Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c6.s2.99

c6.s2.99

connexion in Kavikarṇapūra's Kāvya, and under Rāmānanda Rāya's bhaṇitā in Pada-kalpataru no. 576) to Rāmānanda, but also to the citation by Rāmānanda of the Brahma-saṃhitā, which work, we are told, was one of the two rare Vaiṣṇava productions which Caitanya discovered at a later stage of this very tour and brought back with him! Some doctrines are imputed to Rāmānanda which are Kṛṣṇadāsa's own, and are only suggested but never discussed explicitly by the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins, e.g. the dual incarnation of Caitanya as both Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, which is stated here for the first time with its full theological implication. (Madhya viii. 278-81, 287-88). It must, however, be noted that the Rādhā-bhāva of Caitanya is not an entirely original conception of Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, but is also referred to in Prabodhānanda's Caitanya-candrāmṛta and occasionally in other works and in the contemporary Padas of Vāsu Ghoṣa, Narahari Sarkār, Śivānanda and others. The Caitanya-candrodaya of Kavikarṇapūra characterises Rāmānanda as a Sahaja Vaiṣṇava. In spite of this Rādhā-bhāva, sometimes assigned to Caitanya himself, it is curious that later Vaiṣṇava hagiology, for some unexplained reason, regards Gadādhara Paṇḍita, a friend and disciple of Caitanya, as an incarnation of Rādhā. It appears, however, that before the Pañca-tattva doctrine was fully established, the faith believed, as the composers of Padas on Caitanya indicate, in the Caitanya-Gadādhara Tattva in Navadvipa Līlā. Gadādhara, we are told, used to put on the dress and realise the state of Rādhā. Naturally Advaita and Nityānanda had also their groups of followers; while Śrīvāsa was replaced by Narahari deliberately in Locana's biography. We hear also of a Gadādhara-sampradāya, as well as Sampradāyas of Advaita and Nityānanda from Vṛndāvana-dāsa.