Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c11.s2.17.1

c11.s2.17.1

Although professing to draw its inspiration and material from Murāri's work¹, the *Caitanya-caritāmṛta*² of Paramānanda-sena Kavikarṇapūra is an elaborate and ambitious work, which conforms more deliberately to the full-fledged mode and diction of the Kāvya. It consists of twenty cantos, and (according to the computation of its editor) of nineteen hundred and eleven stanzas, being thus of nearly the same extent as Murāri's work. After a preliminary homage to Caitanya and description of the sorrow of his disciples at his passing away in the first canto, the poem proceeds in the second canto to describe Navadvīpa and incidentally Advaita and Śrīvāsa. The rest of the canto is occupied with Caitanya's parents, loss of their eight daughters, Viśvarūpa and birth of Viśvambhara, Viśvambhara's infancy and manifestation of divinity which filled his parents with wonder. Viśvarūpa's Saṃnyāsa and death of Jagannātha Miśra. The third canto is taken up with Viśvambhara's going to school to Viṣṇu Paṇḍita, Sudarśana³ and the grammarian Gaṅgādāsa, his marriage to Lakṣmī (iii. 6-81), journey to East Bengal and teaching pupils there, Lakṣmī's death, and his second marriage to Viṣṇupriyā (iii. 127-144). In the fourth canto, we have the story of Viśvambhara's visit to Gayā, his Mantra-dīkṣā by Īśvara Purī, his return, his manifestation of divine Āveśa, and Kīrtana from the beginning of the month of Māgha.