Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c11.s2.33

c11.s2.33

With regard to Kavikarṇapūra's much better known and much better composed drama in ten acts, entitled *Caitanya-candrodaya*,¹ one need not be wholly apologetic. It is a regular dramatised account of the chief incidents of Caitanya's life which are set forth more elaborately in his poem, the first five acts (like the first eleven cantos of the poem) bringing the story down to Caitanya's Saṃnyāsa and departure for Puri, and the last five acts dealing with the latter part of Caitanya's life spent chiefly there. In the Prologue the Sūtradhāra informs us that the *Caitanya-candrodaya* was composed by Paramānanda-dāsa, son of Śivānanda-sena and pupil of Śrīnātha² and staged at the command of Gajapati Pratāparudra of Orissa at the Car festival (*guṇḍicā-yātrāyām*) of Jagannātha at Puri. In the first Act, Kali and Adharma appear and gloat over the triumph of unrighteousness in the world; but Kali speaks of the advent and activity of Caitanya which imperil their power. From their conversation we learn of his birth, his elder brother Viśvarūpa, his marriages to Lakṣmī and Viṣṇupriyā, his Dīkṣā by Īśvara Purī at Gayā, his chief associates at Navadvīpa and the festival of his grand consecration (*Mahābhiṣeka-mahotsava*), which is being celebrated. Viśvambhara enters with Advaita, Śrīvāsu, Śacī and others, and a theological discourse ensues on Bhakti-rasa and the superiority of the humanised Dvi-bhuja form of Kṛṣṇa³. All those who are present, including Śacī, recognise the divinity of Caitanya, which he himself graciously relishes and acknowledges; and, addressing Advaita, he speaks of his descent from Goloka by the force of Advaita's prayer and appeal (*golokād avatārito'smi bhavatā*). The Act is appropriately entitled Svānandāveśa. In the second Act, which is called Sarvāvatāra-darśana, we have a long conversation between Virāga and Bhakti, in which Virāga laments over the desperate condition of the country infested by Bauddhas, Tāntrikas, Māyāvādins, Jainas, Kāpālikas and Pāsupatas, as well as by the followers of Kanāda, Kapila, Patañjali and Jaimini: but personified Bhakti, who has recently descended at Navadvīpa, enters and brings the good tidings of the advent of Caitanya as the Bhaktāvatāra (*bhaavadā avadāro kido bhatta-vesena*)¹. This is followed by a description by Bhakti of Caitanya's ecstatic emotions, his Saṃkaraṣaṇa-Āveśa at Murāri's courtyard, Dvi-bhuja, Ṣaḍ-bhuja and Catur-bhuja appearance to Nityānanda, and other acts of devotion and miracle. Caitanya himself, who now enters with Advaita and other followers, gracefully deprecates all this, and modestly describes his own condition as Unmāda-daśā, but Śrīvāsa replies that madness of other people is a disease, while Caitanya's madness, for the listener and spectator, eradicates all disease (*anyonmādas tu vyādhir eva, ayaṃ tu tavonmādo draṣṭr-śroṛṇām api vyādhi-nirmūlakaḥ*)!