
has gained another step and has come nearer to
H im . God is now not at such a d istance as the
master is from his servan t . The devotee feels that
in th is stage he has ‘ to play wi th his brother
men of the world wi th a heart ful l of love and
sweetness, and is conscious that in this play H e,
the Lord , is always his playmate to d irect and
control the play , encourag ing him when he is
weary and protecting him from evil at every
crisis. The devotee sees the d iv ine smi le and
filled wi th love for H im ,knows how to love
others . The‘salchyo
’
wh ich comprehends as
the C haritamri ta says “al l the attributes of
shetata and ddsg/a,’
has again gained a step , in
THE VA TSA LYA 329
asmuch as sweetness and love has been added to
a. mere moral sense .
”
I n the next h igher stage comes the‘oti tsa lya .
’
The devotee real ises God as the child . Th is
may appear a mental paradox to those whohave been accustomed to look upon God as
Father on ly . But is not the sen t imen t inspired
by the chi ld the grandest emotion ever fel t by
a human being P A li ttle th ing , i t gives infin ite
pleasure i t shews beauty unperceived by others,
the mother alone discovers it . Through a smal l
vista the whole heaven,as it were, presents i tself
before the amazed eyes of the mother. How
could such a wonderful thing be ever believed
that a tigress that was feroci ty i tsel f, gathers up
all conceivable tenderness in her eyes when
beholding her cub The d iscovery of the beauti
ful new-born chi ld in the midst of th ings rotten
and decayed is a presen tation to the sou l of the
sight of One who is ever new in the un iverse,and through all the wear and tear of ages keepsup the charm of the unfading smi le in all that
We observe in th is phenomenal world of ours.
A nd th is stage comprehends, according to the
C haritamrita all the previous phases of sha’mta ,
dasya and sakhya, and implies a further advance
in the realisation of bl iss. The devotee
v iews the ch i ld Krishna in all that smi les
and plays around as one who supplies a
never-ceasing fountain of new delights to
the soul
380 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
The last stage i s the This is
typ ified by the love of man for woman . I t
includes in i ts Scope al l the attributes of ‘dcisya’
for here the devotee’
s hand i s ever ready to
serve ; of salohya,’
for he is absorbed in his‘plays’
wi th his D i vine Playfel low ; of“vdtsalya
for he d iscovers in his loving God al l the beauty
and grace wh ich the fondest of mothers ever
found in the face of her child and much more,
inasmuch as every sound conveys to him a
message from the Lord , every form a sense of
Divine presence and every touch the warmth of
divine con tact . The devotee attains to a state
of fine frenzy which lends the highest poetic
sign ificance to this material world , which
becomes to his sense a symbol of the greatest
spiritual b liss. The rustling wind is taken as
indicating H is approach , the dark blue sky, the
sea and landscape become symbolic of the colour
of the Divine Figure. The mddhm’
ya creates
emotional felicities and a longing which are but
imperfectly expressed in the best world ly poems
deal ing with the romance of love .
Thus home-relat ions are gradual ly idealised
til l the h ighest point of emotional fervour is
reached . Through the doorway of the servants’
outer quarters, through the front-garden of the
home where we play with our playfellows, our
brothers and sisters,through sleeping-room of
the baby where the mother watches through the
n ight , and last of al l through the closed door of
332 C HA ITA N YA A ND HI S A GE
advocating a contract system in marriage .
G ive up is the cry heard al l around and
nowhere does anybody say,“ Come un to me
and I wil l give . The sublime teach ing of
dasya ,
”wh ich finds blessedness in work ,
cannot find room anywhere in the presen t state
of society , where work has lost i ts holy motive
and is d irected to legalised robbery,and huge
machines are being scien tifical ly manufactured
for the destruction of men . Who wil l in th is
unhinged state of people ’
smentali ty stand up
with God ’
s banner in his hands and say,“ I wi l l
serve Thee, O Lord , as a devoted servant serves
his master. I wi ll hear Thy voice,my great
P lay-fel low,in my play wi th others and listen
not to party—pol i tics wh ich shut off Thy voice
from me . I wi ll del ight in Thee as the mother
del ights in her babe, as a lover del ights in the
beloved of his dreams ? Who wi l l rebui ld the
temples that have been broken and repair the
Churches where the figures of Christ and Mary
l ie unadored, where some people in the frenzy
of their exci ted blood even go so far as to de
clare that Christ came to the world wi th a
sword in hand to support thei r cause and to
declare i t holy ? The opposi te party are also
not sl ow in giv ing him the same character, and
they invoke his cc -operation in their destructivepolicy
,wh ich they also misname
“righteousness.
”
I n this state of society al l around,the peace
ful , sweet and al l -sacrificing devotion of
THE DOCTR INES LOST UPON US 333
fami ly-life wh ich inspired most of our rel i
gions cults with a spirit of un iversal love and
brotherhood , the first lessons of wh ich were taught
us by those who loved us most— is a subject
that may be held as deserv ing of an atten tive
considerati on for rebu i ld ing society in the light
of al l that is good and holy .
”
CHA PTER I I
THE SA HA J I A S
When a great rel ig ion wi th the trumpet-cal l
of i ts latest culture and new ideal , proclaims i ts
adven t to the world,the old decayed creeds
surrender themselves to the New-Comer and
take refuge in the new temp le of faith which
thrusts Open i ts portals of brotherhood to al l .
But the old culture and age- long conventions
do not die out . The new recruits retain their
old fai th under the mere name of the adven
turcas offspring of the old wi sdom represen ted
by the new rel igion . Thus the Sufis amongst
the Mahomedans have retained the old culture
of the Buddhists,and in Christianity itse lf the
Gael ic, Buddhist and other forms of pagan
fai th are found underlying the rituals of
the Church .
I n Bengal a hundred d ifferen t forms of the
Buddh ist fai th of the Mahayana school were pre
valent,when Vaishnavism sen t i ts trumpet-cal l
far and near. The leaders of thosecreeds had
already packed up and gone to Nepal and other
resorts of Buddh ism,leaving mill ions of lay
Buddh ists as moral and spiritual wrecks, ex
posed to the contumely of the revivalists of
336 C HA I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
the anci en t wisdom of monastaries st i l l l ingersin some of these societies but their memberstake care strictly to h ide from the publ ic. They
develop psych ic powers in a wonderful degree .
~My friend Pand i t Khirod Chandra Goswami,
a d irect descendan t of the Vaisnava apostle
N ityananda, tells me that his wife had been
suffering from a serious d isease for a long time
andwas u l timately g iven up by the best doctors
of Calcutta. But she was m iracu lously cured
by an old woman who belonged to the Karta
bhajasect . I nstances of such cures have also
been reported to me by others who have
n othing but con tempt for the people who belong
to such secret societies.
I have men tioned elsewhere that when
the Bh ikshus and the Bhik
shun is, the shaven couples
of the Buddhist monasteries,
were abandoned by their leaders and got
n othing but con tempt from the people of the
Hindu Renaissance, B ir Bhadra, son of N itya
nanda, gave them a shel ter and converted them
toVaisnava faith . This conversion , however, does
not mean much . For they have retained the
ancien t forms of theirri tuals, mystic train ing and
practices, though they cal l themselvesVaisnavas.
They merely cry aloud the names of Chai tanya
and N i tyananda and there ends all their con
nection with Vaisnavism . They have wri tten
a large number of books propound ing the
VA I SN A VA A UTHOR ITY 337
doctrines they follow,often in that unin te l lig ible
language of theirs and i n all these thev have
tried to trace their doctrines to some Vai snava
authori ty of the Chai tanya -cul t,l ike K risnadas
Kaviraj , R up and Sanatan . The doctrines of
the latter-day Mahayana creed , have to be
modified to a certain exten t for adaptat ion
to the texts of Vai snava works l ike the Chari
tamrita ; when they cannot contrive to do i t
and their views are in d irect d iscord wi th those
of the Vaisnava masters,they try to explain
away the anomaly by manufacturing fables .
They main tain that the Vaisnava masters werethemselves the orig inators of the theories pro
pounded by them,
but for some reason or other
the masters could not find time or opportun i ty to
putzthem to wri ting in the ir l i fe- time . They
,
however, communi cated the gospel to some of
their d i sciples from whom the Sahaj ias have got
them .Thus Mukunda D as, author of V ivarta
Vi las, i s said to have been one of the disciples
of Krishna D asKaviraj to whom
taggi pm esw fadap '
are attributed many mysticv iews wh ich in reali ty belonged
to some l ocal form of latter-day Buddhism .
The Sahaj ias wou ld by no means confess that
they were Buddh ists , nor refer to any Buddhist
texts wh ich wou ld make i t far easier to trace
the doctrines to their genu ine ori g i n . I n the
theories themselves and i n their practices, many
Buddh ist ri tes and views have left their,43
338 C HA I TA NY A A N D H I S A GE
indel iablcmarks, which my friend BabuMan indra
Mohan Bose, M .A . wi l l d isclose to you ,engaged
as he is in mak ing research i nto the various
forms of the prevai l ing Sahaj ia creed in Bengal .The last man in Be ngal proper who open ly
declared himsel f to be a Buddhist,was Rama
nanda who wrote a R amayan in Bengal i earlyin the 1 8 th cen tury . But though the studen t of
Buddh ism wil l find ample materials amongst the
Sahaj ia sects, he wi l l find none among them who
openly professes that fai th,un less he v isi ts
Ch i ttagong and other border- lands of Bengal . The
eth ical standard ra ised by the H indu Renaissance
became such a complete monumen t of sexual
purity that the corrup tion prevai l ing amongst the
Sahaj ias was a shame wh ich feared the exposure
of day l ight and passed into the shade of their
nocturnal societies where no outsider had
access. The modern Sahaj ias themselves do not
know that they closely follow the Buddhist
tenets, their ancestors concealed the fact when
they were admi tted to the Vaishnava order,wh i le following them sti l l in their rituals ; and
at the presen t stage i t is the duty of a h istorian
and scholar to thresh out grains from the
chaff and find out the true Buddhist elements
in their v iews and practices.
These Sahaj ias of the various sects,who
outwardly profess the Vaishnava rel igion,
present a very large number in Bengal .
Mr. Ward in his work on the H indoos says
340 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
lead in their society andare accepted as Gurus ; sothat even a cobbler claims homage of selfsurrender andutmost humi li ty from his Brahmind isciples. I n the atmosphere of th is coun try
,
where stringen t caste ru les have such a hold on
the people, the societ ies created by the
Sahaj ias are free from al l caste-prej udices.
the Brahmins, Christ ians, Mahomedans and the
depressed castes eat at the same table,and often
the texts of t he ir fai th are furn ished by the
Koran and not rarely by the B ible . The H indu
scriptures of course have their due respect and
atten t ion . A Karta-bhaja or a Baul (the difierent
sorts of Sahaj ia) may be a H indu , a Mahomedan
ora Christian ,but that is no bar to his enj oy ing
perfect fel lowsh ip wi th the members of his sect
in their secret societ ies. Caste , rank in society
and orthodoxy of v iews are out of question
there . They are d iscip les of a Guru and in
that ‘
capaci ty meet together—ready for any
sacrifice or duty wh ich the Guru may enj oin on
them . Would i t be bel ieved that those, who i ii
the day time pass as good orthodox Brahmins, si t
in the nocturnal meetings wi th the Mahomedans
and eat beef wi thou t the least scruple . I
do not mean to say that in every society of the
Sahaj ias th is is the case . These local societies
under differen t names and forms have special
codes for gu idance and there are such of
them where beef is freelv used by the H indus
and Mahomedans al ike . They put stress upon
BA BA A UL 341
the train ing of the physical system in man and
the psoychic powers deve loped by Yoga pract ices.
Profession of re l ig ion,they hold to be merely
a superficia l th ing . The train ing of body and
mind i s the most essen tial questi on and in that
there is no H indu ,no Mahomedan
,no
Christian . I t is curious to observe that
this country ren t by caste-d istinction and
crushed by orthodoxy has wi th in her fold'
a
very large number of people , possessed of
a special wisdom ,who en tertain the utmost
freedom in thought i n religious and social matters.
They are under the banners of a cult that has
subord inated al l the rel igions prevai ling in the
coun try to a l i fe of train ing ,— mystic and
unkn own,—and progressed towards a surprising
un ification of men of di fferen t creeds and
conflicting relig ious v iews .
I wi l l give here a brief accoun t of the leadersand other particulars of the more importan t sectsof the Sahaj ias.
I n the v i l lage of U la (near San t ipur) therel ived a man of the Barui caste, named
Mahadev . One morn ing in February,
1694
A .D . , he happened to meet a
lad,e ight years old ,
’
who seemedto possess bright talents but who would bynomeans d isclose his name orwhereabouts. Mahadev
Barui brought the boy to his home where he l ived
12 years. Then he soj ourned for seven years in
different coun tries and in his 27th year appeared
The Karts -bhajas .
342 C HA ITA NYA A N D H I S A GE
in a place called Bejra in 1 7 15 , and here he
showed some wonderfu l powers by wh ich be
attracted disciples . H e was called Baba A ul . ”
Th is was not his name but t i tle, sign i fy ing
the mad father.
” Baba A u l preached his creed
to 22 d isciples, ch ief amongst whom were Hatu
Ghosh , Ramsaran P al,N i tai Ghosh and a few
others. The curren t song in the coun tryside
describing Baba A u l runs as follows.
Oh whence has th is strange man come P
Without anger,ever-con ten t he always says
Tel l the truth .
’
There are twen ty-two men wi th him—they
are all one m ind and soul .“ They raise their hands up and sing to
gether— ‘Praise to our master’
and are full'
of
love for al l .“A nd he
,their ch ief
,restores life to the dead,
gives back what 18 lost and at his word the rivers
become dry.
” I
Baba A u l Chand died in 1 769 at a vil lage
cal led Boal i . Ramsaran Pal wi th seven other
followers of A ul cremated him at Parari,six
mi les to the west of C hakradah'
a . Ram Saran
became the Guru of the sect , after Baba
A ul .
“
aW was (“W it { T3 stat I
as ni ce can, an? cw , { Nare‘
asi sawasm ani aas, amas: in , w etare,
11W , we can tat-
q
a ctm1 crests,
se tfasts, mwas at: em 1”
344 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
Then the Guru g ives him a certain mantra
for reci tat ion enj oin ing strict privacy in regard
to it .
The mantra is to th is effect .
Oh my Guru,Baba A ul
,I am always in
thy company,not a momen t I am
wi thout thee, I am always wi th
thee .
”
The desciple is enj o ined to observe the
following rules
I n respect of body —to avoid adultery ,theft and murder.
I n respect of the mind— to avo id a wish
for adul tery,a wish to steal and a wish
to murder.
I n respect of the ton gue—to avoid l ie,
unpleasan t talk , vain talk and talking
a good deal .
There were many Mahomedan Gurus in th is
sect and good Brahm ins eat refuse from the
plates of these Gurus. Th is i s what Babu
A kshoy Kumar Datta wrote 50 years ago, and I
believe the state of things con tinues to th is day.
The principal seat of th is sect is at Ghoshpara
a v i llage near Calcu tta . Here thousands of
d isciples meet every year on the occasion of
the Grand Mela that si t there in A pri l . The
Guru is bel ieved by his d isciple to be his God.
They believe A ulchand to be an I ncarnation of
Chai tanya.
THE VI EWS OF THE BA ULS 345
The Neras and the Bau ls do not shave ; they
seldom wash themselves. They
3 , 11
1
f6 News and the behave like mad men outward
ly. Their object in doing so is
to shew that they are absolute ly beyond theprejud ices and conven t ions of the ordinary people
l iving in society . They do not believe in
images. On one occasion I had asked a Baul i fhe worsh ipped any image of Chai tanya forwhomhe shewed such devotion . H e smi led and said
H ow can one worsh ip any image of Chai tanyawhen he iswithout any form P
”H e used the word
Sanya Marti . Curiously the word is exactly
the same aswe find in the religious code of a class
of Mahayan ists who assert that The Void is to
be contemplated . Their motto is 21131 in? We ,
6 151at? W e wh ich means that what is not in
the human body , ex ists nowhere in the un iverse .
The body is the ep i tome of the whole world .
Just as the tree is in the seed , so the un iverse
lies in a state of embryo in the human body . I ts
powers are capable of infin i te developmen t by
mystic processes of wh ich they profess to haveknowledge . They do certain th ings wh ich are
abominable to men tion and abominable to hear,
though they give their own explanati on for their
conduct . I n fact they try to rise above pre
j ud ices and conven t ions of every sort and to
court popular con tempt as i f to keep themselves
in secluded glory and aloof from the rest of44
346 CHA I TA NYA A N D HI S A GE
mank ind— con ten t wi th their own myst ic and
esoteric knowledge : One of the ir principles is“cats? amcomfort , mews mow rists.
”
(When
l iv ing among men con form to their ru les— but
when in the c ircle led by the Guru , no caste , no
rule . ) A class of these people total ly ideal ise
sexual love , by wh ich , they hepe to reach the
h ighest sp iri tual plane . But th is idea is en ter
tained and practised by many sects of the
Sahaj ias and we shal l speak of it at some length
in th is d iscourse .
The R ambal lavi sect sprang in to existence
as a protest against the Karta
bhaja sect , to wh ich i ts
founders original ly belonged . Krishna K inkar
Guna Sagar and Srinath Mukhopadhyay were
once i ts leaders. They were inhab i tan ts of Bans
beria in the D istrict of H ughli . They believe
in the scriptures of the Hindus, Mahomedans
and Christians and cul l out their doctrines from
the Gi ta, the Koran and the B ible al ik e . A l l
classes of men, including Chri stians and Maho
medans si t in the circle and partake of beef
and other profane food offered to their altar
wi thout caring for caste .
A nother sect the Saheb D hani , cal led so
after the name of its founder,flourished for a long t ime at
Shal igram, Dogach ia and other vi l lages in the
district of Krishnagar. They do not worsh ip
The R ambal lavi s .
The Saheb Dhan i .
348 C HA I TA NYA A N D H I S A GE
one . Liv ing under the guidance of a Guru for
the t ime being,she y ields herself en tirely to him
,
body and soul,and her motto is W fi rte ”(To
Hu n tsmanW m m fixwtam fiifi m u”
(“We
wi l l make a hundred Gurus but fol low one
Man tra wh ich is to be the essence of l ife . H e
who wi l l capture our heart , we wi l l belong to
The Khusi Biswasi sect was founded at a
v i llage cal led Bhaga near
D evagram in the d istrict of
Krishnagar. Khusi B iswas,whowas aMahomedan ,
had a large following of H indu and Mahomedan
d isciples by whom he was bel ieved to be an
incarnation of Chai tanya . Khusi B iswas en j oined
absolute surrender of his followers to h imsel f .
H is cal l is to th is effect . “ I f i n d istress or
trouble do pray un to me . A nd if I have anv
One, I wi l l pray to that One for you .
The founder of the Balaram i sect was one
Balaram—a Hari by caste,
which is one of the lowest in
the H indu Society . Balaram was born in the
year 1 785 in Malapara— a ward of the village
Meherpur in the d istrict Of Nad ia. H e was a
ohaukidar in the employ of the well -known
Mal l iks of the v i l lage and was once suspected
of theft , wh ich he had not commi tted . H e gave
up the post in disgust and soj ourned in differen t
parts of Bengal , and when after long years he
The Khusi Biswasis .
The Balaram is .
BA LA RA M HA R I 349
returned , he proclaimed h imself to be God
A lmighty . The boldness of the i lli terate man
was immense . By his pithye ccen tric sayings,
he often hit at great tru ths which came as
surprise to the Brahm ins. I t is said that no one
ever heard him tel l an un truth . On one occasion
the Brahmins of the locality were performing
tarp an in Ganges. This was the custom of.
tak ing handfuls of water from the ri ver
and throwing i t down ,by which acts they
believed , the th irst of their departed ancestors
would be al layed . Balaram attracted the
atten tion of the Brahmins by tak ing hand
fuls of water like them and throwing it on
the bank .When asked the reason ,
he said ;
I f your water wi l l go to your departed fore
fathers who are far away , mine ought to go
to my vegetable garden which is on ly a mile
from here and certain ly not so remote as the
land of the dead .
” Balaram has left a treasure
of spiritual songs, couched in the, p atois of the
coun try . They are simple and d irect home
thrusts level led at the superstitions and conven
tions of the Hindus.
There are many sects in Western Bengal
to wh ich may be g iven
the general denomination of
Sahaj i a besides those men tion ed above .
The H azrati , the Gobrai and the P agalm'
tthi
were founded by Mahomedans, though the
Minor sects.
350 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
bulk of their followers were H indus . Ti lakdasi,
Sp astabadi , and D arp ancirayani are a lso impor
tan t from the poin t of faith they preach,
Hazrat was a nat ive of Bansbaria,a mi le to
the east of Ghoshpara, Gobra belonged to the
v i llage of Muradpur and Pagalnath to Nagda,and D arpanaryan was a cobbler in Santipur.
l
I n Eastern Bengal there are st i l l many suchsects abou t whom we have got some in forma
t ion . I n a v i llage named Kharar Char near
R owi le in the D istrict of Dacca, there lived
Panchu Fak ir who had a large following of
H indu and Mahomedan dis
ciples ; the heal ing power
possessed by th is man was hi ghly admired
and appreciated , and his serv ices were fre
quen tly requ ired by even the en l ightened
and aristocrat ic fami lies of the locati ty. H e
d ied on ly lately . A t a village named Mainat
in the same d istrict there is another Maho
medan Fak ir who is a preacher of the mystic
doctrines of the Sahaj ia creed , much appreciated
by people , and his fol lowers are increasing
every year. I n Jessore Pagla Kanai , the lyri
cal beauty of whose songs el ici ted admiration even
from dist inguished men of letters, d ied within
a few decades. Th is man was perfectly
i lli terate , but the songs that he composed are
Panchu Pak iri .
Much Of the above is taken from Babu A kshoy Kumar Da tta ’
s
Upasaka Samprodaya .
352 C HA I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
or the other of the d ifferen t schools of Maha
yan ism of the Madhyamic school,founded by
Nagarjoon in the first cen tury of the Christ ianera . The doctrines are imbued wi th those of
the differen t schools of I nd ian ph i losophy andpresen t a hotch -potch of vari ous elemen ts of
I nd ian Spiri tual speculat ions and age- long ta iztriopractices.
The predominating Buddh ist idea in the
doctrines is apparen t . The sects are general ly
Opposed to caste. I n the matter of eat ing cook
ed food , where strict orthodoxy is observed by
the various sects of the Hindu—nearly all
these sects are wi thout any prej ud ice , and their
ind iscriminate behav iour at the d in ing table
reminds one of the custom prevai ling at Puri,
once the greatest shrine and resort of the Bud
dhists. I n many places the Sahaj ia refuses to eat
the meal -offering made to Chai tanya,nor does
he bow to the latter’
s image, though he cal ls
himsel f a member of his apostol ic Order.
During the Brahman ic Renaissance,aohdr or
observance of ru les of conduct was recogn ised as
the first qual ity . The aohdr includes rules of
eating and dai ly practices of certain rel igious
rites . I n fact aohcir was considered to be the
most importan t of the n ine qual i t ies to be en
ti tled to Ku l in ism , or a posi t ion of honour in
the social scale . This was ev ident ly laid down
in v iew of the extreme lawlessness which
C URA TIVE POWER 353
characterised decaying Buddh ism. The feature so
prominen t in the Sahaj ia sects is to revert to
the original recklessness of decayed Buddh ism
and a complete upsetting of our social fabric .
One of the great meri ts of the tantric
Buddh ism was the curative power of those who
were said to have developed certain psych ic
powers of the soul . A t the presen t day, the
old conven tions of power by touch , hypnotism
and mesmerism are gain ing strength under
scien tific names. The d i fferen t sects of the
Sahaj ias in the coun tryside have th is special
feature that the adepts are endowed wi th some
h idden and occul t powers which they do not
explain to those outside their own circle . For
the purpose of bring ing their body under full
con trol and discipl ine ,’
they perform many
mystic ri tes wh ich the fol lowers of each Of
these sects take care to hide from others. The
elaborate quotat ions I have made from the work“Jnanadi Sadhana ”
in my Typical Selections
from old Bengal i L i trature (Part I I , pp . 630- 37)wi l l clearly show the Buddhist ic elemen t in
them . Though owing to these sects Own ing a
very considerable number of H indu popula
t ion as thei rmembers, their creed appears in someessen tial poin ts H indu in character, they often
in a clear and undisguised language revi le theBrahmins and the Vedas (p . A ndcuriously
though they cal l themselves Vaishnavas, they45
354 C HA ITA N YA A ND HI S A GE
do not bel ieve in any image of Krishna (p . 1 632) to
wh ich fact I have already made a reference .
Though l iv ing in society,many of these creeds
have no fai th in sexual morali ty,nay some of
them Open ly discard i t in favour of free love,wh ich
they take to be a h i gher ideal in sexual matters
for the cu l ture of emotion than the marriage
bond , but th is wi l l be d iscussed hereafter.
I n Nepal the Buddh ists are called Gubhaj us,or fol lowers of Gurus and the H indus D eoaj as
or followers of the Devas— the gods . The one
common feature of the Sahaj ia creeds is the
impl ici t surrender of self to the wi l l of the
Gurus on the part of their disciples. Th is trust
in the Guru is so great that a wi fe wi l l sometimes
accommodate herself to the wi l l of the Guru
without the least scruple,if the latter happens
to be a bad man , even when her husband is l iving .
Th is implici t fai th in the Guru is the character
i stic of the Buddh ists of the Mabayan school .
The Sahaj ia d isciple pays an annual tax to the
Guru as ren t of the house he dwel ls in,by
wh ich term he implies his body,of which the
absolute master is the Guru,formal ly ao
knowledged as such at the t ime of in i tiation .
Th is tax the Guru gets for the permission
he gives to his d isciple to dwel l in his
body .
The ideal of love which some of the Sahaj iaspreach is a dangerous game
,as Chandidas
356 CHA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
glaring and by liv ing together a wh i le,all novel ty
wi l l pass away in most cases,often giv ing rise
to a feel ing of vexation and d isgust . But a
particular sect amongst the Sahaj ias en j o in
that you shou ld con tinue to love inspite ofeveryth ing . The ir motto is One who loves and
then leaves does not get the sp i ri tual cul ture of
emotion . A t the outset choose yourman orwoman
andpay your heart’
s homage to the person . What
ever i ll you may receive from the lover,you
are to bear wi th smi le . You should not get
vexed although the person mayThe phi losophy of
their l ove . g ive you a hundred causes for
it . That one ’
s j oy wi l l be
your j oy and you wi l l absolutely forget yoursel f
and abide by that person’
s wi ll surrendering
your own wi ll . When you have accompl ished
this you wi l l be able to reach that One who
pervades the whole world .
” My informan t was
an aged woman ,and I asked of her.
“I f she be a
woman and wi fe , and the person for whom she
professes love wan ts the surrender of her body P”
She said in reply ,“When her lover is her God,
she must g ive her al l wi thout reserve . Forget
al l social conven t ions when you deal wi th the
ideal of the Sahaj ias . I f the man wan ts
her body , she must g ive i t,but wi th th is
d ifference that she wi ll del ight on ly in the j oy
which she wi l l afford to her lover,and shal l
absolutely be indifferen t to the gratificati on
THEI R. I DEA S NOT C ONVENTI ONA L 357
of her senses. She referred to a line of
C handidas wh ich says as: W as: 075W affirmi s
”
( th is body should be reduced to the state
of a dry log) and said the body wi l l be beyond
i ts physical plane of pleasure or pain and i t
should be merely a vehicle of the sp iri t dedicated
to the worship of her lover.
”
These Sahaj ias do not believe in the
established ideals of womanhood represen ted by
Sita, Savi tri and the sutteeswho burn t themselveswith their dead husbands in the days bygoneas l iving examples of their absolute devotion .
The woman from whom I learn t the particulars,
to ld me These examples from your Hindu
scriptures and epics fall short of the love-ideal
of the Sahaj ias . These wives were actuated by
hOpes of getting rewards in the next li fe and
praises from society in th is for their chaste l ife .
How far they were actuated by love cann ot be
determined in v iew of the complex character of
the sen timents which prompted them in doing all
that they did. I f a woman foregoes the ties of
fami ly, receiving noth ing but con tempt of society
and surrenders herself absolutely to her lover at
the sacrifice of every other consideration—that
love is admi ttedly pure and unalloyed gold,
standing the test of al l analysis. The lever may
spurn her, assault and betray her and prove false
in a hundred ways—bu t she must bear al l i l ls
and cleave, not with more patience, but train her
353 C HA ITA N YA A N D HI S A GE
mind so as to consider her misfortunes and sor
rows as j oys— g i fts from her dear lord . The
devotee takes his worldly pain,as d ivine dispen
sat ion and hears i t wi th j oy . Th is should be theSahaj ia standpoi n t in regard to emot ions ofa lover. Th is is recommended not mere ly in thecase of a woman but also for a man . Says Chand idas
,H e that loves and breaks is not priv i leged
to have that train ing wh ich leads to one’
s
spiri tual wel l -being .
” Divorce is not recog
nised in the e th ical code of a Sahaj ia . Love
first , love always ”is the motto here . Love here
is relig ion,i ts range is infini te patience, infin i te
j oy out of i nfin i te sorrow. The phraseology of
society is to be changed,all foul is fair here
,
al l pain j oy .
Th is creed so dangerous, is not recommended
for the averagemen andwomen .
'
l he Sahaj ias do notmean their l ove -creed “ I n a ml ll i on
,says Chand1
f” 8 1”das
,
“ there may be found one
man up to the mark the rest wi l l be ruined .
C handidas caut ions men and women against
coming to try their strength in th is sphere Of
sp iri tual train ing , though he h imsel f was a
Sahaj ia . H e says, Let him come , who can make
a frog dance in the mouth of a serpen t or can
hang a moun tain by the fine thread of a cobweb .
”
Th is means that it is an impossible height to
scale for one who has not absolutely conquered
his body . He alludes to innumerable instances
360 C HA I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
beat i tude . To the purely materialist mind,this
wi l l appear as u tter n onsense,—where is the time
and pat ience for al l these absurd i ties for a man
busy wi th jute-business, coun ting figures in an
I nsurance Office, or actively preparing stat ist ics
for administrative work ? But here lies the di ffer
ence between East andWest . I m ight aswel l saythat a man who sacrifices his l ife to attempt to
discover the A rctic regions is extremely foolish !
I n the sp iri tual world , whether result be success
or failure, no risk , no sacrifice has daunted the
Orien t, as in the physical plane, the occiden tal
mind has followed pursui ts at any risks wh ich
appear as the pursu it of phan toms to many
people . The Sahaj ia creed is pern icious so of
as it misleads and has misled hundreds of young
men and women ,andwe must j oin wi th Chandi
das in condemning those who recommend it to
the youth of our society . But i t should not be
forgotten that i t i s a system wh ich is complete
with i ts canons and codes, based on yoga—which
is a sealed book to us and if we are to hang it,
we must give i t a hearing , besides the j udgemust
acqu ire fitness for trying his case. That some
people have sealed the heights con templated by
thi s rel ig ion of love wi l l be Obv ious from the facts
in the l ife of the poet C handidas, of A bh iram
Swami who flourished in the 1 1 th cen tury, and
of B i llwamangal Thakur who lived about the
same time . That in Bengal hundreds of men
D URGA PRA SA'
D KA R 361
andwomen are attracted by the romantic nature
of the creed up to this day and some of them at
least have, in recen t years, attained their goalwi ll
appear from the perusal of a book called the
sadhu Chari t by Babu A chyut Charan Chau
dhury of Mayna, Kanaibazar, Sylhet . This book
is the memoir of a departed Vaisnava sain t of
the Sahaj ia sect , whose home is now a shrine
visi ted by hundreds of pious men and women .
The name of th is sadhu was DurgaPrasad Kar
The examp le of a
and he belonged to the vil lage
Sahaj ia Sédhu prec of KhemaSahasra in Pargana I ta”m g “ man 'worsmP’
in Sylhet . H is father was Hari
Bal lava Kar andmotherShan ta Dasi ,—Kayasthasby caste . Durgaprasad was born in the year 1 851 .
A chyut Babu , the biographer of Durgaprasad,relates many inciden ts in the life of the Sadhu
shewing his devotion andasceticism of character.
H e loved or rather worsh ipped a woman named
Manomohin i,wi th an ardour which , in its first
stages, none but h imself knew of . This loveproved not on ly the essence but the motive-powerof his spiri tual li fe—and curiously even Mano
mohin i herself knew noth ing of it formany years.
H e implici tly carried out the least wish of the
woman and deli ghted in eating food from the
plate from wh ich she had eaten first . Thiscaused some scandal and Manomohini
, who was
a neighbour distantly related to Durga Prasad,
would not tolerate this conduct in the young46
362 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
man . Durga Prasad meanwh i le had taken
the vow of si lence,but every morn ing and
even ing he cal led on her to pay his p randm,
stay ing for a minute there . A t noon day
(he took his meal on ly once a day) the mute
sadhu stood at the gate of Manomohin i,who
ate a li ttle from the plate wh ich he placed
before her, and then he returned home and
ate the remain ing food . The scandal to wh ich
I have referred was not of any grave character,as every man in the ' v i llage was perfectly aware
of the stain less morals of both . these persons.
But “Why should she,”the people said ,
“ tolerate
the maniac to pay his p randm every day to
her and why should she take any food from
his plate ? On a certain day the shy lady
took fright and refused to come out when the
Sadhu presen ted h imsel f before her. I wi l l
here quote an extract from the memoir.
“ Our Sadhu against the express wish of
Manomohin i sti l l wai ted at noon that day, wi th
a plate in his hand hop ing that she would par
take a l ittle of the food , that he might after
wards eat the rest . Manmohin i came out
and abused him in a rough language . A s
he stood st i l l mutely gaz ing at her,she did
not stop there , but cruel ly threw away the
food from the plate and wen t her way.
There was no reason why she should be
have thus rough ly , but being vexed wi th the
364 CHA I TA NY A A ND H IS A GE
fasted seven days . The bro thers stayed there
for three days but the good old woman’
s lamenta
t ions and entreaties proved of no avai l .
Durga Prasad could not be induced to eat any
th ing . I n great d isappo intmen t and grief his
brothers brought him back to their home
and two days more passed in the way. So that
DurgaPrasad had now fasted 1 4 days.
”
The b iographer here says “H ow could th is
be possible ? A n ord inary man,if he fasts for
a day, sees every th ing dark around him .
H ow could Durga Prasad l ive having fasted
1 4 days ? Th is seems almost inconceivable , yet
i t was a fact beyond al l doubt,wi tnessed by
many who are sti ll l iv ing .
The good people of the v i llage took alarm
at th is point . A youth whose morals were
un impeachable , who by great austeri ties and
piety had already attained the fame of a saint
in popular esteem,was going to die of starva
tion,and th is they could not bear to th ink of .
They all wen t in a body on the evening of the
14th day of the sadhu ’
s fast to Manomohin i’
s
house and appealed to her to save the l i fe
of the youn g man . H er heart had secretly
bled at al l th is even t , and now when the people
of the v i l lage made the request she gladly wen t
to the sadhu ’
s house in the following morn ing
and partook of the meal prepared at his
house and gave Durga Prasad her plate from
WORD OF GOD 365
which he gladly ate the remain ing food . For
some time Manomohini was gracious, but off and
on she treated him cruel ly refusing him the
privi lege of p randm and not agreeing to eat
the first handful from his plate . Numerous
instances of this sort have been men tioned by
the biographer of the sadhu . Wh i le fully
recogn ising the delicate position of a Hindu
woman and of her repugnance to pander to the
queer fancies of an outsider to her home , we
cannot help feeling compassion for the great
sufferings caused by his unswerving devotion and
his great forbearance
Durga Prasad ’
s course of spiri tual train ing
seems almost inconceivable at the presen t dayof rationalism. For a time he accepted every
man’
s command as theword from theMost High .
A t this stage he sti ll observed the vow of
si lence . One even ing a man named Kalicharan
Tarafdar wan ted to try the exten t of his
spiri tual forbearance and patience . He brought
him to his dirty cow-shed and ordered him to stand
up there for thewhole n ight . I twas thundering
and raining al l around , and the straw-roof leaked
so profusely that the Sadhu was completely
drenched . The stench of the cow-dung and
the buzzing sound of a thousand gnatswhich covered his whole body and drank his
blood could not move this p icture of patiencein human shape ; the midnight passed, and
366 C HA ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
he was still stand ing motion less in that hel l ,considering the word of Kal icharan Tarafdar
as d ivine mandate . But the heart of th is man
at last relen ted and fearing lest his conduct
would brin g down God ’
s curse on him,he came
to the cow-shed at 1 A .M . and released the poor
Sadhu from his sad predicament .
Many miracles are related of this man , but
I consider the above instances of the pat ience
and devot ion of the.
man as noth ing short of a
miracle . I f ever any man performed m iracles,he must have been of the type of DurgaPrasad ,whose love, devotion and patience are all
miraculous. I f the East and the West are to
be weighed in the scales, I wan t some one Of
th is type from West to be balanced against our
sadhu . I f we are to dismi ss him as a queer
man od ious to modern taste, and an an tiquated
specimen of human ity,we wi l l certain ly do him
wrong . H e fol lowed a principle, i t may be
urged , to folly , but our scriptures and reli
gions systems have reserved a place for him .
His life is an instance of infin i te love,infin i te
devotion and infin i te patience for a cause , and
he l ived a l ife of un i form consistency of prin
ciple . The story in one of the Buddh ist Jatakas
has a l iving paralle l in him and he belongs
to a region of which the words are the
Upan ishads and the Puranas. For, in the system
of his creed , one wil l find elements of culture
368 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
These people certainly cultured h igher sexual
feel ings in pri vate and gave them a rel igious
character even as early as the third cen tury
B . C . ,if not earl ier. But the orthodox commu
n i ty among st the Buddh ists were bi tterly host i le
to the supporters of these v iews, and the Katha
Vathu i s ful l of instances of their attacks on
these sects, who, I believe, have since been
hold ing their meet ings in secret as their views
could n ever hear exposure before the orthodox
society .
”
Love for one with whom one is not bound in
wedlock is the essen t ial featureThe Parakrya ao
tiff;gzgimgeafym of this spiri tual romance, but
the baneful influence wh ich
th is creed exerted on the morals of average
men and women made i t abhorren t in the
eyes of men . Chandidas of course believed that
nothing could be so subl ime as this form of
idealised sexual love and he attempted to arrive
at the spiri tual p lane by practising i t in his l ife .
But as I have already stated , he did not recom
mend th is extremely risky path to ord inary
sp iri tual aspiran ts. Chai tanya’
s voice was more
stern and decisive . H e declared h imself in a
clear language against al l sexual romance . H e
said that i t could not be the path for salvation
of men . H e accepted the RadhaKrishna legendas merely symbol ical . H e said “ Just as the
ardour of a youth is to meet his beloved , so
CHA I TA NYA C ONDEMNS I T 369
shou ld the ardour of the sou l be to meet God ;th is allegory i s adopted for lack of a better one
to sign i fy the earnest yearnings of the soul . ”
True,he Visi ted the shrines
, and the figure of
Kri shna was ever presen t in his men tal vision .
I t was a mere sign to bring to his soul the whole
treasure of devot ion . I n his del icate vision ,
the material and the immaterial seem to have
lost al l d ifference,and every Si ght and sound
threw him in to a frenz ied delight . The fence
of the outer world proved no bar, but on
the con trary on ly heightened his spiri tual feli
ci ties. Chai tanya said “ People speak a good
deal about love wi thout knowing its true charac
ter ; sexual romance is not the h igher love , I
tell you ,on the other hand if one wi l l com
pletely get rid of the sexual fee ling and find no
d i fference between men and women,it is then
on ly that one wi l l be privi leged to taste true
love . A s an instance of hi s stern atti tude
towards those who wan ted to cult ivate a l i ttle
the roman tic feeling of a sexual nature, I
remind you of the treatmen t that jun i or H aridas
received from him . I t was not merely hard but
cruel .
I have already stated that the Sahaj la in i ts
variou s forms represen ts the old culture and
wisdom of the Buddh ists in the shape i t had
assumed during i ts decl in ing days in th is coun try .
The h igher order of monks and nuns fled from
47
3 70 C HA ITA NYA A N D HI S A GE
Bengal proper when the Brahm in ic Renaissanceasserted i tsel f in ful l glory here , and i t was
amongst the masses that the teach ing s Of the
Mahayana were preserved in a crude form . The
Buddh ist lai ty did not receive any en l igh tenmen t
from the i r leaders,
so the occult knowledgethey preserved is found m ixed wi th great vi cesand superstit ions . I t i s l ike gold m ixed wi thmuch alloy , which requ ires the discriminat ing
eye of the expert to separate for ascertain in g
their respective worth .
Surely the Madanotsava or the Puspotsava of
the old times was in th is counKamdem conquere" try. before the ascenden cy ofby Krishn a .
the Kri shna- cul t. We find a
reference to i t in the Mudra Rakshasa wri tten in
the 6th cen tury . Th is fest ival used to be held in
honour of K amadeva— the I nd ian Cup id . There
was an ex traord inary en thusiasm amongst the
masses which ch iefly consisted of N on -A ryan
populat ion ,on such occasions . Dance and song
,
flower and the red powder fag,swinging and
playing— al l these created an atmosphere of
light amusemen ts from whi ch al l sterner laws of
sexual eth ics were d ism issed for the time being,
andmen andwomenm ixed ind iscrim inately—thegreen trees wearing red apparel , as i t were , owing
to profusefag that fi lled the whole atmosphere ,over wh ich the A pri l sun threw i ts gaudy
purple rays . Such dance and song,
swinging
372 C H A I TA NYA A ND H I S A G E
unable to persuade Radha to love him by swee t
words and even by threat , Krishna at last took
recourse to aiming his inv incible flower-arrows ,five in number, at his lady- love . Now n owhere
in the Vaishnava or other scriptures do we find
ment ion of Krishna being equipped wi th five
arrows made of flowers. These weapons belong ,as i s universal ly known ,
exclusive ly to Kamadeva,
who is popularly known as“the God of five
arrows. A s Krishna was placed on the throne
of Kamadeva in the D olotsava ,i t was found
necessary by his fol lowers to give him al l the
trad i ti onal equipmen ts of the rival whose throne
he had usurped .
But the Vaishnavas no doub t made the situa
t i on infin itely more exal ted . They ideal ised love
and purged i t of al l dress of sensual i ty . The
Chai tanya C haritamri ta emphasises the poin t that
Kama clouds the reason,but Prema i s l ike the
glorious sun,d ispelling al l gloom and mak ing
things appear in their true l ight .
The Radha-Krishna cul t,I bel ieve
,had al
ready been in troduced amongst the tantri hs,both
Hindu and Buddh ist , before the Vaishnava re
vival in the 1 5th centurv . Radha- tantra,
’
Radha- Chakra are fami liar names in the Tan trik
l i terature ; the names R ai -Kanu so popular in
the country,savour of a Prakrit ic derivation
,
earlier than Brahm i nic Renaissance . Some of
the European scholars have asserted that the
THE D A RK SI DE 73
G i ta-Gov inda i tself seems to be a Sanskri tized
version of earl ier P rakri t lyrics, as the metres
and poetics used in the book con form more to the
rules of P rakri t rhetoric than of Sanskri t .
Radha-Krishna songs are found in Prakri t in
some of the an tholog ies of thatThe R adha-Kri shn a
cu l t suppl ied subj ects language . A l l thl S ShOVVS thatf“ Tam ““m et
Tantri ks used the Radha'
Krishna cult for their mystic practices,whereas
the sexual freedom embod ied in the legend was
adop ted by the more sensuous people as supply
ing a sanction for the grat ification of grosser
pleasures .
The cult,therefore , had ex isted in a more or
less gross form,before the h i gher standard of
Vaishnav ism gave i t a symbolical in terpretat i on,
puri fying the atmosphere from all sensuali ty .
I n the secret meet ings of the Sahaj ias, thedegenerate Buddh ists
,the old
The wickedness ofsome of the Sahaj ia atrocmus e lemen t of sensua
Gurns.
l l sm 1s somet imes found to
linger. These vices have been exposed in t hemost outspoken manner in a novel named“ Charu Darshan ”
wri tten by Kaviraj ParvatiCharan Kavishekhar of Dacca , There i s no
doubt a great deal of exaggerati on in his descripti ons. H is is a work of sat ire which alwaysmagn ifies smal l fau l ts into huge proportions
,
but that there is truth underly in g his accoun t,
no one wi l l deny . I must here repeat that the
374 C HA I TA NYA A ND H I S A GE
charge o f wickedness in sexual morals on the
part Of a sect ion of Vaishnavas, brought byBabu Jogendrachandra Bhat tacharya and Mr.
Underwood is not true . The dregs of the O ldmon
k ish l ife,the v ices wh ich brought about the O ver
throw of Buddhism in Bengal , is man i fest in the
accoun t g iven by Parvaticharan . Vaishnav ism ,
as I have j ust said,has been gradual ly improv
ing the morals of the Sahaj i as— the d i lap idated
Buddh ists of the later school i n Bengal . Babu
Parvat i Charan h imsel f draws a clear l ine of
demarcati on between the Vaishnava ideal and
the con tempti ble moral standard of the Sahaj ias—the so-called Vaishnavas of Bengal , against
whom he cries h imsel f hoarse throughout his
in teresting n ovel . I t i s a tale of degraded moral
v irtues, of selfish and d isgustin g manmuvres of
a class of the Sahaj ia Gurus wi th vested in terests.
The author saw the grim skeleton of old tantri c
pract ices, devoid of i ts myst ic import of a
conquest of the flesh conceived by i ts orig inators,
now sunk in the u tter depths of sensual ism .
The chapter in question of the book “C harudar
shan ,
”relates to the v isi t of a Deputy Magistrate,
to one of the secret meet ings held by a class
of Sahaj las who cal l themselves Kishori
Bhajaks”
or Worsh ippers of maidens. Th is
class even now is the most degraded of al l such
sects. I t should be stated here that the members
of the ( society wi th a Guru at their head
3 76 C HA I TA NYA A ND HIS A GE
impressed wi th al l that he saw,one poin t struck
him as Special ly good in the assembly . Even
the reformed Brahma Somaj of wh ich he was a
member,he thought , cou ld not boast of an equal
progress in social reformat ion . Though the
Brahmas loudly advocated the cause of female
freedom,they cou ld not al low their women to
m ix wi th men wi th the same degree of unreserved
fam i l iari ty,as he met here . A far greater tolera
t ion he found in thi s assembly than he cou ld
believe possible . Men and women had taken
the ir seats ind iscriminately wi thou t any scruple
and wi th ful l freedom . The Deputy who was an
en thusiast in the cause of social reformati on ,was
so greatly rej o iced at th is state of th ings that
he forgot al l the defects that had struck him
in the society on his first en trance . A s he
was con templat ing th is excel len t feature he
observed in their function ,the rel ig ious serv ice
commenced . Krishna Dasi,the woman who
was impl icated in the criminal su i t,together
wi th a number of other women , came near the
Deputy and sang the following song
Do not come, brother, to th is assembly of
mad men .
Come not, dear brother, si t not too close
to us.
I f you do so,once for al l
,your caste
wi ll go .
THE MERRY MEETI NG 377
Here the Chandal cooks the foodwhich the
Brahmin takes .
There was a mad man like us in the Vrinda
groves.
He acted as the policeman and made his
consort (R adha) the queen .
A nother mad man is our great God Siva .
H e gave all to hi s Guru , and himself
del ights in ashes and dust . H e sleeps
in the cremat ion ground .
We shall name yet anothermad fel low. H e
is our Shambhuchand—The Guru of the
Hindus,the Sh iva of the Brahmins and
the Shai (prophet) of the Musalmans.
”
(Shambhuchand who is men tioned in the
colophon of th is songwas evident ly thefounder of the sect . )
When the song was fin ished , their Guru
Kamal D as stepped forward and said something
in a language known on ly to the people of thesect , wh ich implied that un less hunger was
appeased,their devotional fervour would be lost .
On the bed that was spread there, large plates, ful l
of eatables, were brough t andmen and women
sat there and freely ate them . I n their j oy
women put food in to the mou th of men and the
latter were not slow in return ing the atten tion,
and the house rang wi th merry laughter. The
Depu ty was greatly pleased at seeing this
48
378 C HA ITA N YA A N D H I S A GE
unceremon ious d isplay of freedom by the women .
H e could not conceive that the people who called
themselves H indus and belonged to so many
d i fferent castes, could , wi thout the least prej ud ice ,
sit toge ther and eat from the same plates placed
on their beds (h ighly repugnan t to Hindu tastes
and absolutely forbidden by their caste-rules) .
H e fe l t as if the impossible had taken place
when he wi tnessed the people of h igh and low
castes vyin g wi th each other in break ing the
caste -rules,eat ing remnan ts of food left by one
another. Y et what wonder,they lived in the
Hindu society and passed for its orthodox
members ! H e was encouraged to hemthat thesepeop le could be easi ly induced to accept the
tenets of the en l ightened Brahma Samaj,as they
had already made a considerable advance
towards social reform . When this new hope
was k indled in his soul, the Mag istrate cou ld
no longer restrain h imself,but leaped up from
his seat and addressed the assembly thus
Dear sisters and brethern . I am not hereto encroach i n vain on your t ime . The
spectacle of fratern i ty , freedom and friendly
un ion , presen ted to me here,has given me
infin i te del ight and I cannot suppress my desire
to thank you from the bottom of my heart .Especi ally has your absolute disregard Of the
pern icious caste system fi lled me wi th wondering admirat ion . Hence I have risen to speak
380 C HA ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
to a call of modern civi lisation,and freedom
,
absolute emancipation must be g iven to women .
Just see , i f half the port ion of a tree gets sun
l ight and the other half i s in the shade, the tree
wi l l never be v igorous, i ts growth wi l l remain
stun ted for ever. I n the same way, whatever
culture and h igh education you may give to
your men , un less you give the same advan tages
to your women , the nation wi l l not, and cannot ,thrive . I bel ieve every word of what I say is
true . I t is for th is reason that our poet , wi th
a deep insigh t in to the problems of our society ,announced wi th a thundering voice
A wake—awake O I nd ian women .
I f you awake not— our nat ion wi ll not awake .
I am afraid most Of you are not advocates of
h igher education . Sti ll I see from yourways that
there is much agreemen t between your v iews
and those of the en lightened commun i ty— the
Bramba Samaj . I t i s for this reason that I
inv i te you to attend the meeting of the Bramha
Samaj , next Sunday . I shal l be presen t there
to shew you our scheme of social reform .
I f you wou ld feel any scruple or hesi tancy in
coming to our Samaj wi thout a formal inv i tat ion ,
or a sign of earnestness on our part , as you are
qui te unknown there , I should gladly bring
here some conveyances myself at 1 2 A .M . on that
day and take you there . I f you agree to go to
THEY SING IN CHORUS 381
our Society ’
s Hal l and grace the function wi th
your presence,we shall be al l very thankfu l to you .
Th is speech was not understood by any one
in the assembly . They did not pay atten tion
to it,
nor care to listen to such teach ings.
The mouth of their Guru was the on ly foun tain
source of instructions recognised by them . They
did not believe that there could be any other
month from wh ich any adv ice should proceed .
They believed wi th their whole soul that they
were the on ly persons who knew the right
path and the rest of the world had gone wrong .
They considered scholarsh ip and wisdom to
serve on ly to lead to the wrong way. They
considered the Vedas and other scriptures
to have been manufactured by worldly men for
their own se lfish ends. They had no regard for
the Brahmins. They en tertained no respect for
either the priestly class, or for their elders. The
women cared nothing for their husbands. They
besides considered image -worsh ip,the sound of the
sacred bel l and conch , the curren t ideas about
abstinence and puri ty to be all vain . They on ly
aspired for a state of beati tude,for the culture of
wh ich their societies had their nocturnalmeetings.
When the magistrate had fin ished, the
“ truemen
and women of the sect , wi thout heed ing to hisspeech any way, or caring to g ive any reply ,began to sin g in chorus the following song .
Oh my soul , oh my bat, do not fly in the twilight .
382 C HA ITA NYA A ND HI S A GE
I f the black crow can trace you—it wi ll sei ze you
and bi te .
A h my foolish bat, ah my dear bat, remain as a bl ind
thing in the dayl ight , but become clever in the n ight .
Why doest thou, dear bat, hang thy tai l upwards ?
I s not that a V i le habi t , induced by your bad na tureThou delightest i n drinking the juice of the Kam
ranga frui t .Thy tongue is cursed that thou ignorest the ananas
which grows on the soi l .
N ow listen to the truth about the ananas . I t puts
forth eight leaves in eight directions, and i n the
midst is a red something. On the top i t is covered
with bushy leaves and outside it are numbers of
eye- like holes— inside is its sweet juice . A las
C handi could not taste this sweet juice
The mean ing of this song i s kn own on ly to the adept . I n the
first porti on the poet C handi (who men tions his name in th'
e
colophon) refers ev iden tly to the adv ice so common ly given by thepeople of thi s sec t to remain inacti ve members of their societies,whe ther H in du or Musa lman
,absolutely ind ifferen t to the duties
enjorned by the respective commun i tiesThe bat sees in the n ight and hides i tse l f i n the day-time . The
Sahaj ia also does so . H is whole ac tiv i ties are reused i n the n ightin the secre t socie tie s . The reference to the bat ’s turn ing i ts ta i lupwards i s condemn ed ; i t probably impl ies the hab i t o f specu la t ingabout higher things , —l i fe and death,—which accord ing to the Sahaj ias i squi te fut i le . They attach a great importan ce to the train ing of the bodyfor sp iri tua l purposes by mean s of which occul t powers grow i n the soul .The tast ing of the Kamranga frui t which grows on the h igher branchesof i ts tree i s symbol ical of higher specu lat ion indu lged in by our re l ig ions aspiran ts . This i s condemned and con trasted wi th tasting the
ananas,that grows on the by which the Sahaj ias mean the body.
The e ight leaves and the red somethi ng mystical ly refers tocertai n occul t powers of the phys ica l body , revealed to one by yoga
and tan tri k practice s. I am not an adept in these things.
384 CH A I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
stopp ing for a wh i le, resumed his speech in the
following way“ There are four regions in the sp iri tual
plane . (1 ) The Stha la or that of the super
ficial and coarse , (2) the that
of the beginner, (3) of the Sadhakam the more
advanced in sp iri tual trai ni ng , (4 ) Siddha— of the
emanc ipated .
There are six th ings in respect of each of
these
(1 ) Desha— coun try, (2) Kala (t ime) ,
(3) A shray (help ) , (4) Patra (subj ect) , (5) A balambana (ways and means) , (6) Uddipana
(impetus) .
A . I n respect of the regi on of “ Sthula”— the
coarse and the superficial
1 . Desha The world . (Jambu
D wipa) .
2. Kala (T ime) The fleet ing as opposed
to eternal .
3 . A shray(help ) The feet of paren ts and
e lders.
4 . Patra (subject) Brahma— The Creator.
5 . A balambana (ways
and means) The Vedic ri tes.
6 . Uddipana ( impetus) Hearing of the reci ta
t ion of scriptures.
THE SERMON 385
I n respect of the region of Pravartaka-
(the
beginner)
1 . Desha Nadia - the birth -place of
Chai tanya .
(The beginner must consider h imself as a ci tizen
of the shrine,having no connection wi th the rest
of the world . )2. Kala
3 . A shray
4 . Patra
5 . A balambana
6 . Uddipana
I n respect of the regi on of the Sadhaka
Desha The Vrinda groves (the
shrine of Krishna) .Kala E tern i ty . The D wapara
yuga .
A shray The Gop is of the Vrinda
groves (to culture
tender emotions on
their footsteps) .Patra Krishna .
A balambana The love of the Gopi s.
Uddipana The sound Of flute
(rem ind ing one of
Krishna’
s flute) .
E tern i ty ,the Kali -yuga .
The feet of the Guru .
Chai tanya .
Company of sain tly man .
Reci tati on of the name
of Krishna.
386 C HA ITA NYA A ND H I S A GE
The regi on of
1 . Desha
2. Kala
3 . A shray
Patra
5 . A balambana
Uddipana
The stages are ev iden tly taken l argely from the Va isnava doctri nes.
The soul rises step by step from the materia l istic plane . A t the firststage he i s under the guidance of hi s paren ts, attends t o the flee t ingthings around and has a simple be l i ef in his Maker wi th whom his
acquain tance is of a mere superficia l k in d . I n the nex t plane,he owns
c i ti zenship of Nad ia, the Vaisnava shrine , cuts himse l f from the restof the world , the laws of which do not govern him . H e tries to cul turehis higher emot ion s there wi th the he l p of his Guru . I n the third stagehe has d ispensed wi th his Guru and even wi th C hai tanya and proceededto real ise the emot i onal love of the Gop is for Krishna . The fourthplane i s en tire l y myst ic , where the soul i s the dwe l ler of the e ternalregion of bl iss . The references to this stage are not very clear,involved as they are in esoteric pract ices known onl y to the adept.
D
the Siddhas
The Vrinda groves (notthe physical p lane as
in the preced ing stage)but the eternal shrine
of the soul , cal led the
N itya Vrindavana or the
everlast ing Vrindavana) .1 8 dandas of the great
n ight .
R upamanjari— one Of the
ch ief maids of Radha.
Radha
The emotion of the mi lk
maids of the Vrindagroves.
Loving services.
388 C HA I TA NYA A N D HI S A GE
cal l themselves Vaisnavas of the same order.
The author of “ Charu Darshan ” 1as I have
already n oticed , wh i le sneering at the faul ts of
the Sahaj ias, g ives a sunny and smi l ing sketch
of the Vaisnavas of his own order. No one wi l l ,however, doubt that his accoun t is one-sided .
There are certain ly good Sahaj ia Gurus, also good
disciples, famous for the myst ic powers they have
developed , as wel l as for their ascetic l i fe ,ful l of
nob le abstinence and phi lanthrophy. A s,how
ever, the Sahaj ia-cul t is professed mostly by the
il literate and the rustics, there may be qui te
natural ly some crude and vulgar elemen ts in
it . E ven in the above extracts, the Buddh istic
views are in ev idence in open revolt against
the Brahmins, the Vedas and the H indu
society . There is, besides, the monk ish d isregard
for the fami ly ties, wh ich wou ld remind one of
simi lar sen timen ts expressed in the Jnanadi
Sadhana. The reader wi l l find how a man may
1 C haru Darshan is a Bengal i roman ce by Babu Parvati C haranKabishekhar publ ished at the Moslem Hatai shi Press
,Dacca. I ts
price i s R e . 1-8 as. ,and i t i s to be had of the author
, A sak Lane ,Dacca . I t i s a remarkable book , i ts humours has more flashes thanone fin ds in the Hutum P echar Nak sa or A laler Gharer D ulal — i t
gi ves the most fai thful p icture of Bengal i l ife and of the re l igi ousv iews of those un fam i l iar wi th Western i deas. Wri tten by one
,who
kn ows the character of his own people far be tter than most men ,he
has the gi ft of style whi ch i s not acquired but is
‘
natnra l,and his
shrewd i nsight into human character invests his wri t ings wi th a l i fel ike and real istic v iv idness. I f one wan ts to know Benga l as i t is
,le t
him read thi s book— i t i t not cl ouded by European ideals. The bookought to be translated into Engl ish.
THE SONGS 389
worship a woman—as a course of his sp i ri tual
train ing . Though such a th ing may appear
queer to us, yet the instance of Durga Prasad
clearly shews that i t is qu i te possible for a
man to accept the doctrine and follow i t.
Though most of the songs of the Saha31as
arewri tten in the Sandlzya bhdsdwhich none but the adept can
pen itrate yet there are some wh ich are i h
tel l igible to us. They touch the heart by their
naive and simple charm . The songs of Lal
Sash i , from whi ch I have gi ven copious extracts
in my Typ ical Selections (Vol . I I . ) are mostly
d ifficu l t of comprehension . I wi ll quote here
a few of the songs wri tten by other authors,to
shew the lucid charm of these spon taneous songs,
wh ich burst forth from the heart , like the
Kmart ! and the Ma lati flowers from our so i l .
1 . A great storm is break ing in ; the eyes
see water everywhere— lands are submerged .
O boatman ,ply thy oar steadily . Whoever has
a boat , must face the storm, don’ t you know this
boatman ? Wai t a wh i le , 0 boatman and
l isten ! Spread the sai l of truth and ply the
boat slowly over the rough waters . Look at
and see the One who is at the helm . Why dost
thou look at the storm P’ "
Sahaj i a Songs .
1 W um a s, aman 2m film,
Sufi ? 5161 aswasvata {1mGaza,
eragm ,calm31Wfirma, ma airsWm can u
with as ] filmas . 61m62msmegma rumm 51ammmmam
390 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
2. My Guru is a mad fellow,thrice-blessed
is he, oh what excel len t qual i t ies has he H e
is wi thout qual i ties they say ;1 i t is false
,there is
a perfecti on and harmony in them ,that I find
in H im . Hethrows away sandal perfumes and
covers h imself wi th ashes . Talk not of his
possessi ons . A mere rag and torn man tle , are
all he has. H e teaches truths to the poor and
lowly— nay, i t is an empire that he g ives
them . H e casts his quick glance around and
there is no place where he does not go . H e is
here now and everywhere , and where is i t that
he is not P” 2
A curious couplet of the R ambal lavi sect
of the Sahaj ias, embodying their tenets runs
thus
Kal i and Krishna, God andKhoda—a mere
fight wi th names . When combatants fight ,these names throw them into a puzzle . Do not
be a party to these d isputes . Oh ! my soul !
sing Kal i,Krishna, God and Khoda—the names
of the One .
” 3
The Brahman i s wi thout qua l i ties accord ing to Sankara ’
s sp iri tualphi l osophy .
2 w sacsama Cami .Gita
“
! at? afaem first? lwe fwg s ci cart, awn sets o n, W ? ! gift
,W W aims at? 1
farw maan“, cashWt?! 65'
s! 25'
s”, affairs: um w , an wasEzra cam m. cw{firmswam, cw ! swrW M!m,
CWT?“WEE—HT? u”
Wt as? at cam, amaimat“
? sl id, was fast? fastmmm twflml mafi arm csmm l
392 C HA I TA N YA A N D H I S A GE
Bengal i d isciples besides a considerable number
of the Madrasis,known as the Telengas or
Te legu -speak ing people . There i s amongst
these a sprinkl ing of the Kurm is of the North
western Prov inces . The temple l ies at a place
244 m i les d istan t from Jonepur— a station on the
B . N . Rai lway . The Mahaprabhu worsh ipped
in the temple is not Chai tanya, but the Sungod .
The name of the Guru is Man i D as Babaj i .
Though of an up- country extraction he i s a
domici led residen t of Jajpur. The people of the
sect are proh ib i ted to eat in a house where the
grad ceremony is go ing on . Besides they would
by no means eat in the house of a Brahmin or
the food cooked by him . The more advanced
members of th is sect are said to be endowed
wi th marvel lous powers of heal ing .
Though th is is not a qu i te relevan t top ic,as
these people do not belong to the Chai tanya cul t ,I have in troduced i t here to show that in various
parts of I nd ia, the Buddhists, after the Brahmin ic
Renaissance, took shel ter under d i fferen t forms
of prevail ing H indu rel igi on,retain ing much of
their original creed of Mahayan i sm . A s the
Vaisnava sects opened their doors of brotherhood
to al l,irrespective of creed and colour most of
these Buddh ists incorporated themselves wi th
that commun i ty , and what cou ld be a greater
proof of their hav ing once been Buddh ists than
the fact that some of these sects refuse to take
THE BA UL A ND THE'
VA I SNA VA 393
food cooked by a Brahm in up to this day,though
they cal l themselves H indus ? The Brahm in
was the great enemy of the Buddhist who was
even tual ly crushed by him . The Sunya Puran
of the Bengal i Buddh ists cries i tse lf hoarse in
its last chapter against the Brahmins and
announces that i t was for vengeance of the
wrongs done by the Brahm ins to the Buddhists,that the Mahomedans were commissioned
by the M ost H igh to destroy the Brahmin ic
temples. The Bathuris and some other tribes
of Orissa ,who outwardly profess Vaisnav ism
were at one time Buddh ists. They have preserv
ed much of the older creed in their theology
and scriptures under the d isguise of Vaisnava
relig ion . R ai Sah ib Nagendra Na th Vasu has
proved th is fact beyond al l shadow of doubt in
his book called “ Buddhi sm in Orissa .
”
The Sahaj ias have composed many songs on
Radha-Krishna . UnfortunateThe Radha -Krisna
songs of the Bauls as ly these have not yet beencon trasted wi th thoseof the Vai snavas collected or published . These
songs deal wi th the lov ing sports of the D iv ine
cowherd and his consort the princess, —the
adven turous boat- trip of the lover— called the
Noyka Khanda,—tkeman or Radha’
s jealousy and
her outward ind i fference to Krishna ’
s en treat ies,
however much she was grati fied by them ,—the
abhi sdr or the secret meetings— the mathur
or separation and many other sti ll n icer
50
394 C HA I TA NY A A ND H I S A GE
classifications of tender emot ions . The Sahaj iaVaisnavas
,the Bauls and others, also deal wi th
these topics as the genuine Vai snavas do .
But one can clearly see a d i fferen ce betweenthe modes of treatmen t of the two d ifferen t
schools. The Baul takes a very ord inary V iew
of mat ters in his songs and cann ot for a
momen t forget that Krishna is the Lord of the
Un iverse and Radha is a devoted worsh ipper.
Th is brings in the phraseology of D iv ine Serv ice
and prayers in his attempts to,describe
sports. For instance when the ferry -boat of
wh ich Krishna is at the helm is tossed by the
waves of the Jumna under a storm,Radha
,in
the Bau l-songs of Noyka Khanda ,offers a regular
prayer like a devotee fallen in d istress . The
human in terest flags as the sp iri tual elemen t
gets the upper hand . E very now and then the
Baul in hi s songs introduces D ehatatta,or the
physi cal principles for developmen t of our occult
powers— the goal of the Buddh ist tantri ks.
Vaisnavi sm is a creed of j oy and Buddh ism of
misery . I n the Baul -songs reference to decay,death , and transi toriness of l ife and body is
frequen t . But the true Vaisnav ism makes an
essen tial departure from v iewing such an aspect
of li fe ; it is all sunny and even in i ts pain ,i t
sei zes the golden momen ts of love , and delights
in dying the death of a love -martyr. I n the pure
Vaisnava-songs the theological ideas do not
396 C HA I T A NY A A N D H I S A GE
l i teratures of both the cu lts wh ich professing
the same rel ig ion, yet d iffer so largely in some
of their essen tial features .
Babu Parvaticharan has g iven the sketch
of a Sahaj ia Guru . Under the shade of the
Radha -Krishna legend,he is dep icted as prao
tising all k inds of sexual immoral i ties . But the
genu ine Vaisnava, however wicked he may be ,
wi l l never forget the sacredness of the Radha
Krishna legend and defile i t . E ven the bad
women of the ci ty puri fy themse lves by touch
ing the Ganges water and changing their clothes,
when they have to appear in the askar of the
Kirtan songs. They en ter the house for th is
purpose in the frame of m ind in wh ich one
en ters the church . When a song is fin ished
and the name of the poet is to be men tioned
in the colophon , thev j oin their hands and bow,
and offer the ir respect to the son gs, as if they are
sacred as man tras . What greater refutat ion
can there be of the charge of sensuousness
in the Radha-Krishna songs ? The audience in
variably return as better people,wi th a sp iri tual
awaken ing in the soul . These songs have been
thorough ly ideal ized in the coun try by the
fai th,
austerit ies and renunciati on of the Vais
nava sain ts,whose in terpretation has fil tered
down to the lowest layer of our social life . But
not so always wi th - the pseudo-Vaisnavas— the
Sahaj ias . Their po in t of strength is tantriki sm,
SA HA J I A A FORM OF BUDDH I SM 397
yoga ,and a hundred ways to attain a mystic
stage of j nom, in wh ich con trol of self,not
the beati tude reached by emoti ons,is the aim .
They adopted the Vaisnava creed merely for
expediency ’
s sake in order to have some status in
the coun try wh ich had rejected them al together.
Hence the Radha—Krishna cu l t was in some
cases v i t iated by the more wicked of the Sahaj ia
Gurus.
CHA PTE R I I I .
I can not conclude th is book wi thout poin t
ing ou t the duties of our young graduates who
have taken up the I nd ian vernaculars as their
subjects of study . My appeal is to al l educated
men of my coun try , special ly to these studen ts,
as they are the more immed iately interested .
Buddhism has not passed away from th is coun
try ; i t l ives not amongst a few but amongst
thousands to -day. I s it not curious that we
shou ld always awai t messages from Europe
to sat isfy our in tel lectual curiosi ty even in
matters that are I ndian,nay pure ly Bengali ?
Shall we sit qu iet like Buddh ist gods in stone
and put forth our energ ies on ly to copy , when
a Max M ii ller, a Rhys Dav id s, a Sylvain Lev i
or an Oldenburg has brought us new facts ?
We boast of our in tellectual ity but completely
ignore the large field that is before and around
us in our immediate neighbourhood,wh ich
we can approach for research and in terpret as no
foreigner can do . I t is true that for the purposes
of excavat ions and other expensive measures
required for research,European officers who
can easi ly command help from the Governmen t
400 C HA I TA NYA A ND HI S A GE
wi l l m islead and d isappo in t them . They wi l l only
re -echo the sen t imen ts of Europeans in a feebler
voice,but th is they do not expect from I nd ians .
We do not know our own coun trv . I n the pride
of western culture we have so long kept aloof
from the more genu ine sources from wh ich we
cou ld learn much . Wi thin the last half a cen tury
educati on on Western l ines has made rap id
strides to the utter destruction of our own ideals
of cul ture . I f any European scholar seeks the
old I nd ian wisdom,born anew amongst ourmu l ti
tude , let him go to the v i llages even as some of his
European coun trymen go seek ing jute and other
agricultural products . There are even to -daymany Gurus who preach the old cu l ts. They are
not gu ided by the spiri t of H indu renaissance
but proceed in the cathol icmanner of the ancien t
teachers lay ing no stress on caste or conven tion .
A nd though some of them may interpret the
scriptureswickedly , as already shown by us in this
chapter, surely there are o thers whose teach ings
represen t the flowering fai th of the MahayanaBuddh ists. They have a very vast l i terature
,
on ly a port i on of wh ich has been publ ished by
the Presses of Bat- tala, but by far the greatest
porti on of wh ich is ly ing in the shape of manus
cripts, uncared for and not at al l noticed bv the
educated commun i ty . I n these rel ig ions,there is
a constan t tendency to rebu i ld the social fabric
on the basis of ami ty and brotherhood and un i fy
SA HA JI A A N A LL-EMBRA C I NG C REED 401
the d ivergen t elemen ts in to one homogeneouswhole. There are Mahomedans and Christians
and in some parts of the coun try,there is
also a sprinkl ing of populat ion professing other
creeds, such as the Sikhs . I t i s therefore very
in teresting to observe that many of the Sahaj ia
creeds have included not on ly the B ible and the
Koran in the list of their holy books, but have
also , as the R amval labhis have done, reserved a
place for the Gran tha Saheb of Guru Nanak .
Though attending thus to the scriptures of al l
religions prevai ling in th is land in a truly
cosmopolitan spiri t , they have y ielded their own
views to none, but have subordinated all of them
to their own special creeds which contain the old
wisdom of the Tan trik Buddhists. They have
not been able to declare war against theMaulavi,
the M issionary and the Hindu Guru , but in an
unassumin g way they have con trived to have
large followings from all these great religious
sections of the populati on of Bengal,making
them their own in the fullest sense . For, the
Christian Sahaj ia, the Mahomedan Sahaj iaand the H indu Sahaj ia pay by far a greaterrespect to their Sahaj ia Gurus than the con
ventional leaders of their own respective societies.
The Sahaj ia wi l l give up his li fe and property
at the bidding of his Guru , though outwardly
he seems to cling to his commun i ty . The song
quoted on page 380 says that the Sahaj ia remains
51
402 C H A I TA N YA A ND H I S A GE
like one bl ind in the dayl ight,his eyes are open
ed in the n igh t and his true l i fe beg ins in then igh t . I n the day
- t ime he has to do convent ional
things, to observe the rules of caste and payrespect to the Mollah
,the M issionary or the
Brahmin as the case mav be and ab ide by the ir
orders,but he becomes the true man at n ight
in the secret soci et ies,when hi s real work begins,
and so great is the attract ion of these societ ies
which si t every n ight,that men and women
of the Sahaj ia cult consider i t their greatest
misfortune if they cannot attend them . There
they perform their mystic ri tes, promu lgate the
doctrines of their creeds, indulge in songs for
the culture of emotion ,and pay no heed to the
rules of caste and other social restricti ons.
There is much that is very good mixed wi th
the vulgar and bad, as I have already stated ,but in many such societies on ly good things
are done where the Guru is real ly a good and
pious man .
The catholici ty of soul and the brotherhood
of men that are cu l tivated in these circles to
gether wi th a h igh sp iri tual train ing , have on ly
been possible in Bengal because al l these
differen t classes of men can gather together
under the banner of Chai tanya . I t was he who
preached an all -embracing brotherhood and
showed that the portals of heaven wi th all its
treasures of beati tude might be open to men
I N D EX
A balambana . 384 , 385 , 386
A bhiram Li lamri ta.
A bhiram Goswam i . 7 .
A bhiram Swam i .360 .
A bhisar 393 .
A chyatcharan
A dhaksaj a . . 38 .
A diparva
A da i tya
A di t i . 107 .
A dwai tabad . 322.
A dwai tacharya 46,
6 1,64 ,
10 1 , 102, 106 , 10 7 , 109, 1 10 , 133 , 144 ,151
,157 , 163 , 175 , 187 , 239
244,245
,284 ,
291
A dwaita 98,118 .
A ghasura 36.
A ghore Panthi s . 17 1 , 275 .
A i swarya 42.
A j itnath Nayaratna . 108 .
A kshoykamar Datta . 344
A lalnath 212,248 .
A land i . 63.
A l lah . 153
228 , 230 , 241 ,242
A marda 177 .
Bal lava 24 1,242 . Bandhu
Ba l lare 240,241
,248 , 256 . Ban i pati 237 .
Bai ba A ul 344 . Baikun tha
Ba disingha 293 Baraba 88
Bataranri . 177 . Basudev Ghosh . . 192.
Bai sakh 191 , 21 1 . Basu Ghosh 97 , 159 , 291 .
307 . Basudeva Sarbabhaum 190 ,180
, 185, 2 13 , 239, 244 .
A merican tourist 236 .
A m ina Khatoon .62.
A m jhora . 277 .
A m lak i 124 .
A mogha
A mri tabatika 187 .
A mritabazar Pa trik a 60, 8 8
A nan ta . 76 .
A nan ta Shayya 76A n iruddha
A nnakut 227 .
A n taA nuragbal l i 98 .
A rat i 288 .
A rctic regions 360 .
A rjuna 203
A shar 262, 263 , 396 .
A shta Sastreo Bikar 308 .
A shray 384 , 385 , 386 .
A siati c Society Journa l 267 .
A ssam
A ssulatwin 23 .
A stavingsati Tatva 100 .
A lmanepadi . 1 18 .
A tman i bedan 309 .
A tulchand
A ul
INDEX
Basudeva Datta . . 187 , 233 .
Batsayana Gotra 10 1 .
Bal la lBal lav i Sect 122.
Banamal i A charyya . 122,123.
Banamal iBanana p lan t 270 .
Basul i 25 , 26 , 30 , 355.
Batsalya 27 . 170 .
64 , 88 , 348 , 349.
Balaram 282,283 .
Bharati DeraBhi lpantha
335 , 336.
Bhikshun i es 10 , 335 , 336 .
Bhadra .202.
Bhargadev
32, 35 , 36 , 5 1 , 69, 76 ,7 7 , 1 1 1
,1 18
,136
,182, 232, 240 , 241 ,
Bhagavat A charya 252.
92,98
,155 .
Bha kti 42, 44 , 46 , 47 , 180 ,
22 9, 230 , 232, 244 , 288 , 290 , 291 , 294 ,
Bhugarva
Bhakta 66 , 91 , 138 .
Bhagan A charyaBhuban eswar . 178 .
Bhakt i 73, 135 , 147 , 231 , 244,
324 .
BharatiBhaktirasamri ta 183 .
Bhabasanmi lan . .313 .
Bhababhuti 310 .
Bhowan i sankar
BhaktaBipralabdha
B ijoynagar . 1 84 .
Bi joy Gupta
Bi j l i 229 .
B irudhamati 1 21 .
Bikrampore 39 .
B isran ti Ghat
Bidyapati . .252.
Birabhadra 336 .
40 1 .
Balya Li la SutraBakasur
BakaBaroda 200 .
Barmukhi 43,205
,206, 207 , 208 .
Bankol 20 1 , 202.
Barai 341 .
Baul 340,345
,394
,395.
Barati 343.
Balaj i .206 .
Baladev Bhattacharya 224, 228 .
225 .
Bateswar 194 .
Bala Khrnda . . 37 1 .
Baroda 200 .
Bakreshwar
Bashudev 159,180 , 18 1
,182
,
Balagopal .242.
Baninath 246,247 .
Sattala Press 259, 400 .
Bangabasi Press 259 .
Bay of Benga lBai d Pashara Buddhi sm 256
,2
285 .
Batsalyarasa 272.
Balasore 177 .
Basan ta Ran jan Ray . . 17 .
Baranagar . .233 .
Benapo le 56 .
Betasak 124 .
Betal 25 .
Bengal . 1 -3 , 21 -23 , 32, 37 -39, 41
223,233 , 237 , 244 , 245 , 267 , 276,
279 , 280 , 284 , 285 , 286 , 287 ,
40 1,402.
Beveridge 267 , 275, 276 .
B egum 21 .
19,32, 33 , 35 , 37 , 42,
54,64
, 7 1 , 97 , 103, 143 , 204 , 222,
Benares 57,120
,225
,226
,230 -2
20 1
B . N . Rai lways 392.
Bishanath 233 .
Bidagdha Madhaha 238 .
106,1 10
,14 1
, 1
175 .
103,128 , 166 1
204 .
B ireswar Sen 177 .
Bombay
Balshevic
Boal i 342.
20 1 .
Brahma Kshatriyas 125
MM
Brahm in 17 , 26 , 27 , 3 1 , 47 , 48 ,53 , 51 ,
55,57 , 64 ,
1 12,
162, 199 , 210 , 214 , 218 ,
222,226
,228
,
282,
Brindabandas 55 , 65 , 73 , 74 , 77 ,
Brahmin ic 28, 48 .
Brahman ic Renaissance . . 84,352, 370 ,
72.
Brahmandabhandodasa . . .66, 73 .
7 7 , 90 , 94 , 122, 178 ,189
, 227 , 228 , 234 , 254 , 262,3 18 .
Brindagroves 80, 13 1 , 163
,223
,
Brahman Krishna D as .
C anarese
C alcutta 262,3 12
,336 , 344 .
C arfest ivities 246 , 263 .
C hai tanya 12, 16 , 23 , 24 , 29, 3 1 ,32, 36, 40-43 -47 , 52, 53 , 56 ,
58 -64,
67 -72, 74-80, 82-85 , 87 -102
,105
109 , 1 15 , 129, 135 , 139, 14 1 , 145 , 146 ,15 1
,169 , 170 , 172- 174 , 177 -183 , 185
200 ,202-205, 207 , 209, 210 , 21 1 -216 ,
217 -246, 248 , 249-255
,252-268
,274 ,
276-280 , 282, 284 -287 , 289 , 290 , 292
295, 302, 303 , 305 , 308 , 310 ,3 12
,3 14
320 , 322-327 , 331 , 336 , 344 , 345 , 348 ,
C hai tanya Bhagavata 36,37 , 40 ,
42,43 , 50 , 72, 73 , 77 , 87 , 90 , 95 , 97 ,
10 1 , 107 , 108 , 1 15 , 1 16 , 1 19 , 124 , 137 ,
C hakra 8 7 , 194 .
C handa l . 6 , 17 1 , 275 , 377 .
C handidas 10,14
,16 -22
,26-30 , 32,
35 , 36 , 40 , 69, 126 , 143 , 145 , 146 , 252,266 , 354 , 357 -360 , 368 .
C handipore 12, 193.
C hai tanya C handradoya Natak 12,
C ha i tan y a Mangal . 23,55
,57 , 77 , 8 1 ,
70 , 14 1 , 268 , 269 , 332 ,350 .
C hai tanya C hari tamri ta 38,45 , 63 , 66,
INDEX
Brahma .
Brahma
Brahma Samaj . . 376 , 378 , 379.
Buran . . 49 .
Burdwan 176.
Budha 6 1, 62, 222, 276 , 324-327 .
Buddhis t 8, 10
, 13 , 184, 193
,2
334,335
,337 , 338 , 354 , 367 , 368 , 3
Buddhimanta 157 , 187 .
1 1 , 13,14
,256
,2
285,3 17 , 335 , 336, 353 , 374 , 3
398 .
Buddha Gan -o
Buddha Doha-o-Gan 4 .
Buddhi st Sangha .268 .
Buddhist Bhi kkasBuddhi stBuddhist tantricsBudhuvi
C
44,225 , 231 , 233 , 2
242,243
,246
,252, 257 , 259, 26 1 , 2
277 , 279 , 294 , 328 , 329, 337
C harak 306 .
C hai tanya and H is
C ompan ion s 49, 68 , 10 1 , 126 , 1
C hai tanya Deva 58,246
,290 . 292
C hai tanya C hari tam 60 , 6 1 , 67 ,94
,126 ,
C ha i tanya cul t 69,
C hampakaC hai tanya 84
,95
, 1
C hai tanya 90 , 97 , 103 , 25C han drasekhar 150 , 157 , 1
225 , 230 .
C hai pal li 202
C handrakalaC hange 247 .
C hang 248 .
268, 339, 340
,
35 1 , 352, 40 1 .
C hrist ian i ty . . 307C haru Darshan . 377 .
3 18 .
C hakradaha 342.
C haukidar 348 .
C haudaTShan 374, 388
C hi ttagong 44 .
90 .
197.
408 I NDEX
Garanhati 146 .
Gandas 248 .
Gauriya Vaishnabs
Gathal i
C axur .237 .
Gavinda Ghosh 240,291 .
Ganrachandri ka 3 13 , 315, 3 16 .
George
C hat . 155 .
205,
350 , 391 .
G irishwar 202.
1 1 1 , 346.
GobraGovinda C haranGoraksha Nath 4 .
Goraksha
Govinda 205, 277 .
Gop i C handra 64.
Gopel bhogaGodavari . . 26
,210
,235
,273 , 281 .
Gov inda D as 63 , 87 -89, 95-97 ,
204,210
,225 , 234, 352, 377 , 282, 283 ,
Gokul87 ,
123 , 165, 168
,17 1 ,
177 , 187 , 194 , 20 1, 210 , 213 , 253 , 256,275.
Gour 56, 178 , 217 , 219.
Hari siddha 3 .
H arihara-Bai ty 5 .
H afiz 17 7 .
348 .
48, 49, 1 15 , 1 42, 144 .
250,280
,28 1
,282
,292
,303 , 369 .
H ariehandra 218 , 248 .
Hari bhakt i B i las 289.
Haritaki 302.
Hari Bal lavaHal l . . 306 .
H atu
Gostha-SongsGoura Emperor . 57 , 178 .
Gourapada tarangi n i 8 8 .
Gopmath 96 , 1 17 , 1 8 1 , 247 , 248 , 2
Govmda Glnosl 1 . . 97 , 1 16 , 144 , 302.
Gopal Basu 97 .
Gobrfi i . 349 .
Gov inda Karmakar— 106, 124
, 1
17 1 , 191 ,Gop inath 145 , 1
Gopi C hand1 aGodhul i
Gobardhan D as . 214 .
Gopal Bhatta 225,290 .
Goswam i 225 , 284 .
Gop i nath RayGobardhan 255 .
Gouridas 263 .
Gop is . 299 , 323 , 385
Gorai . . 149 .
302,307 .
Gran tha Saheb 40 1.
Gurjari 145 , 203 .
Guru Sai j i 347 .
Guru 285 , 288 , 318 , 321 , 340 , 3 1
377 , 383 , 385 , 390 -392,40 0 -402.
Gurjari R ag 253 .
GubhajusGyasuddin 17 .
H indu 8,14
,17 , 23 , 27 , 32, 52-5
145 , 204 , 220 , 221 , 278 , 282,298
,3 1
3 18 , 338 , 340 , 343, 346-350
,352-35
H indu R enaissan ce 1 1,336
,338 .
H in dui sm 1 1
H iranya D as 214 .
H ind 1 . . 295,3 18
H indu Jurisprudence 287 .
H istory of Bengal i Language 3 1
Li terature 3 13 .
H istory of the Medize val Vaislm
Li terature 327 .
Haribola 21 1 .
H ri shikesa
H ussai n Shah . . 52, 53 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 17221 .
I ndia . 3 , 27 , 3 1 , 44,
62,63 , I ndradyumna
99, 1 19 , 14 1,163 , 169, 190
,210 , I n suran ce offi ce . 360 .
21 1 , 222, 293,294, 306 , I n toto
392 I shan Nagar 1 16, 294 .
I nd ian 32,284 .
I nd ian Vernaculars 398 . I swar
I nd ian I swar Puri . . 44 , 50 , 53 , 54 , 11 5, l
I ndira 1 17 , 129, 131 , 18 1 , 193 .
76 , 96 , 102, 154 , 18 1 ,
Jaksha
Jamuna 33, 75 , 168 , 172
173 , 227 , 230 , 243. 255,257 , 30 1 , 394
Jayananda 8 8 , 95 , 97 , 100 , 102,109, 1 15 , 125 , 1 27 , 132, 154 , 178 , 186 ,
143 .
Janardana 10 1 , 154 .
Jagannath - 10 1 , 103 -106,
Jagabandhu Bhadra 3 12.
Jay Gopal Goswam i 89 .
Jaj pur 17 8 , 392.
Jayaram C hakrabartty . 125 .
Jagai 154,155 , 194 .
JaleswarJagannath 238 .
Japa 288 .
Janmastham i 289
Jangal .218 .
Jagadananda 242, 254, 354.
Jaganath
Kanair Natsala, 135, 217 , 218 .
Kal ipa, 2.
Kanchi , 120 .
Kanupa, 2.
Kanchannagore , 167 , 168 , 176 .
Kamalkumari, 196.
Kalu D om,5
Kalinga , 7 .
Kanaraka, 8 .
Kal i , 10 , 1 1 , 55 , 299, 300 , 301 , 390 .
Kapal i ka, 13 .
Kanaraka, 178 .
Kanis, 23 .
Jat i -nasha 285.
Jaigir 249 .
Jadunandan A charya . 282.
JambuJapanese 399 .
JehangirJessore 47 ,
282, 350 .
Jesus 61 , 62.
Jemeswar 177 .
Jewish 268 .
Jesus C hri st 379.
Jharikhanda
JivaJ izuri
J iva Goswami 290 .
322,324 , 325, 397 .
Jnanadi Sodhana 388 .
Job 105 .
Joydev 8,19. 30 , 3 1 , 143, 146 , 2
Jonepur
Jun ior Hari das 243 .
3 14 .
K
Kausalya, 27 , 107 , 174.
Kal ia, 34 , 301 .
Kansa, 36 .
Kamal lochan , 178 .
Kaustuva, 45 .
Kalatirtha, 202.
Kamalakshya ,46 .
Kaz i , 48 , 54 , 1 14 , 149, 152, 153.
Kafir, 48 .
Kashinath Ghattak, 128 .
Karcha, 82, 86, 87 , 8 8 , 94 , 95 , 97 , l191 , 192, 277 , 2Katwa, 92, 165 , 167 , 168 , 17 1, 179.
41 10 I NDEX
Kawkarnapur, 130 , 158 , 180 , 196 , 197 ,
Kan taknagore , 167 .
Kasiswar Nayaratna, 17 1 .
Kaup iu,174 .
Kapi la, 174 .
Kashi Mi sra,176 , 214 .
Karpurknpi , 187 .
Karnat, 234 .
Kasishwar,239
Kanchrapara,244 .
Kamal D as, 277 , 283
Karuna, 307 .
Kal idas,279 ,
280 .
Kayastha , 279, 280 , 285 , 36 1 .
Kana i , 280 .
Kavyaprakasha, 294 .
Kahahan tari ta,3 12
Kamranga ,382.
Karta-Bhajas, 335 , 336 , 340 , 343 , 346 .
Karma, 324 , 325 .
K anaibazar,Ka la , 384 , 385 , 386 .
Kal icharan, 365.
Kal i charen Tarafdar , 366 .
Kal i Yuga , 385 .
Katha Vathu . 366 , 367 .
Kamdeva , 370 , 37 1 , 372.
Kama,37 1 , 372.
Kav iraj Parvat icharan Kavi shekhar, 373
Kanupad, 302
K eshava , 38 , 167 .
Keshava Bhar ati . 44 , 16 1 , 168 ,
Keshab Basu ,56 , 219 .
Keshab Kasmiri , 1 19, 293 , 294
Keshab Saman ta, 177 .
Khadija , 134 .
Khan janacharya ,212.
Khob,172.
Khandava , 202.
Khardaha ,283
,284 .
Kheturi , 285 .
Khand i ta ,3 12 .
Khoda , 390 .
Khusi Biswas, 348.
Kharar C har, 350
Lakshman Sen, 7 , 8 .
Lakhan,212.
Laksmi , 22,90 , 122,
Laur, 46 , 47 .
Lauri Krishna D as,98 .
Lal i ta Devi, 7 1 .
Lal i ta Bistara, 8 1 .
Khomasabasra,36 1 .
K irnahar, 126 .
K irtan , 50 ,139
,145
,146 , 1 50 , 15 1 , 1
155,162,
175 , 186 , 240 , 260 , 3 12, E
n Pratap R udra,234 .
K 1la ki nchi t, 297 ,Ki shori Bhajakas, e74 , 376 .
Kotal i par, 126 .
Kowr1,147 , 248 .
Koran,346
Krishna Ke l i , 123 .
K ranabhanga ,121 .
K r1shna , 9 ,17 , 19 , 28 ,
-34, 36
42-44,47 , 63 , 64 , 66 , 68 , 69 , 7 1 -7 7 ,
8 3, 86 , 88 , 94 , 97 , 105 , 1 10 , 1 1 1 , 1-132, 143 , 154 , 155 , 157 -1
163,164
,166 , 168 , 172, 176 , 18 1 , 1
213,214
,218
,225-228
,2
239,242
,25 1 , 252, 254 -258
,267 , 2
289 ,297 ,
298 , 30 1 -303 , 305 , 3 12, 3
3 15 , 323 , 329 , 353 , 369, 3
Krishna K irtan,9,17 , 18 , 19, 22
,
K shnadhamal iss, 9, 17 , 30 .
Kri shnapada,143 .
Krishnacharn ,143 .
Krishna D as,46
, 97 , 212, 213,2
Kri shna D as Kaviraj , 94,179 , 1
Kri shna L i lamri ta,1 17 .
Krishna Dasi , 374 .
Krishna Kama l,3 14 ,
Kri shna Kumar Gunasagar, 346 .
Krishnanagar, 346 , 348 .
Krishna -cul t , 370 .
Kunda,133 , 252.
Kumarhatta , 131 , 233 .
Ku l ia,170 , 233.
Kumaries, 392.
Kumbha Me la . 228 .
Kuoran , 40 1 .
Kuli n i sm , 352.
Kusha, 140 .
I .
Lanka, 84 .
Lakhibai , 195 .
Lakhi,196 .
Lal i ta Madhab, 238 .
Lalsashi , 389.
L i fe of A kbar,54
Ligna-franea,295 .
412 INDEX
Mirdu . . 298 .
Mun indra 90 .
Murari 59—62,90
,103
,1 12,
Mukunda Datta , . 49, 50 ,214 ,
263.
Mukunda 135,233.
1 16, 164,
Mula 200 .
Narmada . .200 .
Nasi kNath-cu l t 3
,4 .
Nath-creed . 2.
3
N ath-l i terature 3
Nath-leader . . 3 .
Nath 8 .
Narada 137 , 157 , 158 .
NagarNarattam 98 .
54,56 , 59, 60 , 63, 65 , 68
7 1 , 73 . 75 , 83, 84 , 91 , 92, 94 , 99, 100 ,
102, 103 , 108 , 1 14 , 1 16, 1 18—120
,122
— 126, 129, 1 3 1 , 139, 14 1 , 142, 150
156,16 1
, 163—165 , 170 , 173 , 179 , 186,
189,190
,192, 194 , 226 , 232, 233
,243
,
244,282. 293 , 303 , 304 , 325 , 348 , 385 .
N arahari C hakrabarti—98 .
Nagarjuna . . 13,352.
Nagendranath
Narahari Sircar . 1 6 , 68 , 97 , 285 , 293 .
Narahari .29, 32, 49 , 68—70 , 72, 73 ,
8 1 , 92, 97 , 1 13 , 138 , 14 1,144
,145
,
155,159
,316
Nanoor . 16 .
20 1.
Nawab 19, 53 .
Narayan 38 .
NarayanpurNandanacharya . 141 .
Naimi sharanya . . 75 .
Navadwip . . 82,90 , 1 19.
Nanda . 75 , 143, 202.
t as .
Ol denburg . 398 .
Old Testamen t . . 105 .
Murari 59,
Mukhara . . 298 .
Mugdha 298 .
Muchi
Muradpur 350 .
Mudra R ak shasa .
Musalmans
Ori ssa 44, 52, 54, 56 , 90 , 101 ,
184 , 210 , 213 , 219,261
,291 ,
393 .
Narayan i 90 , 109 .
Narendra 290 .
Nai ha t i 244.
N aradiya Puran 279.
Narottam D as 324 , 326 .
Narottam 286 .
NagdaNanak 40 1 .
345 .
Neris .284 .
Nera-Neris 284,317 , 3 18 , 335 .
Nepa l136 .
317 .
N imtree 255 .
N i tyananda 36,
97 , 125 ,144
, 1 50 , 15 1 , 154 , 159, 165 , 173 ,189
,190
,239, 240 , 243 , 245 , 246,
283 , 284—287 . 291 , 336.
N i lambar C hakrabarty 103,
N imai 109—136. 147 , 150 , 138
305 .
N i tyananda D as 98 .
N imai Pand i t 1 16 , 1 17 , 120 121 ,
N i tai Ghosh . 342.
North Bengal .9,17 , 18 .
NolakNoyka KhandaNon -A ryan . 370 .
North Western Provinces 392.
Nrishi nghananda 217 .
Nrishingha
Panna Nara7 .
Pargana 145.
P admavati
Parvati 9. 41 .
P abanaduta 8 .
Pal K ings 38 .
293 , 295 367 .
Pada Kalpataru 15 .
P anchanan
Pand i tPadmanava
258 .
Pathan 53 , 54 .
Pal
Papahara . 178 .
Parameswar D as
Pand i t Ganga D as
Pand i tP ardanga
Pand i t .32, 103 , 135 , 137 , 15 1 , 234P anchahat i 200.
Pan das 325 .
Pathan NawabPanchatattyakhyan 231 .
P uramananda
256.
P akkhas
Padmakot 300 .
Pand i t Khirodchandra Goswam i 336 .
Parari . 342.
350 .
Paga lPargana I ta
Parvaticharan 396.
Patra 385 , 386 .
Patvis .349.
Quakers . . 306 .
197 . 28 ,29, 40 , 68 , 90 , 157 ,
21 1 . 3 10 , 3 12, 3 13-3 16 , 323 , 325 , 372,R atnagarha 394 . 397 .
Rangpore R aja 193,209, 210 , 234, 235 , 2
Raghunath D as 20,
25, 35
Pedo 187 .
PersianP i ngal
’
s Prakri t Grammar 293 .
P in da 128 , 129 .
P iri li 90 .
P i tri Matri 26 .
P irul la 52
P ichi lda 218 .
63 , 202.
P ragalvas
Prince Lousen 5 .
Pradyumna 38 .
Prahlad 137 .
Pratap Rudra 52,145
,184 , 185 , 1
2 10 , 221, 234 , 235 , 236 , 246 , 247 .
Prabhu JagatbandhuPremabi lasa 246 , 252.
P rakasananda 225,230
,231 , 232, 2
Prakri tPrachyavi dyamaharnava NagendnathP rembhakt i C handrika 324
,326 .
Pranam 362, 365 .
Premadas . . 97 .
Prema 37 1 . 372.
Prakri ti cP ravartaka 384
,385 .
P unuruktabadbhasa . 121 .
Puri 7 , 8 , 12, 44 , 60 , 83 , 84 , 96 , 1
176 , 17 8 , 180 , 184 , 186 , 188 -190 , 1
2
221 , 223 , 224 , 233 ,234 ,
235 , 237 , 2
239, 240 , 243 , 244, 245 , 248 , 253 , 2
257 , 260 , 280 , 28 1 , 286 , 304, 352.
Purushottama 38 , 125.
P undarik Vidya N i dhi 44,49.
PuriPurba RagaP uran s 366 .
P uSpostava 370 .
4 14 INDEX
Radhakrlshna 314,315 ,
Ramananda 36 , 205 , 277 , 338 .
R amanandaRamanuja 37 .
R aghu 216
Ram 37 , 84 , 86 . 174 , 220 ,Ram D as 37 , 212 .
Ram R a i . 184,186 , 210 , 218 , 235, 238 ,
R aj a Pratap R udra . 52,178 , 184 , 213 ,
217 , 218 ,257 , 265
Ramchandra Khan 52, 177 , 178 .
R amkel i 178 , 218 , 234 .
R amkrishna Paramahmsa
Ramkrishna . 62,296 .
R aghunath 67 , 153 , 154 , 214 , 215 .
R avana 83.
R akshasa 8 4 .
R aj endranath R ay .62.
R ajaRaghunandanRaghunath Siromam 100 .
R ai SekharR aj shahi 285 .
R aj put .228 .
Raghab Pand i t 233 .
Saiv i sm 2. Sakhya 226,228 . 229,
Sandhya 0 45,335
,389, 403 . 326 , 328 , 329, 330 , 33 1 .
Sarbat . 187 .
San t ipur .49,
173 , 176 , 178 ,Saptagram . 214 ,
279 .
179 , 284 , 350 . Saka . 46,60 , 103 , 109 , 134
,137 ,
Sahi tya 312. 211 , 213 , 259, 262, 263.
Sandhi ,t i rtha . . 202. Sadhu 197 , 204 , 211 , 249, 36 1 ,
Sabaya Dharma . 335 , 363,364
,365
,366
,367 .
Sanyasis . 12, 13 . 86,104
,105 , 106 . Sank1rtan . . 56 ,
162, 164 , 165 , 167 , Sanatan . 56 , 79 , 128,
1 7 1 , 173 , 197 , 237 , 249, 254 , 287 , 28 8
202, 205, 209, 218 . 3 18 ,320
, 324 ,
228 , 23 1 , 234 , 242, 275 , 282. 304 , 325 . Sachi .63 , 7 5 . 84 , 106 , 109, 1 12,San skri t 44
,57 ,
104,1 13 , 1 14 , 1 17 , 125 , 1 30 , 132, 204, Sat1rmata . . 66 .
Satyabai . 195 .
Sanyasa . 70 , 92,
Sarbabhaum , . 66,179, 180 , 246 , 29 1 , 108
,161 , 168 , 17 0 , 17 1 , 18 1 , 191
293 .21 1
,245 , 275 , 302, 304 , 3 12.
Samsudd in I I 23 . Sarupa Damodar . .216 .
Samsud d in Bhengara 22. Sanchpan i . 75
Sachi Dev i 99 ,102. 104 , 105, 106 , Sakutabhanj ana 76 .
122, 123 , 126 , 128,132, 161 , 162, 165 , Sarpuria 187 .
166 , 167 . 173 , 233 . Sashi n i ukhi 96 , 167 .
Sani . . 9 , 26 Sadananda Puri . 202.
Saraswat i 26 . Sankararanga
R amananda Ray 246 , 291,
R athajat1 aRamnabam i 289
R asa
R aja of P akkapall i .286 .
R adhamohan 3 16
R adha songs 3 16 .
R amayan . . 338 .
R am saran P al . 342.
R amabal lavi 346 , 390 .
R adha-tan tra . 372 .
R ai -Kanu 372.
R ai Sahib Nagendrana th Vasu 39
Rabindranath 395 .
R amval labhins 40 1.
R emuna 44 .
R em it i 1 46 .
R ed R iver, Ohio 305
Rhys D evid 398 .
R ishi 75 , 130 .
R issa -C ul laR OW l le 250 .
R upanarayan 15 .
R upa 42, 219 , 220 , 222, 254
,
291,292
,294
,297 , 298 , 3 18 , 337
R upa Goswam i 44 .
R udrapati 209
4 16 INDEX
Tan tric ism . . 6 , 1 1 .
Tan tricks
Tapan 230 .
Tapt i
Tarpan 349.
Telegu 120 ,295 , 392.
Te legusTennyson 7 1 .
T i be l 120 .
'
1‘
1lakdasi 350
T i rodhan 260 , 263 ,264
Tirtharam . 194 , 195 , 196 ,Ti thi 262 263 , 264 .
Tol 1 18 , 122,
Uddharan 292.
Udisi
U la 34 1 .
U l luka
U ndestood 267 , 305 , 306 , 307 374
Upan ishads 226 , 366.
Vaidya 225 .
Vai snava 16 , 1 7 , 23 , 24 , 27 , 29 , 30,
40 , 4 1 , 45 ,47 , 48 , 60 , 7 7 , 78 , 79, 80 ,
8 1 , 85 , 109, 1 16 , 125 , 133 , 135 . 138 ,
143 , 145 , 146 , 151 , 16 1 , 172, 196 , 203
204,216 , 300 , 305 , 307 , 308 , 309 ,
9 1 1
225 , 227 , 229,236 ,
264 , 270 ,273 , 279 , 283 , 28 5 ,
286 28 7 , 288 , 389 ,290 , 296 .
Vai shnab goswam i s
Vaishnava gurus 3 18 377 .
Va ishnava JurisprudenceVaishnav i sm 6 , 3 1 , 37 , 46 , 50 , 95 , 142,
287 , 325 , 334 , 373 , 374 , 393 , 399 .
Valadev BhattacharyaVa l i . 130 .
Valmik i 310 .
Vamana 39.
Varouch 200 .
Vashu Derv 38 , 54 , 844 , 2 12.
Vashudev-SarbabhaumVashughosh 165 .
UpendraUpendra Misra 106
,126 .
Upper I nd ia 223 , 224, 234 ,
295 .
Urbashi 84 .
U i iya 236 , 239, 246 , 247 .
Uriya Raja .218 .
136,163
,233, 294 .
Tole 75 .
Trichinopol i 202.
Trinabarta 34 .
Taipadi 12.
Tripatra
Tri tya Pruahar 263 .
Trivancorc 209 .
Tukaram 2 11 .
Tulsi 53 , 58 , 80 , 132, 207 , 208 , 28 !
Tunde tanduban i e tc . 238,297 ,
Typiea! Sebct ions from o ld Ben
L i terature 353 , 3 19 .
Vatsalya 326,329. 330 , 33 1 .
Vedan ta Phi l osophy . 182, 294 3 1
Vedas 388 .
Ved ic age 269 .
Ved ic A ryansVed ic Brahm in 10 1
Ve toria 23 .
V idyapati 16, 1 7 , 23
,69 ,
145 , 266 , 295 ,V i dyabachaspat i 54 .
Vidya NagarV idyasagar . 1 15
, 1 18 , 294 .
V idyonmadtarangin i 335 .
Vi surad 54 .
Vi shnu 37 , 83 , S4 , 86 , 88 ,128 , 130 , 132, 156 , 194 , 203 , 213 .
Vi shnu priyaVisnu Pund i t 1 13 .
V i tadra 125
V ivarta-V i las 337 .
Von l i eor
Vrindaban 237 . 386 .
Vrind groves 33,
42,43 , 57 ,
323 , 377 , 386 38 5 .
Vyas 323 .
INDEX
Ward . .338 .
Weslyan R ev ival 305 .
6,34 1
, 359, 360 .
5, 97 .
Z oroaster 6 1 .
W
Western A sia 21 .
Western Benga l
4 10 OPI NI ONS
SYLVA I N LEV I ( Pari s) I cann ot give you praises enough—yourwork i s a. C hm taman i—a R atnakara . No book about I nd ia wou ld Icompare wi th yours Never did I find such a real istic sense of l i terature Pund i t and Peasan t , Yogi and R aja ,
m ix together i n a Shakespearian way on the stage you have bu i l t up .
”
BA RTH (Pam'
s)—“I can approach your book as a learner, not
as a judge .
”
C . H . TAWNEY Your work shows vast research and much
general cu l ture .
”
VI NC ENT SMITH A work of profoun d learn ing and high value .
F . W. THOMA S C haracterised by exten sive erud i tion and i ndependen t research .
”
E . J . R A PSON I l ooked through i t w i th great in terest and
great adm irati on for the knowledge and research t o which i t bearswi tness .
”
F H . SKR INE Monumen ta l work— I have been revel l ing in thebook which taught me much of which I was ignoran t .
”
E . B . H A VELL Most valuable book which every A nglo- I ndianshould read. I congratulate you most hearti ly on your very adm irableEngl ish and perfect lucidi ty of style .
”
D . C . P HI LLOT I can we l l un derstan d the en thusiasm wi thwhich the work was recei ved by scholars, for even to men un acquain tedwi th your language , i t cannot fai l to be a source of great in terest andprofi t . ”L . D . BA RNETT I congratu late you on having accompl ished such
an adm irable work .
G . HULTZ UH Mr. Sen’
s valuable work on Benga l i l i terature , asubj ect hi therto un fami l iar to me
,which I am now read ing wi th great
in terest .J . F . BLUMHA RDT A n ex treme ly we l l-wri tten and scholarly
product ion , exhaustive in i ts weal th of materials and of immense value .
T. W . RHYS DA VI DS I t i s a most in teresting and importan twork and reflects great cred i t on your industry and research.
JULES BLOC H ( Pari s) Your book I find an adm irable one and
which i s the on l y one of i ts ki nd in the whole of I nd ia.
”
WI LLI A M ROTHENSTE IN I found the book surprisingly ful l ofsuggest ive in format ion . I t he l d me bound from beginn ing to end, insp i te of my absolute i gnorance of the language of which you wri tewi th obv i ously profound scholarship .
EMI LE SENA RT (Pari s)—“I have gone through your book wi th
l ive ly in terest and i t appears to me to do the highest cred i t to yourlearning and me thod of work ing .
HENRY VA N DYKE—( U. S. A . ) Your instructive pages whichare fu l l of new suggest ion s in regard to the richness and i nterest o f theBengal i Language and L i terature .
”
0 . T. WI NC HESTER —( U. S. A . ) A work of profound learn ingon a theme which demands the atten tion of all Western scholars.
”
From a long rev i ew in the TIMES L I TERA RY SUP PLEMENT,
London , June 20 , 1912 I n hi s narration , as becomes one who i s the
sou l of scholarly candour, he tel ls those , who can read him wi th
OPI N IONS 411
sympathy and imagination more about the H indu mind and i ts atti tudetowards l ife than we can gather from 50 volumes of impressi ons of
trave l by Europeans. Loti ’s p icturesque accoun t of the ri tes practi sedin Travancore temples, and even M . C hevri l lon
’
s syn thesi s of muchbrowsing in H indu Scriptures
,seem fain t records by the si de of thi s
unassuming tale of Hindu li terature—Mr. Sen may wel l be proud of
the lasting monumen t he has erected to the li terature of hi s nati veBengal
From a long review in the A THENE UM,March
,16 , 1912 Mr.
Sen may justly congratul ate himse lf on the fact that in the m i ddle age
he has done more for the hi story of hi s nati ona l language and li teraturethan any other wri ter of his own or in deed any time .
”
From a long review in the SPEC TA TOR , June 12,1912 A book
of extraordinary in terest to those who would make an impartial studyof the Bengal i men tal ity and character—a work which reflects theutmost cred i t on the can dour
,industry and learn ing of i ts author.
I n i ts k in d his book i s a masterpi ece—modest , learned , thorough and
sympathetic. Perhaps no other man l i ving has the learn ing and happyin dustry for the task he has successful ly accompl i shed .
”
From a rev iew by MR . H . BEVER I DGE in the R oyal A siaticSociety ’
s Journa l,Jan . , 1912 I t i s a very fu l l and in teresting accoun t
of the deve lopmen t of the Benga li Li terature H e has a power ofp icturesque wri ting . .hi s descri pti on s are Often e loquen t .From a l Ong rev iew by S. K . R A TC L I FFE in
“I ndia
,Lon don ,
March 15,1912 There i s no more competen t authori ty on the subject
than Mr. D i neschandra Sen . The great va lue of the book i s in i ts
ful l and fresh treatmen t of the pre-Engl ish era and for thi s i t wou ldbe di fficul t to give i ts au thor too high praise .
From a l ong revi ew by H . KERN in the B ij dragen or the R oyal
I nstitute for Too l ( tran slated by D r . Kern himsel f ) Frui t of investigation carri ed through many years . .highly in teresting book . . the
rev iewer has all to adm ire in the pages of the work, n othi ng to cri ticise ,for his whole knowledge i s derived from i t .
From a review by D R . OLDENBERG in the Frankfwrter Z ei tung,December 3 , 191 1 ( tran slated by the late D r. Thibau t) I t i s an
importan t supplemen tat ion of the hi story of modern San skri t Li terature . The accoun t of C hai tanya’
s influence on the poetical li teratureof Bengal con tributes one of the most bri l l ian t secti ons of the work .
"
From a rev iew in DEUTSC HE RUND SC HA N , A pri l , 1912 The
picture which thi s learned Bengal i has pain ted for us wi th lov ing care
of the li terature of hi s native lan d deserves to be received wi th attentive and gratefu l respect .”
From a rev iew in LU Z A C’
S OR I ENTA L L I ST, Lon don , May-June ,1912 A work of i nestimable value , ful l of in teresting in formati on ,
c on tain ing comple te accoun t of the wri tings of Benga l i au thors fromthe earliest time “ . I t w i l l undoubtedly find a place in every Ori en ta lLi brary as being the most complete and re liable standard work on the
Bengali Language and Li terature .
”
From a revi ew in the IND I A N MA GA Z I NE , London ,A ugust , 1912
For Mr. Sen’
s erud i ti on , hi s sturdy patri ot ism ,hi s instructive percep
t i on of the finer qual i ties in Bengal i l i fe and l i terature , the reader ofhis book must have a profound respect i f he i s to understand whatmodern Bengal i s.”
419 OPI NI ONS
From a l ong rev iew in the MA DR A SMA I L ,May 9 , 1912
—“A survey
of the evolution of the Bengal i le tters by a studen t so competen t , soexcept ional ly learned , can hard ly fai l to be an importan t ev en t i n theworl d of cri t icism.
From a l ong review i n the P I ONEER ,May 5 , 1912 Mr. Sen is a
typ ical studen t such as was common in med iaeval Europe—a l over oflearning for learn ing’
s sake . . He mus t be a poor judge of characterswho can ri se from a perusal of Mr. Sen
’
s pages wi thout a real respec tand l ik ing for the wri ter for his sinceri ty , his i ndustry , his en thusiasmi n the cause of learn ing .
From a revi ew in ENGLI SHMA N ,A pri l 23 , 19 12 Onl y one who
has completely i dent ified himse l f wi th the sub j ect cou l d have masteredi t so wel l as the author of this imposi ng book .
From a review i n the EMP I RE , A ugust 3 1 , 1918 A s a book of
reference Mr. Son’
s work wi l l be foun d i nvaluable and he i s to becongratu lated on the resu l t of hi s labours I t may we l l be sai d thathe has proved what an E ngl ish en thusiast once sai d that Bengal iun i tes the mel l ifluousness of I tal ian wi th the power possessed byGerman for ren dering complex i deas .
”
From a rev iew in the I ND I A N A NTIQUA RY ,December, 1912, by
F . G . PA RG I TER : Thi s book i s the outcome of great research and
study,on which the author deserves the warmest prai se . H e has
explained the l i terature and the subjects treated in i t w i th such
fu lness and i n such detai l as to make the whole plai n to any reader.
The folk -l i terature , the structure and style of the language , metreand rhyme , and many m isce l laneous poin ts are d iscussed in valuabl en otes. The tone is calm and the judgmen ts appear to be gen eral l yfair
B A N GA SA H I TY A . P A R I C H A Y A .
OR
TYP I C A L SELEC TI ONS FROM OLD
BENGA L I L I TERA TURE
B Y
R ai Sahi b D i neschandra S en , B A .
2 vols, pp. 1914 , R oyal 8 vo , wi th an I n troducti on in Eng l ish runn ingover 99 pages, publ ished by the Un iversi ty of C alcutta.
(Wi th 10 coloured i l lustra ti ons. Pri ce Rs.
SI R GEORGE GRI ER SON I nvaluable work That 1 have yetread through i ts 1900 pages I do not pre tend , but what I have readhas fi l led me wi th admiration for the industry and learn ing d i spla y ed .
I t i s a worthy sequel to your monumen ta l H i story of Bengal i Li terature , and of 1t we may safe ly say fim s corone t Opus. How I wi sh
that a simi lar work coul d be compi led for other I nd ian languages,special ly for H ind i .”
E . B HA VELL Two monumen tal volumes from Old Bengal iL i terature . A s I am not a Bengal i scholar, i t i s impossible for me toappreciate at their ful l value the splend id resul ts of your scholarshipand research
,but I have en j oyed read ing your lumin ous and most
instructive in troducti on which gives a clear insight in to the subject .
4 14 OPI NI ONS
big book i s exce l len t , i ts prin t ing i s fi ne , an d i t i s embe l l ished wi thwe l l-executed reproducti ons in colour of some old pain t ings. I t hasa lso a cop ious index .
The
VA ISNA VA LITERA TURE OF MED IAEVA L BENGA L
[Being lectures del ivered as Reader to the Univers i ty ofC alcutta ]
B Y
RA I SA HI B D I NESH C HA NDR A SEN,B . A .
D emy 8vo. 2 57 pages
W I TH A P REFA C E BY
J . D . A NDE RSON, (Retired)
Price R s. 2 on ly
S I R GEORGE GR I ERSON .—Very valuable book . . I am read ing
it wi th the greatest in terest and am learn ing much from i t.
W ILL I A M ROTHENSTEI N .
— I was del ighted w i th your book ,I cannot te l l you how touched I am to be rem inded of tha t side of
your be loved coun try which appea ls to me m ost - a side of which Iwas able to perce ive something during my own too short v isi t to I n d ia .
I n the faces of the best of your coun trymen I was able to see thatspiri t of which you wri te so charmin g ly in your book . I am able torecal l these faces and figures as i f they were before m e . I hear the
ti nkle of the temple-be l ls al ong the gha ts Of Benares, the voices ofthe women as they sing their sacre l so ngs crossing the noble ri ver i nthe boats at sunset and I si t once more w i th the austere Sanyasin
friends I shal l n ever, 1 fear, see more . But though I shal l not l ookupon the face of I nd ia again ,
the v i sion I had of i t wi l l fi l l my eyesthrough l i fe , and the l ove I fee l for your coun try w i l l remain to enri ch
my own v i sion of l i fe , so long as I am capable of usi ng i t . Though Ican on ly read you in E ngl ish ,
the sp iri t in whi ch you wri te i s to m e so
true an I nd ian sp iri t,that i t shines through our own id i om
,and carries
me , I said before , straight to the banks of your sacred rivers, to thebathing tanks and whi te shrine and temples of your we l l rememberedv i l lages and tanks . So on ce more I sen d you my thanks for the magic
carpe t you sen t me,upon which my sou l can return to your dear land .
May the songs of which you wri te remain to fi l l this land wi th the irfragrance you wi l l have use of them , i n the years before you , as we
have n eed of al l that i s best in the songs of our own seers in the darkwaters through whi ch we are steering.
The Vai snava L i terature of Med iaeva l Benga l . By Rai Sahi bD ineschandra Sen . ( C alcutta - The Un iversi ty . )
Though the general isation that al l H indus not bel onging to modernreform movemen ts are Saivas or Vaisnavas i s much too wide
,there
are the two main d iv isi on s in the bew1ldering mass of sects which
make up the of H indus,and at many poin ts they overlap
each other. The at tempts made in the 190 1 C ensus to collect i nforma
t ion regard ing sects led to such un sat1sfactory and partia l resu l ts thatthey were no t repeated i n the last decen n i al enumeration But i t i s
unquest ionable tha t the Va i snavas—the worshippers of Kri shna—are
dom i nan t in Bengal , owing to the great success of the reformed cul testabi i shed by C hai tanya, a contemporary of Mart in Luther . The
OPI NI ONS 4 ] 5
doctrine of Bhakti or re l igious devoti on , which he taught sti l l flourishesin Benga l , and the four lectures of the R eader to the Un i versi ty of
C alcutta in Bengali here reproduced provide an instructive gu i de to i ts
expressi on in the l i terature of the coun try during the si xteen th and
seven teen th cen turies. The first part Of the book i s devoted to the
early period of Vai snava l i terature , dating from the e leven th cen tury.
The Rai Sahi b i s fi l led wi th a m ost patriot ic love Of hi s nati on and
its li terature,and has don e more than any con temporary coun tryman
to widen our kn owledge of them . H i s bu lky volume record ing the
hi story of Bengali Language and L i terature from the earliest times tothe m iddle of the n ine teen th cen tury i s accepted by Ori en talists as the
most cOmplete and authori tati ve work on the subj ect.There i s refreshing ingenuousness in his claim , my i ndustry has
been great ,” and the forbearing indulgence for which he asks if hehas fai led from any lack of powers
, wi l l read i ly be gran ted in v iew Ofthe en thusiasm for hi s snbject which somewhat narrows the stri ct lycri ti ca l value of hi s estimates , but does not impair the sustained human
in terest of the book .
C hai tanya c learly taught , as these pages show,that the Kri shna O f
the Mahabharata, the grea t chieftain and al ly of the Pan dava brothers,was not the Kri shna of Brindaban . The latter, said the reformer, toRupa, the author of those masterpieces of Sanskri t drama
,the Vi dagdha
Madhava and the Lal i ta Madhava,was love ’
s very sel f and an embodi
men t of swee tness and the more materia l glori es of Mathura shou l dnot be confused wi th the spiri tua l conquests of Brindaban . The
amours of Kri shna wi th Radha and the m i lkmai ds of Brin daban are
staple themes of the l i terature associated wi th the worshi p of the God
of the seductive flute . But Mr. Sen repeatedly insi sts that the l ove discussed in the l i terature he has so c lose l y stud ied is spiri tual and mysti c
,
al though usual ly presen ted in sen suous garb . C ha i tanya who had frequen t ecstasies of spiri tual joy Rupa, who classi fied the emoti ons ofl ove i n 360 groups and the other authors whose careers are here tracedwere herm i ts of unspotted l i fe and rel igious devotion . The old passi onate desi re for un i on which they taught i s st i l l dom i nan t in modernBengal i l i terature not d irectly Vai snava in import . A s Mr. J. D . A nderson poin ts out in hi s preface , the influence of C hai tanya ’
s teaching maybe de tected in the mystica l verses of Tagore .
From a long review i n the Times L i terary Supplemen t,26th A pri l
,
1918
This del ightfu l and in teresti ng l i ttle book is the outcome of a
seri es of lectures supplemen t ing the learned d i scourses which Mr. Sen
made the material of hi s Bai snava L i terature Of Med iaeval Bengal ”reviewed by us on A ugust 2, 1917 .
I t i s an au thentic record of the rel igious em otion and thought ofthat won derful lan d of Benga l whi ch few of i ts Western ru lers
,We sus
peot , have rightly comprehended,no t from lack Of fri end ly sympathy
but simply from wan t of preci sely what Mr. Sen be tter than any one
l iving ,better than Sir R abi ndranath Tagore himsel f, can supply .
I t i s indeed , no easy matter for a Western Protestan t to comprehend ,save by friendshi p and sympathy w i th just such a pious H in du as Mr.
Sen ,what i s the doctrin e of an i stadet ata . a
“ favouri te de i ty of
H indu pi ous adorati on . I n hi s nat ive tongue Mr. Sen has wri tten charm
ing li ttle books, based on an ci en t legen ds, whi ch bring us very naer
the heart of thi s simple mystery , ak in ,we suppose , to the cul t of parti
cnlar sain ts in C athol ic coun tries. Such for instance , is his charming
4 16 OPI NI ONS
tale of Sati , the A ryan spouse of the rough Himalayan ascetic GodSiva . The tale is ded icated
,i n words of del ightfu l l y cand id respect
and affection , to the devoted and l oving wives Of Benga l , whose v irtuesas wives and mothers are the admirat ion of al l who know the ir coun try .
Your p ious Va i snava Jan, wi thout any hes i tati on or difli culty ,
transferhis thoughts from the symbol ica l amorism of Krishna to that otherstrange creation - legend of H im of the B lue Throat who
,to save God ’
s
creatures, swal l owed the poi son cast up at the C hurn ing of the Oceanand bears the mystic stigma to this day . We l l , we have our trad i ti ons,legends, mysteries , and as Miss Underhi l l and others te l l us
, our ownecstat ic mystics, who find such in effable j oy in loving God as
,our
H indu friends tel l us, the d iv ine Radha experienced in her swee t surrender to the inspired wooing of Krishna . The importan t thing for us ,
as studen ts of l i fe and l i terature is to n ote how these old communalbel iefs i nfluence and deve lop that wonderfu l record of human thoughtand emotion wrought for us by the imaginat i ve wri ters of verse and
prose,the patien t artists of the pen .
When al l i s said,there remain s the O ld indefinable charm which
attaches to al l that D ines C handra Sen wri tes , whe ther in Engl i sh or
hi s native Benga l i . I n his book breathe a nat ive candour and p ie tywhich somehow remind us of the classica l wri ters fam i l iar to our boyhood . I n tru th ,
he i s a belated con temporary of, say, Plutarch, anda ttacks hi s b iographica l task in much the same sp iri t. We hope hislatest book wi l l be W i dely (and sympathe t ica l ly ) read .
”
J D . A nderson ,E sq .
—re t i red Professor, C ambridge Un iver
si ty— 1 have read more than hal f of i t . I propose to send wi th i t, if
circumstances leave me the courage to wri te i t,a Short Preface (which
I hope you w i l l read w i th pleasure even i f i ou do not think i t worthpub l i cati on ) explain ing why ,
in the judgmen t of a very o ld studen tof al l your works
,your book Shoul d be read not on ly in C a lcut ta
,but
i n London and Paris, and Oxford and C ambridge I have read i t and
am read ing i t wi th great de l ight and pro fi t and very real sympathy.
Think how great must be the charm of your topic and your treatmen twhen in this awful year of an x i e ty and sorrow
,the read i ng of your
de l ightfu l MS . has gi ven me rest and refreshmen t in a time when everypost
,every knock at the door
,may bring us sorrow.
I wri te thi s in a fran t ic hurry the mai l goes to-day—in order to
go back to your most in terest ing and fascinat ing pages.
HI STORY OF THE BENGA L I LA NGU A GE A ND L ITE RA TUREE xtract from a l ong rev iew by Sylvai n Lev i ( Paris) in the Revue
C ri tique Jan . 1915 — ( translated for the Bengalee) .
“One cann ot prai se too highly the work Of Mr. Sen . A profound
and original erud i tion has been associated W i th a v ivi d imaginat ion .
The works whi ch he analyses are brought back t o l i fe wi th the con
sciousness of the origi na l authors , wi th the movemen t of the mu l ti tudeswho patron ised them and W i th the landscape which encircled them .
The hi storian ,though re l y ing on his documen ts
,has the temperamen t
of an ep ic poe t . H e has l i kewise inheri ted the lyrical gen ius O f hisrace . H is en thusiast ic sympathy v ibrates through al l his descriptions.
C onv inced as every H indu i s of the superi ori ty of the Brahman ic
c iv i l i zat ion ,he exal ts i ts gl ories and pa l liates i ts shortcom ings, i f he
does not approve of them he wou ld e xcuse them H e tries to be j ustto Buddhism and I slam in the mai n he i s gratefu l to them for theircon tributi on t o the mak ing Of I nd ia . He prai ses wi th el oquen t ardourthe early English missionaries Of C hristian i ty .
418 OP IN I ONS
I cann ot Speak to you i n detai l of your chapters on the charac
teristics of the Bengal i Ramayan as and on Tul sidas , 1 had on ly to learnfrom what you say and than k you for he l p ing me and m any others to
get a l i ttle of that d irect understand i ng and fee l i ng of the l i terary and
emot iona l value of those poems i n genera l and K ri tt ivas in part icu lar.
I hope your devot i on to Benga l i Li t e i ature W i l l be rewarded by a
growing popu lari ty of that l i terature i n I nd ia and i n Europe and a lso
that young scholars W i l l fol low your example and vour d irection i n
con tinuing your stud ies, l i terary and phi lol og icalSI R GEORGE GR I E RSON I must wri te to thank you for your
two va lued gi fts of the“ Folk L i terature of Be nga l ” and The Bengal i
Ramayanas .
”I del ayed acknow ledg i ng them t i l l I had read them
through . I have been great ly i n terested by both, and owe you a deb tof grat i tude for the immen se amoun t of importan t i nformat ion con
tained in them .
I add to thi s letter a few n otes which the perusal of your bookshas suggested to me . Perhaps you wi l l fi nd them useful
I hope that you w i l l be spared to us to wri te many more such
booksf’
D R . WI LL I A M C ROOKE ,C . I E ,
ED I TOR OF FOLK LORE I
have read them (“ Folk L i terature of Benga l ” and The Bengal i Rama
yan as wi th much in terest They seem to me to be a very valuablecon tribution to the study of tae rel igi on and fol k -l ore of Bengal . I
congratu late you on the success of your werk and I shal l be glad to
receive cop i es of any other work whi ch you may wri te on the same
subjectsH . BEVERI DGE Of the two book s I must say that I l ike best
the Bengal i R ani ayanas . Your book on Ben gal i folk lore i s alsovaluable ”
( from a letter of 12 pages con tain ing a cri tical rev iew of
the two books) .FROM THE TI MES LI TERA RY SUPPLEMENT ,
A PR I L 7 , 1921 .
The Bengal i Ramayanas ” by R ai Saheb D inesh C handra Sen
( publ i shed by the Un iversi ty of C a lcutta) .
The I n dian Ep ics deserve c loser study than they have hi thertorece ived a t the hand s of the average Engl i shm en of cul tur
e A partfrom the in terest of the main themes
, the weal th of imagery and the
beauty of many of the ep i sodes,they are storehouses of in format ion
upon the anci en t l i fe of I nd ia and a key to the origin of custom s
which sti l l l ive. Moreover they Show many cu i ious afii n i t ies t o Greekl i terature which suggest the ex i stence of legends comm on to bothcoun t i ies. The R ing of Polycrates i s reproduced i n other conditio i i s in
the Sakun tala ”the A lcest is has i ts counterpart in the story of Sav i tri
,
and the chie f of Pan davas descends i n to hel l i n the manner of Odysseusthough on a nobler errand .
The main them e of these lectures i s the tran sformat ion of the old
m aj estic San skri t epi c as i t cam e from the hands of Valm ik i to them ore fam i l iar and homely style of the modern B engal i verS i on s The
R amayana ,we are told
,i s a protest agai n st Buddhist monastic isin
,the
glorificat ion of the domest ic v irtues , proclaim i ng that there i s no needto look for salvat ion outside the home The Bergal i version s , whichreduc ing the grandeur of the he i oi c charactei s , to the leve l of ordinarymortals, bring the epic wi thin the reach of the humblest peasan tthey have the ir own v irtues
,j ust as the simple narrat ive of the Gospels
has i ts own charm, though i t be d ifferen t in k ind from that of I saiah’
s
OP INI ONS 419
majestic cadences . Thus in the Sanskri t poem Kaucalya Rama’s
mother i s sacrificing to F ire when she hears of her son ’
s ex i le she doesnot fl inch, but con tinues the sacrifice in the Spiri t of Greek tragedy ,merely a l tering the character of her prayer. I n the Bengal i versi onShe becomes a woman , giving vent to lamen tations
, such as one hears
every day in modern I n d ia. I n the N ibelungen l ied oue sees the same
kin d of t i an sformation from the Old Norse sagas to the atmosphere of
med iaeval chivalry .
The author approaches hi s subject in that sp iri t of reverence whichis the due of a ll great li terature , and to him
,Valmik i ’s R amayana i s
the greatest l i terature in the world . The fact does not blun t his cri tica lfacul ty ; rather does i t Sharpen i t
,for
,as he says i n the preface ,
hi storica l research and the truths to whi ch i t leads do not in terferewi th fai th,
n ei ther do they stand in the way of admiration . H e sees
more in the Ramayana than the mere col lection of legends into a
Sanskri t masterpi ece from whi ch various versions have been madefrom t ime to t ime . H e Shows us how,
as the cen turies proceeded ,each successive version was influenced by the sp iri t of the age , how
the story became adapted to the purposes of re llgi us propaganda, howin the in terests of the Vai snaba cul t the hero R ama became the d iv ineavatar of Vishnu
, even at the ri sk of absurd si tuati ons. H e takes usthrough the age of the Sak ti influence
,of Ramananda
’
s phi losophy and
i ts revol t again st Mahomedan i con oc lasm,of the flippan t immoral i ty
of the e ighteen th cen tury .
"These Bengal i R amayanas,” he says
,
“have thus qui te an encyclopaedi c character
,compri sing , along wi th
the story of Rama,curren t theologi es, folk -tales and the poetry of
rural Benga l of the age when they were composed . To him the
R amayan i s a yel l ow primrose,but i t i s something m ore ,
To the studen t of folk- l ore these lectures are to be recommended as anearnest and lov ing study of a fascinati ng subj ee . .
From the R evi sta Trimestrale di studi F i losofici e Rel igiosiR ai Bahadur D in esh The U I
l
i ivert
si ty{Sf
%alcutta co
gtinues
byvi th
chandra Sen’
s Folk everyiacri y
,‘ .
e ne seri es o i ts pu ica
L i terature Of Bengal . t ion s t.
us test i fy ing to the high sci en t ific
preparat ion ( i ssu ing out ) of those in digen ousteachers. This volume devoted to the popular tales of Benga l a lsoconsti tutes a con tribution of the first rank to such a subject . The
tracing of the Hi st ory of the Bengal i language an d l i terature in thisUn iversi ty i s one of the most we l l deserved stud ies of Benga l . To
i t is due , i n fact, the monum en tal and now classical H istory of the
Bengali Language and Li terature ( l 912) ;—inwhi ch,so far as our studies
go , we value most the accurate estimate of the i nfluen ce of C hai tanyaon that l i terature—accompan i ed by the gran d Bengal i A n thologyBanga Sahi tya Parichaya, 1914 , and then above al l the pleasing and
erudi te researches on Vai shnab l i terature and the connected religiousreform of C hai tanya .
A worl d whol ly legendary dep icted wi th the home l y tenderness inmost secluded local i ty of Bengal and hal f conceived in the Buddhisticepoch wi th de l icate phan tasy and fondness ; the world in which Rabindranath Tagore u l timately attained hi s fu l l growth i s rev i ved wi th everyseducti on of art in the lum in ous pages of thi s beau ti fu l book . The
author came i n touch wi th thi s in his first days of youth when he was
a vi l lage teacher in East Bengal and he n ow wi shes to reveal i t bygathering together the most sec luded spi ri t and also the legendcollected in four del ici ous volumes of D . R . Mazumdar, yet to betranslated .
420 OPIN I ONS
A Sp iri t of renunc ia t i on i n the devot ion of wives in the loveof tender and sorrowful lad i es, in eagerness for pat ien t sacrifice carry us
back ,.i s we have sa i d
,to the Buddhi st ic epoch of Bengal i t rises as an
i deal of l i fe and i s transm i tted to future generati on s traversed by theMussa lman i fa i th which a lso i s pervaded by so many Buddhist ice lemen ts M alancha
,the subl ime female incarnation of such an idea l
whose legend i s trans lated i n the last pages of this volume—the Ladywhol ly Sp ir i tual , a soul hero ic i n i ts devoted renunciat io n
,mi stress of
her body who reveals in herse l f qua l i t i es that essen t ial ly bel ong to idea ,
a c rea ture of the 5 m l , sh aped by the asp ira t ion to come in to con tac tw ith t he externa l world . Ma lancha l oses her eyes and l er hands
,
bu t SO stro ng i s her desi re to see her husband tha t her eyes grow again
and such i s her des i re to serve him that her hands also grow aga in .
i n the popular narra t ion the prose often assumes a poetic movemen tand me tri ca l form . The archa ic language that rem inds us of remotean t iqu i ty i s conve rted i n to lyr ic charm and becomes kn otty i n the prose ,maki ng us th ink pensively o f the Ved ic hymn ology that en tered the
ep ic of Mahavarat .
[Trans lated from the Origi n a l I ta l ian
Extract from the Tunes,dated the 7 th A p ri l , Thwi
‘
sday, 1 922.
EPI C S OF BENGA L .
Tl I E BENGA L I R AMAYA N A S . BY R A I SAH EB D I NESHC H A ND R A SEN .
( Publ i shed by the Un i versi ty of C a lcut ta . R s . 14 2a . )
The I nd i an epi cs d ese rve cl oser study than they have hi thertorece i ved at the hands of the average E ngl i shman of cul ture . A partfrom the i n terest of the m ain them es
,the weal th of imagery and the
beau t y of many of the ep isodes , they are storehouses of i nformat i onupon the a nc i en t l i fc of I ndia and a key t o the orig in of customs
which sti l l l i ve Moreover, they show many curious affi n i ties to Greekl i tera ture ,
which suggest the ex istence of legends common to bothcoun tries . The R ing of Polycrates i s reproduced i n other cond i tion si n the
“Sakun tala,” the A lces t i s has i ts coun terpart in the story of
Sav i tri , and the ch ie f Of the Pandavas descends i n to he l l in the
manner of Odysseus, though on a n obler erran d .
The ma i n theme of those lec tures i s the transformat i on of the oldma j est ic Sanskri t ep ic as i t came from the hands of Val ni iki to themore fam i l i ar and homely sty le of the modern Bengal i versions. The
R amayana ,we are told
,I S a protest aga i nt Buddhist monast ic ism , the
gl ori fica t i o n of the domest ic vrrtues,proc la im i ng that there is no need
to look for sa lvation outside the hom e . The Bengal i versions, whi lereduc ing the grande ur o f the heroic characters to the leve l of ord inarymortal s , br ing the epic w i thi n the reach of the humblest peasan t ;they have the ir own \irtues , j ust as the s imple n arrat ive of theGospe ls has i ts own charm ,
though i t be d ifferen t in k i nd from thatof I S u ia lr
’
s ma jest i c caden ces . Thus in the San skri t poem Kauqalya”
R am a’
s mother i s sacrific ing to F ire when she hears of her son ’
s e x i leshe -does not fl i nch
,but con t inues the sacri fice i n the sp i ri t o f Greek
tragedy , m erely a l tering the character of her prayer. I n the Benga l iversion she becomes an ord inary Benga l i woman
, giv ing ven t tolamen ta t ion s such as one hears every day i n modern I nd ia . I n the
N ibelungen l ied one sees the same k in d of transformati on from the oldNorse sagas to the atmosphere of med ieva l chivalry .
OP IN I ONS
before any translat ion s of collect ions l ike the Panchatan tra or
H i topadesa were ava i lable .
The. learned author of these lectures is domg adm irable work in a
field hi therto un expl ored,
and the Un i vers i ty of C alcut ta deserveshearty commendat ion in i ts efforts to en courage the study of I nd ianfolk lore
TI MES L ITE R A RY SUPPLEMENT MA Y 13, 1920 .
THE FO LK -L ORE or B ENGA L .
TII E FOLK . L I TE R A T i I R E or B E NG A L ~ BY R A I SAH I B D I N ESHC I I A ND R A
SEN . ( C alcutta Un i vers i ty PressThose who are acquain ted (we hope they are many ) w i th Mr. Sen
’
s
other works,the outcome o f lectures de l i vered to C a lcutta under
graduates i n the author’
s fun ct i on as R am tanu Lahir i R e search Fe l l owi n the Hi story of the Bengal i Language and Li tera ture
,wi l l know
exactly what to expect of hi s presen t de l ightful excursi on i n to Bengal iFolk - l ore . There i s some humour
,to begin wi th
,i n the odd fact
that he shou ld be lecturing to Bengal i lads on Bengal i nursery tal esin E ngl ish. Mr. Sen I s not , and does n ot profess to be , one of thoseremarkabl e Bengal is who , l i ke S ir R abindran ath Tagore , for example ,are perfectly b i l ingua l to the exten t of being able to think wi thequal ease , and wri te w i th equal fel ic i ty and j i i stness of expressi on ,in both languages Le t n ot th i s be regarded as a sin in the R amtanu
L ahiri Fe l low . H e thi nks I n Bengal i , he thinks Bengal i thoughts,he remains a pious H indu , though h i s H indu i deas are touched and
st irred by con ta ct wi th many k indly and adm iring Engl ish frien ds.
H e i s the better fi tted to expla i n Bengal to the ou ter world For he
l oves hi s nat ive prov in ce w i th al l his heart . H e has no doubts as tothe venerable origi ns , the soun d phi l osophy
,the art i sti c powers
,
the suggest i ve beau ty , al l the many charms of the Bengal i Saraswati ,the swee t and sm i li ng goddess, m use and de i ty a l ike , the insp i rerand patron of a l ong l in e of men of l i terature and learn ing too l i tt leknown to the se l f -sat isfi ed and incurious West.
A H indu he remain s, thi nk ing Hind u thoughts, retain ing proud and
happy m em ories of hi s chi l dhood and of the k ind old men and womenwho fed his chi l d i sh imag inat ion w i th old worl d rhymes, wi th the
quain tly prim i ti ve Bengal i versi on s of the state ly ep i cs of San skri tScriptures W i th tales even more prim i t i ve
,handed down by word of
month by p ion s mothers , re l ics, perhaps , of a cul ture whi ch precededthe adven t of H indui sm i n Bengal . What makes Mr . Sen
’
s books so
de l ightfu l to us i n E urope is prec i se ly thi s indefinable H indu qual i ty,
speci fical l y Benga l i ra ther than I nd ian ,some th ing that fi ts i tse l f w i th
exqu isi te aptn ess to what he kn ows of the scen ery and cl imate of the
Gange tic de l ta, where Mr Sen was born, and where he has spen t the
whole time of hi s busy l i fe as a studen t of h i s n at ive l i terature .
He began l i fe as a v i l lage school master in E astern Bengal , a lan d of
W ide shin ing meres and huge sl ow -m ov ing rivers, where the boatman S i ngs ancien t legends as he laz i ly pl i es the ear, and the cow
herd lads on the low grassy banks of Meghna or D haleswari chan tplain tive rhymes that Warren H ast ings may have heard as he
proceeded up coun try in hi s spaci ous budgerow .
”
A l l these pleasan t old rhymes and tales Mr. Sen l oves wi th a morethan patriot ic emot ion and adm i rat ion
,and this sen timen t he
con trives to impart to hi s readers,even through the d i fficu l t and
labori ousmed ium of a forei gn language . We can imagine his lectures to
OPI NI ONS 423
be pleasan t by con versiona l than e loquen t in the academ ica l fashi on .
H e te l ls the lads be fore him what l i fe -long pleasure he has taken in thehered i tary l egen ds he shares wi th them . But in the presen t volumes
,
for example , he i s dri ven to assume from t im e to time the austeri tyof a professiona l studen t of a comparati ve folk -l ore , and so strays(unwi ttingly , we m ay be sure ) in to the regi on of heated con troversy .
Mr. Gourlay , d i st ingui shed adm i n istrator and studen t of the H i story ofBengal , has given Mr. Sen a fri endly fore -word . I t i s ev iden t that thi sprofessional elemen t in Mr. Sen
’
s work has a l i t tle frighten ed his kind lyspon sor. When I read the author’
s en thuasi st i c appri C i ati on ,he says,
of Bengal i folk tales, the thought crossed my m ind that perhaps theR ai Sahib ’
s patri ot ism had affected hi s judgmen t ; but after I had
read the translati on of the beaut i ful story of Malanchamala,I wen t
back to the first lecture , and I kn ew that what he sa id was true .
Mr . Gourlay has expressed a hOpe that Mr. Sen wi l l make a
col lection of Bengal i folk tales . I t must be adm i tted that the lateR ev . Lalbehari D ey ’
s ta les may wel l be supplemen ted . But sure l yMr. Gourlay knows D aksina R an jan Mazumdar
’
s four wonderfu land who lly del ightfu l volumes , one of them wi th a preface of appreciati on by Sir Rabindranath Tagore himsel f . Mr. Mazumdar may wel lclaim to be the Grimm of Benga l , and Mr. Sen has repeatedlyacknowl edged his debt to his unwearied d i l igen ce i n collecting Bengal ifolk -tales The wonder i s that no on e has yet translated the marvelsof
“Thakurdadar Jhul i
,
” “Thakurmar Jhul i
,
” “Thandidir Thal e
”
and D adamahasayer Thal i . A ppropri ate ly i l lustrated , sympatheti
cal ly rendered , they may yet be the de l ight ofWestern nurseri es,and form the best
,the most natura l and easy of in troducti on to I nd ian
thought and l i terature . There are other adm irable works for the
nursery in Bengal i , such as Mi ss Si ta Dev i ’s “N i ret Gurur Kahi n i ”
and the volume of H industan i Fairy tales translated by her and her
si ster . But there i s on ly on e Ma jumdar , and we hearti ly hope thatMr. Sen
’s versi on of hi s Malan cha Ma la in this volume w i l l draw the
atten ti on of European studen ts of I nd ian fol k - lore to the four excel len tcol lect ions we have men tioned . The ir sty le
, subtlety , archaic yet
colloqu ial , may we l l puz zle the trnn slator, for not every one of us has
the pen of a C harles Perraul t. But the task i s wel l worth attempting .
Meanwhi le Mr. Sen does we l l to rem in d us that two of the best ofLa Fon taine ’
s Fables are taken from the Panchatan tra.
”
BE NGA L I R A MA YA N S by D . C . Sen ,from a review in the Journal of
Royal A siati c Society by Sir George GriersonThis i s the m ost val uable con tributi on to the l i terature on the
Rama-saga whi ch has appeared sin ce Professor Jacobi ’s workon the Ramayana was publ ished i n 1893 . The latter was confined toValmi ki ’s famous epic , and the presen t volume
,from the pen of the
veteran author of the H i story of Bengal i. Language and L i terature,
carries the inqu iry on to a further stage , and throws l ight both on
the e i igins of the s tory and on i ts later devel opmen ts.
The sub ject covers so wide a grouud, and its treatmen t exhi bi tsso wide a fiel d of I n d ian learn i ng that , wi thi n the l imi ted spaceavai lable , it i s impossible to do m ore than i nd icate the m ore sal i en tpoin ts adduced by the author
,and
,perhaps
,to add a few new i tems
of in format ion .
I t has l ong been admi tted that the core of the Sanskri t Ramayanathe porti on wri tten by Valn i iki himsel f— con s ists (wi th a fewi n terpolat ions) of the secon d to the s ixth book s The first and the
seven th, in which Rama i s elevated from the stage of a heroic mortal
424 OP I NI ONS
to d iv in i ty , are later add it i ons . The Rai Saheb. accept irg these cond it ion s
,has bee n able to d ispe l part of the dai kness “ l l lC ll has hi therto
enve loped the sources of Vfi l n i i k i’
s poem,and to trace i ts e i ig i i i to
three d ist inct stO i ies . which the grea t poe t comb i ned i n to a S i ngle epi cThe ol dest version i s tha t con ta in ed in the D asara tha J il taka ,
‘ in
whi ch Si tfi. is said to be Rama’
s S i ster. Ran i a i s ban i shed to the H imalaya,
be ing accompan ied by her and Laksmana—under m uch the same stor yof pa lace i n trigue as that t old b y Val n i i ki
,
—and retu i ns to i e ign aftertwe l ve years . He then i arries h i s S i st e i S i i i
‘
i,
a nd the} l ive happ yeve r afterward s She i s n o t abducted by anyone . and the i e i s no
men tion e i ther of Hanuman or of Ravana .
The secon d strand of the epi c bel ongs to Southern I ndia ,“he i e
there grew up a cyc le of legends 2 abou t a grand and n oble Bri‘
i hmana
Most of these stories are sai d to be collected i n the Ja ina Ramay anaof Hémacandra , a we i k which 1 have not seen ,
and which i s describedby our author as far more a hi story of Ravana than of Rama On
the o ther hand, a Buddhi st work—the Lankavatara Sutra— narra tes
a l ong d iscourse which Ravana he ld wi th the Buddha,
and c laims
him as a fol l ower of Mahayana Buddhism ' He was thus revered byHindus , Ja i nas , and Buddhi sts a l ike .
The thi rd stran d was the float ing group of legends re lated to ape .
worshi p once w i dgly current in I nd ia . I n these Hanuman was at fi rst
connected w i th Saiv ism , and there are st i l l extan t stori es tel l ing howSiva made him over to Laksmana for seru m under Rama E ven at
the presen t day i t is not on ly the devotees of Vi snu who adore him,
and Saivas, but the crypto-Buddhi sts of Orissa claim him as a powerfu ld iv in i ty .
From mate i ials taken from each of these three sources Valm ik iwelded toge ther hi s immorta l poem . H e refused san ct ion to the
anc ien t l e g end tha t the Si tawhom Rama married was hi s si ster, butgave no hi n t as to her paren tage .
This was suppl ied in late r works,such as the A dbhuta Ramayana—a wonderful col lect ion of old and
fan tast ic trad i tions —in which she is described as the daughter of
Mandodari , the wi fe of her abductor.
‘
A fter thus d iscussing the origin s of the Rama - saga, and i ts deve l opmen t by Valm i k i , the R ai Saheb proceeds to the ma in subjec t ofhis work—the Ramayanas of Benga l . None of them are tran slat ionsof the Sanskri t epic L ike the cel ebrated Ramawm zta -mfi imsa of
Tu lasi Dasa, each author tel ls his story i n his own way ,weav ing in to
i t hi s own thoughts and anci en t trad i t ions curren t in hi s ne ighbourhoodThey secured their general populari ty by the thorough Bengal izat ion
This was l ong ago recogn i zed by A . Weber See I ndi an A n ti qum'
y,
Vol i , p 121 .
We find much of this in that portion of the Ul fa i a Kunda which
Jacob i cal ls the Ravag e/i s
3 Numerous temples in Southern I nd ia are sa id to have beenfo unded by Ravana ( see Bomba y Ga zetteer, I , i , 190 454 ,
n . l ; XV , i i , 76 ,
290 if ,H e is said to have performed hi s ce lebra ted auste i i t i es a t
Gokarn a . in Kanara ( Bombay Presidency ) , a ( l i st i ict which abounds i n
legends about him Some of these have spread to very d istan t partsof I nd ia . For instance ,
the story of the l oan to him of Si va ’
s se l fl i
’
nga (Ga l . XV,29C ) reappears in the Kashm i ri Ramayana
0
Vide JR A S . ,1921 , p . 422. Thi s story appears t o have been W i del y
spread . I t i s popu lar i n Kashm ir. A ccord i ng to t he Ja ina Uttara.
Parana ,quoted by our author she was a daughter of Ravana himsel f .
