Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c6.s2.93

c6.s2.93

One or two interesting items of his pilgrimage may, however, be noted here. His meeting with a scholarly and devout Vaiṣṇava, named Rāmānanda Rāya, near Rajamundry on the Godavari, has occupied a great deal of the attention of his orthodox biographers. Rāmānanda is said to have been a Śiṣya of Rāghavendra Purī and a Praśiṣya of Mādhavendra. Rāmānanda's father Bhavānanda Rāya, described in Rāmānanda's *Jagannātha-vallabha Nāṭaka*³ as Pṛthvīśvara, was probably a local chief, feudatory to Gajapati Pratāparudra of Orissa; and Rāmānanda himself appears to have held some high official position under Pratāparudra. He composed the operatic drama (*saṃgīta-nāṭaka*) on Kṛṣṇa-līlā, mentioned above, containing a glorification of Rādhā and songs on the model of Jayadeva; and the work was enacted at the direction of Pratāparudra. The meeting took place at the bathing ghat on the river bank, and Caitanya, who had already heard a great deal about Rāmānanda from Vāsudeva Sārvabhauma,¹ hailed him as a kindred spirit, in whose piety he found an unfailing delight. Rāmānanda also recognised the intensity and power of Caitanya's devotion, and eagerly joined the circle of his intimate and faithful followers. A warm attachment sprang up between them and Caitanya passed several days at the place. The scholarly and theologically minded Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, who loves to depict Caitanya as a scholar and founder of a school of theology, devotes a long and learned chapter of his biography to the detailed description of a systematic scholastic discourse between Rāmānanda and Caitanya, lasting for ten days and nights, on the whole theme of Bhakti. In the course of the conference the interlocutors quote and discuss, with the evident relish and precision of trained theologians, texts from the works of Rūpa, Sanātana and Jīva, and even from Kṛṣṇadāsa's own *Govinda-līlāmṛta*, all of which had not yet been written!² That some such