Chaitanya and the Vaishnava Poets of Bengal

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Title: Chaitanya and the Vaishnava Poets of Bengal
Author: John Beames
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAITANYA
AND THE VAISHNAVA POETS ***
Originally scanned at sacred-texts.com by John B. Hare.
This eBook
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Originally scanned at sacred-texts.com by John B. Hare.
This eBook
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CHAITANYA AND THE VAISHNAVA POETS OF BENGAL
THE
INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
A JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL RESEARCH
IN
ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY, LITERATURE, LANGUAGES,
PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, FOLKLORE, &c., &c., &c.
EDITED BY
JAS. BURGESS, M.R.A.S., F.R.G.S.
VOL. II.--1873
[Bombay, Education Society's Press]
{Scanned and
edited by Christopher M. Weimer, May 2002}
CHAITANYA AND THE VAISHNAVA POETS OF BENGAL.
STUDIES IN BENGALI POETRY OF THE FIFTEENTH AND
SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.
BY JOHN BEAMES, J.C.S., M.R.A.S. &c.
THE PADKALPATARU, or 'wish-granting tree of song,' may be
considered as the scriptures of the Vaish.nava 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 consecration, invocations and introductory ceremonies, the
rise and progress of the mutual love of Radha and K.rish.na, 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 Vaish.navism, 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 Bengal, who
had emigrated before the birth of his son to Nadiya (Nabadwipa), the
capital of Bengal. [Footnote: The facts which here follow are taken
from the "Chaitanyacharitamrita," 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 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.] His mother was Sachi Debi, daughter of Nilambar
Chakravarti. She bore to Jagannath eight 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 born at Nadiya in the evening
of the Purnima 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. [Footnote: There was an eclipse of the moon before
midnight Feb. 18, O.S. 1486.] The passages in the original are:--
Sri K.rish.na the Visible became incarnate in Nabadwip,
For

forty-eight years visibly he sported;
The exact (date) of his birth (is)
Saka 1407,
In 1455 he returned to heaven.
And again--
On the full moon of Phalgun at even was the lord's birth
At that time
by divine provision there was an eclipse of the moon. --Ch. I. xiii. 38.
In accordance with the usual Bengali superstition that if a man's real
name be known he may be bewitched or subject to