Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c7.s5.85

c7.s5.85

Jīva as their nephew and younger contemporary must have belonged to a generation later; for tradition says that he was quite young when his father and uncles left home. He appears to have survived the other Gosvāmins, being the youngest; and, as we learn from the *Bhakti-ratnākara* and the *Prema-vilāsa*, he continued to be the doctrinal dictator to the Bengal Vaiṣṇavas. His exact dates are not known, but his *Mādhava-mahotsava* is dated Śaka 1477 (=1555 A.D.), while the first part of his *Gopāla-campū* is dated in Saṃvat 1645 or Śaka 1510 (=1588 A.D.), the second part four years later in Śaka 1514 (=1592 A.D.). The *Saṃkalpa-kalpadruma*, which speaks of the completion of both parts of the Campū, is of later date; according to his own account the author was then in advanced old age (*jaran jīvaḥ*).