Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c7.s5.74

c7.s5.74

¹ *grathitā sumanaḥ-sukhadā yasya nideśena bhāṇikā-srag iyam/ tasya mama priya-suhṛdaḥ kuṇḍa-taṭim kṣaṇam alaṃkuruṭām// gate manu-śate loke candrasvara-samanvite/ nandīśvare nivasatā bhāṇikeyām vinirmitā//*. This verse occurs not only in the printed text, but also in Haraprasad Sastri, *Notices*, i, no. 164 and in *Descriptive Cat. of Madras Govt. MSS Library*, xxi, p. 8407, no. 12521. The date cannot be Śaka 1471=1549 A.D.; for the *Dāna-keli-kaumudī* is cited in the *Bhakti-rasāmṛta* composed in Śaka 1463=1541 A.D. The date of this work makes it impossible that Rūpa could have written this drama, as the commentary explains, for his friend Raghunātha-dāsa. On the other hand, there is nothing improbable, apart from this date, in the explanation that Nandīśvara means Vṛndāvana and Kuṇḍa-taṭī refers to the Rādhā-kuṇḍa in Vṛndāvana where Raghunātha-dāsa, Rūpa's friend, resided. The verse which contains this date is indeed placed after the colophon, but this fact, though suspicious, is not conclusive, and the verse cannot be rejected lightly; for the anonymous person living by the Kuṇḍa-taṭī is also distinctly referred to in the body of the text itself in the verse *rādhā-kuṇḍa-taṭī-kuṭīra*. In verse 5 of the drama, again the description of the devotional ecstasy of the Bhakta can apply very well to the familiar description of such ecstasies of Caitanya himself. It can be supposed that the work was actually composed as early as the date given, but that it was later on revised (with the addition of the verse 5 and the verse *rādhā-kuṇḍa-taṭī-kuṭīra*) and dedicated to Raghunātha-dāsa; but the verse containing the date, if genuine, makes two things clear: (i) that at the time of composition the author was actually living at Nandīśvara, which was apparently Vṛndāvana and (ii) that the work was actually composed (*grathitā*) (and not revised merely) at the instance of the friend residing at Kuṇḍa-taṭī. This latter fact is also indicated by the verse *rādhā-kuṇḍa-taṭī-kuṭīra*; and there is nothing to show that it was a later addition. The problem of the correctness of the date given by the verse in question is, therefore, not free from difficulty. The internal evidence of the text, as discussed above, makes it probable that the work was composed some time after 1553 A.D., i.e., after Rūpa and Raghunātha-dāsa settled at Vṛndāvana, but before 1541 as it is cited in *Bhakti-rasāmṛta*. Bimanbihari Majumdar (*Sāhitya Pariṣat Patrikā*, vol. 42,