Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c6.s2.117

c6.s2.117

¹ This Prakāśānanda may be the famous author of the Vedānta-siddhānta-muktāvalī, but there are hardly any data to identify the two. The so-called conversion, no doubt, is given as a proof of Caitanya's successful missionary effort and power of learned argumentation, but even from the missionary point of view the conversion did not prove very effective in a city like Benares. The fact of the conversion, however, is rendered rather suspicious by the somewhat vague account of Kṛṣṇadāsa, as well as by the denunciation, in a fairly immoderate language, of Prakāśānanda, put more than once in the mouth of Caitanya himself by Vṛndāvana-dāsa (C-bh. Madhya iii and xx), who, however, does not expressly mention the fact of conversion. These biographers do not appear to be very amiable to this Vedāntist scholar of Benares,—a fact which is somewhat unusual, indicating an extraordinary uvaiṣṇava attitude towards an alleged Vaiṣṇava convert. The story of Prakāśānanda is not mentioned by Murāri nor by Kavi-karnapūra in his two works, nor by Jayānanda and Locana-dāsa. The identity of Prakāśānanda with Prabodhānanda is given for the first time in the spurious Advaita-prakāśa (ch. xvii). See B. Majumdar, op. cit., pp. 341-45 for references.