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Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c6.s1.t8: The Composers of Bengali Padas on Caitanya

Early History of the Vaiṣṇava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c6.s1.t8

Language
English

The Composers of Bengali Padas on Caitanya

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In this connexion it is necessary to refer to a group of composers of Bengali Padas or short devotional songs bearing on some aspects of the Navadvipa life of Caitanya. They have been collected together in a modern compilation, entitled *Gaura-pada-taraṅgiṇī*² by Jagadbandhu Bhadra, but some of them will also be found quoted in the *Bhakti-ratnākara*, as well as in older Bengali Vaiṣṇava anthologies like the *Pada-kalpataru*³ of Vaiṣṇava-dāsa. Some of the composers were contemporaries⁴ who must have actually seen and felt what they described. From one of the Padas of Narahari Sarkār Thākur¹ we learn that some of the composers actually witnessed the Navadvīpa life of Caitanya and wanted to record their impression in the vernacular (*bhāṣā*) for the inducement of those who would write his biography, implying thereby that these Padas were mostly composed before any life of Caitanya in Bengali had come into existence. As such, they certainly possess an historical importance. They do not profess to deal with external incidents, nor give any systematic survey of the Navadvīpa life, but they sometimes allude to small incidents which are not mentioned elsewhere; and, what is more important, they give an actually witnessed and necessarily vivid picture of certain aspects of Caitanya's emotional life of devotion as it appeared to the loving eyes of the faithful devotees. In these Padas, as in the lives of Caitanya which derive their inspiration from the Navadvīpa circle, and to which they have a natural affinity, no abstruse theology obscures the simple and passionate faith; to them Caitanya is not an image of their supreme deity, but the deity himself incarnated,—not a means, but an end in itself. It is clear that the elaborate theological ideas, which inculcated the worship of the supreme Kṛṣṇa Bhagavat, as imaged by Caitanya's life of devotion, rather than the worship of Caitanya himself as the highest object of adoration, had not yet been imported and familiarised by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, Śrīnivāsa Ācārya and others from the works of the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins. The Padas, thus, supplement in their own way the account of Navadvīpa life given by Murāri, Kavikarṇapūra, Locana and Jayānanda.

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² Ed. Vaṅgiya Sāhitya Pariṣad, Calcutta 1902; 2nd ed. by Mrinal Kanti Ghosh, *ibid.* Calcutta 1935.

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³ Ed. Satis Chandra Ray, Vaṅgiya Sāhitya Pariṣad, 5 pts. Calcutta B. E. 1322-1338 (=1915-1931).

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⁴ Such as Narahari Sarkār Thākur, the three brothers Vāsudeva, Govinda and Mādhava Ghosa, Śivānanda-sena (Kavikarṇapūra's father), Rāmānanda-vasu, Paramānanda-gupta (referred to by Jayānanda, p. 3), Gauridāsa, Candraśekhara, Vaṃśivadana, etc.

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¹ गौरलीलादरशने इच्छा बड़ हय मने भाषाय लिखिया सब राखि। मुइ अति अधम लिखिते ना जानि कम केमन करिया ताहा लिखि॥ ए ग्रन्थ लिखिबे ये एखनो जन्मे नाइ से जन्मिते विलम्ब आछे बहु। भाषाय रचना हैले भुमिते लोक सकले कवे वाञ्छा पुरावेन प्रभु॥ ...किछु किछु पद लिखि यदि इहा केह देखि प्रकाश करेये प्रभुलीला। नरहरि पावे सुख भुमिते मनेर दुख अन्य-गाने दरविबे शिला॥ (*Gaura-pada*, 2nd ed., see p. 8).

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Of the contemporary Padas on Caitanya, those ascribed to Narahari Sarkār of Srikhaṇḍa and Vāsudeva Ghoṣa of Kulāi (Burdwan) are the most interesting. Of the former we have a hundred and of the latter one hundred and thirty-seven Padas, some of which are undoubtedly spurious.¹ Vāsudeva, with his two brothers Govinda and Mādhava,² appears to have joined the Saṃkīrtana party at Navadvīpa immediately after Caitanya's return from Gayā (C-C, Ādi x. 113). He wrote systematic Padas on various incidents ranging from the birth to the Saṃnyāsa of Caitanya; they were known to Locana-dāsa (p. 34) and Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja (C-C, Ādi xi. 16), and were probably utilised by the other biographers. Like most of the biographers, Vāsudeva paints Caitanya as a devout person even from his birth; and, like Narahari and some other Pada-writers,³ he believes in the Rādhā-bhāva of the Caitanya incarnation—a doctrine, which is found indeed in the Stotras of the Gosvāmins and in the Rāmānanda Rāya episode described by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, but which must have been a dogma of an earlier Navadvīpa origin. The speciality of Narahari's Padas consists in his exposition of the Nāgara-bhāva ascribed to Caitanya,⁴ which attitude Vṛndāvana-dāsa condemns in unqualified terms. Vṛndāvana, therefore, omits Narahari altogether from his account, while Narahari's disciple Locana-dāsa, seeking to remedy this defect by giving prominence to Narahari in his own life of Caitanya, accepts the doctrine and pays a tribute to his Guru by making him one of the five Tattvas of Caitanyaism (replacing Śrīvāsa). But it is noteworthy that no other biography of Caitanya eulogises Narahari, who must have been older in age, and as such a highly distinguished Parikara of Caitanya in his Navadvīpa-līlā.¹

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¹ See B. Majumdar, op. cit., pp. 53-54, 57-60.

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² They were also composers of similar Padas, the Gaura-pada-tarangiṇī assigning to them seven and five Padas respectively. Vāsudeva expresses his indebtedness to Narahari: श्रीसरकार ठाकुरेर पदामृतपाने । पथ प्रकाशिव बलि इल मने ॥ Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja eulogises Vāsudeva thus: वासुदेव गीति करे प्रभुर वर्णने । काष्ट पाषाण द्रवे याहार श्रवणे ॥

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³ E.g. Narahari: गौराङ्ग ठेकिला पाके । भावेर आवेशे राधा राधा बलि डाके ॥ Vāsudeva: आरे मोर गोरा द्विजमणि । राधा राधा बलि काँदे लोटाय धरणी ॥ Sivānanda-sena: राधा राधा बलि पँहु पबे सुरक्रिया । शिवानन्द काँदे पँहुर भाव न बुझिया ॥

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⁴ These devotees conceive themselves as Nāgarīs in love with Caitanya as a Nāgara, who is described as such. The women of Navadvīpa are described as having fallen in love with the young Caitanya at sight. This is of course modelled on the Gopi-legend of

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¹ Other later Bengali (metrical) Vaiṣṇava works, like the Prema-vilāsa (ed. Radharaman Press, Murshidabad 1911) of Nityānanda-dāsa (in 24 chapters, the authenticity of the last four of which is not beyond doubt), and the Bhakti-ratnākara and Narottama-vilāsa (ed. Radharaman Press, Murshidabad 1925; also ed. Gauḍīya Mādhva Maṭha, Calcutta with notes and indices) of Narahari Cakravartin (in 15 and 12 chapters respectively, composed towards the beginning of the 18th century), contain some references to Caitanya's life; but they relate chiefly to the later history of the sect, and their evidence regarding the earlier phase of the movement must be taken with extreme caution (on the historicity of the Prema-vilāsa, see B. Majumdar, op. cit., pp. 506-515). Similar remarks apply to the Karṇānanda, ascribed to Yadunandana-dāsa (ed. Radharaman Press, Murshidabad 1926) and supposed to be dated Saka 1529= 1607 A.D. (!), as well as the Anurāga-vallī of Manohara-dāsa, dated 1697 A.D. (ed. Amrita Bazar Patrika Office 1898). Of all these, the Bhakti-ratnākara, inspite of its uncritical attitude, is perhaps the most important.—In modern times, several useful lives of Caitanya have been written by devout Vaiṣṇavas in English and Bengali, but they are often too enthusiastic to be critical or trustworthy. Dinesh Chandra Sen's accounts in his regular histories of Bengali literature (in English and in Bengali), as well as his three works on Bengal Vaiṣṇavism (Vaiṣṇava Literature of Bengal, 1917; Caitanya and His Companions, 1917; and Caitanya and His Age, 1922, all published by the University of Calcutta), contain much varied, but rather unsifted, information, and often err on the side of uncritical enthusiasm. Mention must also be made of the informative pioneer work of Jagadbandhu Bhadra in the extensive introduction to his Gaura-pada-taraṅgiṇī (published by the Vangīya Sāhitya Pariṣad, Calcutta 1902; 2nd ed. by Mrinal Kanti Ghosh

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Kṛṣṇa. There are about 200 Padas to this effect in the Gaura-pada-taraṅgiṇī.

Cites (8)