Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c6.s2.121

c6.s2.121

¹ It is often stated too sweepingly (D. C. Sen, Caitanya and His Age, p. 239; Caitanya and His Companions, p. 200f, repeated by Kennedy, op. cit. p. 49) that Vallabhācārya (or Vallabha Dīkṣita as his name was), the founder of the Vaiṣṇava sect of that name, came to meet Caitanya at Allahabad (C-C, Madhya xix. 61-113) and at Puri (Antya vii). There is no satisfactory evidence to establish this as a fact. Caitanya's biography gives the name of a Vaiṣṇava visitor at Allahabad and at Puri as Vallabha Bhaṭṭa, a Vaidika Brahman of the village Aḍāil, but (in spite of the fact that the visitor proudly informs Caitanya that he has written a gloss on the Bhāgavata) there is nothing to show that he was the famous Vallabhācārya. Vallabhācārya was probably an older contemporary of Caitanya, but if such a meeting actually occurred between the founders of the two sects, it is almost unbelievable that sectarian loyalty should have omitted to mention it distinctly, and give it its due prominence and importance. In C-C, Vallabha is initiated by Gadādhara! The Gaura-gaṇoddeśa counts him as a Parikara of Caitanya, but this is obviously on the basis of some such account as that of Kṛṣṇadāsa. The editor of the Kalnā edition of the C-C (Antya vii. p. 752) is perhaps right in stating that the Vallabha Bhaṭṭa mentioned in the text must not be confounded with the Vallabhācārya of the Viṣṇusvāmin or Vallabha Sampradāya. But see B. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 407 (also Proc. Indian History Congress, Third Session, Calcutta 1939, p. 760f), although he admits that there was no love lost between the Vallabhācāris and the followers of Caitanya, p. 397. Majumdar, however, believes (chiefly on the basis of 17th century legends) that Caitanya also met Nānak, Kabir and Saṃkaradeva!