Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c6.s2.112

c6.s2.112

brothers, whose descent is traced (after Jīva's account) from a Karṇāṭa Brahman family brought over many Bhaṭṭa Brahmans from Karṇāṭa and made them settle in a village (near Rāmakeli) which was named Bhaṭṭavāṭī or settlement of the Bhaṭṭas after them. With these Bhaṭṭas they kept up their inherited social and religious observances and always showed respect to Vaiṣṇavas from Navadvīpa ( रामकेलिग्रामे से सब विप्र लइया । व्यवहार कार्य सब साधे हर्ष हइया ॥ वैष्णवसम्प्रदायगणे रूप सनातन । येरूप आदरे ताहा ना हय वर्णन ॥ ), only considering themselves impure because of their contact with the Mlecchas. That they kept themselves in touch with the Navadvīpa Vaiṣṇavas is probable from their eagerness to meet Caitanya of whom they had heard so much. It is also highly probable that they possessed considerable Śāstric knowledge before they met Caitanya, Sanātana having been a pupil of (Ratnākara?) Vidyāvācaspati, a brother of Vāsudeva Sārvabhauma; and the Bhakti-ratnākara (pp. 42-43) also informs us that they spent considerable time in Śāstric studies ( सदा सर्वशास्त्रचर्चा करे दुइ जन ). Sanātana's pupilship of Vidyāvācaspati, referred to by himself in his Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī, would have been out of the question if he had been a convert to Muhammadanism. Of Sanātana, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja says (Madhya xix. 17): महाचार्य पण्डित विश्र विश्र लया । भागवत विचार करे सभाते बसिया ॥ This is surely not the description of an outcast. The stupendous Śāstric learning, as well as the Vaiṣṇava disposition of the two brothers, which undoubtedly prompted Caitanya to select them as the apologists of his faith, could not have been acquired in a day; and they point to the retention of their ancestral faith from the very beginning.