Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c7.s4.27

c7.s4.27

Śatakas have been printed in Bengali characters at Vrindavan (1933-37) by Harendra Kumar Chakravarti and others; some of the Śatakas in this collection contain more than a hundred stanzas.—A *Vṛndāvana-śataka* (ed. Haeberlin's *Kāvya-saṃgraha*, 1847, p. 430 f; reprinted in Jivananda Vidyasagara's *Kāvya-saṃgraha*, pt. ii, 3rd ed., Calcutta 1888, pp. 333-384; 126 stanzas) is often ascribed to Prabodhānanda; but the name of the author is missing in the printed text. There are, however, two opening verses (nos. 2, 3), containing references to Caitanya, which raise the presumption that it was written by a Bengali Vaiṣṇava. In most of the catalogues and reports of Sanskrit MSS, where MSS of the *Vṛndāvana-śataka* are noticed, it is generally assigned to Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī (e.g. R. L. Mitra, *Notices*, vi, p. 188, no. 2122; Peterson, *Three Reports*, p. 396, no. 351; *Catalogue of Skt. MSS in the Vaṅgiya Sāhitya Pariṣad*, p. 205; but no name of the author is found in MSS noticed in Stein, *Jammu Catalogue*, p. 74, no. 816 and in R. G. Bhandarkar, *Report* 1887-91, p. 32, no. 468). If it is a genuine work of Prabodhānanda, it might have formed a part of the bigger *Vṛndāvana-mahimāmṛta* as one of its constituent Śatakas; but the parts of the latter work, which have so far been printed, do not contain this series of verses.