THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
A JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH.
CHAITANYA AND THE VAISHNAVA POETS OF BENGAL.
STUDIES IN BENGALI POETRY OF THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.
By JOHN BEAMES, B.C.S., M.R.A.S., Ac.
THE Padakalpataru, or ‘ wish-granting tree of song,’may be considered as the scriptures of the Vaishnava sect in Bengal. In form it is a collection of songs written by various poets in various ages, so arranged as to exhibit a complete series of poems on the topics and tenets which constitute the religious views of the sect. The book has been put together in recent times, and takes the reader through the preliminary consecra¬ tion, invocations and introductory ceremonies, the rise and progress of the mutual love of Radlia and Krishna, and winds up with the usual closing and valedictory hymns. Before beginning an analysis of this collection so remarkable from many points of view, it will probably be of some assistance even to those who have studied the history of Vaishnavism, if I state briefly the leading points in the life of Chaitanya, and the principal features of the religion which he developed, rather than actually founded. Bisambhar (Vishvambhara) Misr was the youngest son of Jagannath Misr, a Brahman, native of the district of Sylhet in Eastern Ben¬ gal, who had emigrated before the birth of his son to Nadiya (Nabadwipa), the capital of Bengal.* His mother was Sachi Debi, daughter of Nilam- bar Chakravarti. She bore to Jagannath eight
- The facta which here follow are taken from the “ Chai-
tanyacharitamrita,” a metrical life of Chaitanya, the greater part of which was probably written by a contemporary of the teacher himself. The style has unfortunately been much modernized, but even so, the book is one of the oldest extant daughters who all died young; her first-born child, however, was a son named Biswarup, who afterwards under the name of Nityanand became the chief disciple of his more famous brother. Bisambhar was bom at Nadiya in the evening of the Pui'nima or day of the full moon of Phalgun 1407 Sakabda, corresponding to the latter part of February or beginning of March A.D. 1486. It is noted that there was an eclipse of the moon on that day. By the aid of these indications those who care to do so can find out the exact day.f The passages in the original are— Sri Krishna Chaitanya Nabadwipe abatari; Ashtachallis batsar prakat bihari; Chaudda^at sat sake janmer praman, ChauddaSat panchaune hoila antardhan. Chaitanyacharitdmrita, Bk. I. ch. xiii. 1.13. Krishna the Visible became incarnate in Nabadwip, For forty-eight years visibly he sported ; The exact (date) of his birth (is) in Saka 1407, In 1455 he returned to heaven. And again— Phalgun purnima sandhyay prabhur janmoday, Seha Kale daibajoge chandrer grahan hay. On the full moon of PhtUgun at eve was the lord’s birth, works in Bengali. My esteemed friend Babu Jagadishnath Ray has kindly gone through the book, a task for which I had not leisure, and marked some of the salient points for me. t There was an eclipse of the moon before midnight Feb. 18, O.S. I486.—Ed. Digitized by Google Original from HARVARD UNIVERSITY
