Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s5.16

c9.s5.16

We find the same attitude in the dramatic and Rasa-śāstra works of Rūpa Gosvāmin. One might expect that the systematic exposition of the emotional aspects of the creed in the Rasa-śāstra should, by way of illustration at least, make some topical reference to Caitanya's own realization of this supreme emotion as a Rasa, but as a matter of fact this is never done either here or in Jīva Gosvāmin's Bhakti- and Prīti-sandarbhas; and wherever illustrations are drawn, they are all cited from the older Purāṇas, and not from the newer living exemplification of the doctrines in Caitanya himself. The Ujjvala-nīla-maṇi of Rūpa is even remarkable in not containing the usual Namaskriyā to Caitanya, although there is a Namaskriyā addressed to Rūpa's elder brother and master Sanātana; while in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu Rūpa pays only in one verse¹ his homage to the lotus-feet of Caitanya-deva who is Hari, and acknowledges the emotional inspiration which has stimulated even an insignificant person like himself to undertake the task. Turning to Rūpa's dramatic works, which appear to have been purposely composed to illustrate the emotional aspects of the faith, we find that they are entirely devoted to the treatment of certain aspects of Kṛṣṇa-līlā on the basis of the Purāṇic tradition. The Dāna-keli-kaumudī, which was probably his earliest dramatic attempt, contains even no express Namaskriyā to Caitanya but opens with two descriptive Namaskriyās to Kṛṣṇa. The Sūtradhāra, however, describes in the third verse the frenzied ecstasy of an unnamed Bhakta, which is probably drawn after Caitanya's example. The work itself, on the other hand, sets forth a supposed episode in Kṛṣṇa's amorous career, which is not found in the Śrīmad-bhāgavata or Gīta-govinda, but which certainly became popular in mediaeval times as the Dāna-līlā and formed the theme of the Dāna-khaṇḍa of Caṇḍīdāsa's earlier Bengali Kṛṣṇa-kīrtana, as well as of many a later Bengali song and poem. In the two other dramatic works of Rūpa, entitled respectively Vidagdha-mādhava and Lalita-mādhava,¹ Kṛṣṇa is presented as the Vidagdha and the Lalita Nāyaka respectively of the erotico-religious sentiment, emphasizing in turns the Aiśvarya and Mādhurya aspects of Kṛṣṇa's legendary career. The last named work opens with a suitable Namaskriyā to Kṛṣṇa, but the fourth verse pays homage to Caitanya, the son of Śacī, without however directly identifying him with Kṛṣṇa. But the second verse of the first work gives us a remarkable Namaskriyā to Caitanya, which is often quoted as expressing the author's views about the founder of the sect to which he belonged. Imperfectly translated into English it runs thus: