Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c11.s3.2

c11.s3.2

The *Jagannātha-vallabha*¹ of Rāmānanda begins with Namaskriyā to Kṛṣṇa but contains no reference to Caitanya or to the peculiar tenets of Caitanyaism. It is not known whether it was composed before or after Rāmānanda met Caitanya, and it is difficult to say if it really belongs to the body of works composed for the Caitanya sect. The play is not quoted in the *Padyāvalī*, but two quotations are given in the *Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi* of Rūpa, and Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja distinctly refers to it as the Nāṭaka-gīti of Rāmānanda Rāya, which Caitanya relished greatly, as he relished also the *Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta* and the *Gita-govinda*, as a means of his ecstatic devotional emotions. The Prologue to the work calls it *Jagannātha-vallabha*, and describes it as a Saṃgīta-nāṭaka of Rāmānanda-rāya, son of Pṛthvīśvara Bhavānanda-rāya, composed and staged at the direction of Gajapati Pratāparudra, who is eulogised in one stanza (I. 10) as the conqueror of Sekandhara, of the Kalavarga chiefs and of the kings of Gurjara and Gauḍa.