The Place of Gauracandrikā in Bengali Vaiṣṇava Lyrics

Author(s): Edward C. Dimock

Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 78, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1958), pp.
153-169
Published by: American Oriental Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/595285
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 THE PLACE OF GAURACANDRISA IN BENGALI VAISNAVA LYRICS1

EDWARD C. DIMOCE
HARVARD UNI\FERSITZ

I. INTRODUCTION
gestion, on music, for their power of arousing
emotion in the listener. And they are sectarian.
THE LYRICS which are to follow are padas- They presuppose belief in a theology of a very
devotional lyrics of a type peculiarly Vaisnava, particular nature.
and, in this case, peculiarly Bengali. It is difficult As religious songs, they are still used in Bengal
to define the pada as a form, and the history of as a part of Vaisnava worship;5 and padas of
its development is beyond the scope of this paper.9 viraha (separation), including some of the most
One may say only that a pada is usually from beautiful and moving of all padas, are used by
twelve to fifteen or sixteen lines long, and that in non-Vaisnavas as well as Vaisnavas at srdddha
recitation the second couplet is the refrain. The (funeral) ceremonies. Like other creations of
only other internal common characteristic of these extraordinary beauty of other parts of the world
lyrics is their subject matter: they deal with some which were originally of sectarian origin, they are
aspect of the ltla 3 of Radha and Wrsna as it is no longer the exclusive property of the sect which
described in the Bhagsata-purana the basic text gave them birth. Bengal, Vaisnava or not, has
of Bengal Vaisnavism or with a parallel to that adopted them as a part of her religious, literary,
1z1& in the life of him who was considered the and cultural heritage. They are read by people for
avatar of Ersna in the :liali Age (the present era) pleasure as well as devotion, sung in concerts as
Caitanya. They are religious songs, then. But well as in worship, and every educated man has
they pretend to no great depth of religious ideas. quotations from them on the tip of his tongue.
They are devotional, and they depend, as all lyrics In all, it is perhaps not unfair to say that they
depend, on the beauty of their language,4 on sug- have been the greatest single influence upon
1 My thanks are due to Professor Sukumar Sen, of
modern Bengali literary and religious thought.
the University of Calcutta, who read the paper before To read the padas, if only from the point of
publication and offered his very helpful comments and
suggestions, most of which are incorporated within; to this time as a vehicle for their religious expression.
Mr. Bhabataran Datta of Calcutta, for his help with See Sen HBBL, Chapter I, and S. E. Chatterji, Ortgtn
some of the knottier translation problems; and above and Development of the Bengals Language ( Calcutta
all to Professor Daniel H. H. Ingalls, of Harvard Uni- University, 1926 ), 1, 103 ff. Some modern writers, how-
versity, for his encouragement, comment, and help in ever, have used the medium as a tour de force; e. g.
preparing the paper for publication. Rabindranath Tagore's BhanusimEa-thakurer padaval.
2 Sukumar Sen, in his History of Brajabulx Ltterature 6 As a part of worship, they are sung in a form called
(hereinafter referred to as HBBL) traces their develop- by the generic name ktrtan-a term descriptive of poetry
ment from the tendency toward lyricism in the Sanskrit and music. In klrtan the padas are usually accompanied
kavya of the time of the beginning of the Christian era, by the simple but moving rhythm of the khol a long,
through the Buddhist caryas, to the pada of the 16th cylindrical, two-toned drum-and by cymbals. The me-
and 17th centuries; it was in this period that the form lodic line, of course, is carried by voice. It is claimed by
reached its pinnacle of beauty and popularity, under the the early Caitanyite writers that Caitanya himself intro-
inspiration of the life of Caitanya. duced the ktrtan, although this is debated by modern
s lxla is one of the many Vaisnava terms which defy scholars; see S. K. De, Vatsnava Fatth and JIo1;ement,
ready translation. The meaning is " sportiveness," p. 59, note 3. That he popularized it as a form of wor-
amorous or not; but the connotation is that, behind the ship is generally accepted. A large number of pad as
seemingly random and often seemingly immoral mani- described and glorify the ktrtan, and Caitanya's beauty
festation of Divine Will, there is meaning which is not and abandon as he gives himself up to emotion in the
comprehensible in ordinary human terms. clance. See Padakalpataru, 4, padas 2059-2111.
4 The language used for some of the poems is Bengali, Rlrtan traditionally takes three forms: sam.ktrtan,
for the rest an artificial creation called Brajabuli, which group worship with the above characteristics; nama-
was, traditionally, the speech of Krsn. a. It is a some- samktrtan, repetition of one or hundreds of the names
times strained but sometimes effective mixture of Ben- of God; and na paraktrtan, a street processional with
gali and Maithili, and was used only by Vaisnavas of music, singing, and dancing.

153

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154 DIMOCK: GauracandriDu in Bengali lraBnava Lyrics
view of their poetic merit, some concepts peculiar
to Bengal Vaisn. avism must be taken into con-
sideration. For one thing, rooted deep in the
Vaisn.ava religion and reflected in its texts is an
extremely complex classification of proper and
efficacious attitudes and conduct on the part of the
devotee toward :Krsna.6 There are five basic atti-
tudes which lead to right relationship: santi
(peace), looking upon Krsna as the impersonal
Supreme; dasya (obedience), service to Ersna as
a servant to his master; sakhya (friendship), look-
ing upon Krsn.a as an intimate friend; vatsalya
(tenderness), as the love of a parent for his child;
and rati (passionate love), as of a woman for a
man.7 They are of ascending importance, the ulti-
mate being to love Ersna as Radha did in Vrnda-
vana. Each of these attitudes gives rise to a cor-
responding emotion in the heart of the devotee: a
feeling of peace, or obedience, or friendship, or
tenderness, or passion (madAura or srngara).
These subjective feelings are termed rasas, as in
poetics. The rasa of passion is subdivided: it can
be felt either in terms of sambhoga (union), or
vipralambha (disunion, separation). And these
two are further subdivided: sambhoga into ptzrva-
rctga (before union), and the various other phases
of union, and vipralambha into marla (pique) and
the other causes of separation, temporary or per-
manent. It will be noticed that the classification
is that of Sanskrit poetry and erotics, but directed
to a dif3!erent ultimate aim.
Each pada is of a given rasa. There will be, for
example, a series of padas in vatsalya-rasa, in
which the poet will describe the youth, beauty, and
mischievousness of the boy Ersna or the boy Cai-
tanya, or a series of padas in one of the various
subdivisions of madhura-rasa, in which the poet
will describe the dalliance of :Kysna with the Gopls
in the groves of Vrndavana or the admiration o£
the women of Navadvlp for Caitanya. But the
padas are not such simple descriptions as might
6 Complete lists of these classifications can be found
in English, in Sen SIBBL, pp. 19-22; in De VFX, pp.
1S6 ff. For a discussion of the poetic conventions upon
which the classifications are based, see S. K. De, San-
skrit Poetics, 1, 254-2tFj9. In Sanskrit, the analyses
can be found in Rupa Gosvamin's Bhakti-rasamrta-
sindhu and Ujjvala-ntlamani. There is a somewhat less
comprehensive but clearly stated comment on the matter
by Grierson, in his article Gleaniwzgs f rom the Bhakta-
mala, in the JRAS for 1909.
7Ads-llla III: 9 ff; Rupa Gosvamin's works, note 6
above; Sen HBBL and De VFM, loc. cit.
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be thought from this. The poets, so to speak,
become part of the scene which they describe.
They become the father of the boy :Krs.na or the
boy Caitanya, or a Gopl with whom Ers.na lingers,
or a friend of Radha readying her for her tryst, or
watching the love-making of the divine pair, or
comforting her in her separation from her lover.
In their bhanttas (signature lines ), they speak
directly to the couple, and perhaps of3Ser their com-
ments and suggestions to them. Nor is this mere
convention. Bhava is a term which is usually
rendered "emotion," but in Vaisnava context it
means far more. It signifies such depth of emotion
that one's personality is changed. That a pada-
writer, for example, will be so moved by his vision
of the Divine that he will partake of it; that he
will feel so much passionate love for Krsna that he
becomes Radha, as :Krsna's lover. It is a char-
acteristic not only of the pada-writers. It is true
of Vais.navas as a whole, and to the present day.
It indicates, perhaps better than any other single
fact, the strange warmth, intimacy, and intensity,
of the Vaisnava faith.
There is, then, this division of the whole corpus
of padas into the rasas in which they are written.
This applies not only in the performance of ktrtan,
whether in concert or devotion, but whenever a col-
lection of padas is made, read, or sung. A pada
of a given rasa may not be read or sung among
padas of certain other rasas.8 Nor are padas of all
rasas to be read or sung at any time. Gostha
padas, for example a class under sambhoga, fur-
ther under samk$ipta9-are not to be sung at
night, this rasa being a morning rasa. And, before
the body of padas of any given rasa, an introduc-
tora l)adcr, ealled GauracaSrldxikx, is read or sun.
II. GAURACANDRA
Galbracandra 10 (golden moon) is the term
most often used in the padas to refer to Caitanya,
the Vaisnava revisalist of 16th century Bengal.
Details of his life can be found elsewhere.ll For
8 For details on this, and for proper times for padas
of a given rasa, see Pad amrta-mad hurt, volume I,
bZlimika p. 29.
9 4; brief meeting " referring here to the opportunities
for meeting which the lovers had while tending the
cattle.
10 Caitanya is often compared to the moon which
drives away the darkness of the mind: aaitanya-cars-
tetmrta Ads I: 47 f; Padakalpataru padas 622, etc.
11 The sources for this brief sketch are the Caitanya-
 DIMOCK: Gauracaqxdritv in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
our present purposes it is enough to give the barest
outline. Caitanya his name was ViNvambhara,
before his initiation into an ascetic order was
born ill the Bengali month of Phalgun (February-
March), on the night of an eclipse of the full
moon ill A. D. 1486., in the city of Navadnp
(Nadlya). His family was a pious and respected
one, of Vaisnava faith, and there is every indica-
tion that Visvambhara grew up under the tolerant
and lavish affection of his parents. His elder
brother, named Visvarupa, had left home to take
samnyawa, leaving his mother heart-broken. Of
Caitanya's early childhood, little can be gleaned
from the writings; the facts have become so inter-
woven with the legends of Krsna's boyhood that
it is not possible to separate fact from fiction. It
-is probable that his education was primarily in
,rammar, since there are many references through-
out his biographies to his disputes with pandits
on the subject in the early period of his life. That
he was a brilliant student, however, as is claimed,
is not unquestionable. The very desire of his bi-
ographers to depict him as such makes their claims
suspect.12 In any case, he soon took on marital
responsibilities, but his wife died, it is said of
snake-bite, while he was on a trip in East Bengal.
He married again, soon after his return, his second
wife being a high-born girl named ATisnupriya. At
this time of his life, there was no suspicion of the
saint about him. Then, when he was twenty-two
years old, he made a trip to the city of Gaya, to
perform his fathers funeral obsequies. niVhat hap-
pened there is a mystery. The orthodos biogra-
phers hint that it had something to do with his
caritamrta of Krsna-dasa Kaviraja and the Caitanya-
bhagatnata of Vrndavana-dasa. For a eomplete and ex-
cellent evaluation of the various sourees for Caitanya's
life, see Bimanobihari Majumdar, Srwaitanyacariter
updda. In De VX]l, pp. 51 ff, and Melville Eennedy
The Caitanya Movement, diseussions of the subjeet in
English ean be found.
12 Krsn. a-dasa Raviraja, the author of the Cartanga-
caritamrta and himself an immensely learned man, goes
to rather fantastie lengths to deseribe Caitanya's sehol-
arship. At several points (for example Madhya VIII:
170f7 XX: 206 f), he has Caitanya quoting freely from
works whieh had not yet been written. Caitanya's Ben-
gali biographies all have extensive referenees to his
academie achievements. In English, see De VFM pp.
51 f, and Kennedy CM, pp. 14 ff.
One of the most popular folk-tales of Bengal, with
questionable textual basis, tells how Caitanya onee threw
his most brilliant philosophieal treatise into the river
in remorse for having shattered a friend's pride of
scholarship with it.
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155
acceptance of I^vara Purl, an sc enlotional ascetic,"
I as guru. t seems probable that this was more an
efect than a cause. But whatever the cause, he
returned to Navadup God-maddened, and in a
very short time became the center of intense
Vaisnava activity in that city. For a year, he lived
in and surrounded by a religious frenzy, with
ktrtan each night in the courtyard of his elderly
friend and neighbor Arlvas. At the end of that
time, he decided to follow his brother into
.samnyasa, despite his mother's tears. He took his
initiation at the hands of one Kesava Bharati,ls
and with it the name of S:rsna-Caitanya. He had
every intention of going to spend his days in
V.rndavana, the place of his beloved Ersna; but he
acceded to his mother's request, and went instead
to Puri in Orissa, a place not as difficult of access
from Navidnp. There he stayed, except for pil-
grimages to the south and west, and one to the
north, for the rest of his days; and here his friends
and disciples from Bengal visited him annually on
the occasion of the Car Bestival of J'agannath,
drawing from him the inspiration which kept vital
the revival which he had nertured in his native
city. It is recorded that he died in IS33, although
the manner of his death is not clear, from the
extant tezts.l4
No sketchy presentation of his life will make
clear the power of his personality. The padas
about him will give some inkling of it, but a
greater indication, it seems to me, is that his force
and emotional depth, probably more than any
theological or intellectual pre-eminence, was such
that his contemporaries considered him divine,
either as an avatar of Ersna, or as Ersna himself.
It is probable that it was over his objections that
13 There is some question about the order into which
he went. As S. K. De (FM p. 12) says "indications
are strong that (he) formally belonged to the Dafianaml
order of Eamkara samnyasins, even though the ultimate
form which he gave to Vaisnava bhakti has nothing to
do with Eamkara's extreme Advaitavada."
1 The dating is that of Majumdar, Srtcaitanyaca7*iter
?4padan, p. 23. Many pious stories etist, within and
without the orthodox biographies, of his supernatural
disappearance in one form or another. As has often
been pointed out, one of the less authoritative biog-
raphies ( Jay an anda ' s Cai tanya-manga la ) reco rds a
story which is possibly near the truth: that he injured
his foot during his wild dancing, and died from an
infection of it. Interestingly enough this is the story
told at the Radha-kanta Math, an orthodox monastery
at Puri, where the monks will point out to the visitor
the room in which they say Caitanya died of this injury.
186 t)IMoaK: Gauracandrika in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
he was so considered. There is a passage in the
(7aitanya-caritamrta, the most orthodox of his
biographies, which quotes him as saying to people
who were referring to him as :Krs.na:
Never take a mortal man as (an avatar of )
Ersna.
* . .
A sawmnyasin is (but) a particle of divinity, an
ordinary man (but) a particle of light;
but the full lirsna is like the sun itself.
A mortal man (cannot be) equal to God.ls
But the attitude of those who believed in him was
not changed by this. The writers of the Gaura-
padas padas on Caitanya accept his divinity
with joy, whether it be according to the thought of
his early Navadnp followers, who looked upon him
in simple faith as :Krsna without qualification, or
according to the thought of the later and more
refined Vrndavana school of the Gosvamins,ls the
six " Fathers " of the sect, who, in their elaborate
works, deduced and defined the orthodox theology
for the ages to come. The school of the Gosvamins
held the person and memory of Caitanya in
reverence, but, although the position is not clearly
established in any of their works, the bulk of theil
thought was centered not on the " IVrsna of the
Eali Age," but on the lirsna of the Dvapara Age
the Ersna of the Bhagavata.l7
In order to understand the Gaurapadas, it will
be necessary to go a little deeper into the thought
of the early Vaisllavas, including the pada-writers,
lfi Caitanya-caritamrta, ]¢adhya XVIII: 104-105:
jtvadhame kXnajnana kabhu na kariya
sannyast citkana jtva kiranakanasama
. . . purna kr.sna hay surygopama
jtva (ar) issaratattva kabhu nahe sama
16Namely Rupa, Sanatana, Jlva, Raghunatha-dasa,
Raghunatha Bhatta, and Gopala Bhatta. They were
men who, in one way or another, were sent by Caitanya
to Vrndavana for the expressed purpose of establishing
there a Vaisnava center and defining the theology of the
sect. Perhaps the most famous of their pupils was
Krsna-dasa Kaviraja.
lq The finest summary of their work which I have
found is in De, VFX, chapter 5. The substance of their
position on Caitanya is that, despite calling him an
avatar, they center their attention on developing a
Ersn. a-theology presenting Ersna, not as an avatar
himself of Visnu, but as the highest God. Thus, while
Caitanya occupies an exalted place in their religion, he
is, for all intents and purposes, ignored in their theology.
The whole Ad i-ltld of the Caitanya-caritamRta reflects
this position. The Navadvlp school, on the other hand,
is represented by such men and works as the Caitanya-
bhagavata of Vrndavana-dasa, and by most of the pada-
writers.
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about Caitanya. That these early followers looked
upon him as an avat&r of Krsrla is clear from
innumerable passages. The Caitanyatcaritamrta,
for example, has in Adi II: 91
Ersna . . . the source of avatars,
made avatar in the form of Caitanya:.18
But it is just as clear that they looked upon him
as an avatar of Radha as well. ./&gain in Caitarlya-
caritamrta, Adi IV:49-50,
Radha and Krsna were one soul in two
bodies
and (even) the two bodies became onc-
Caitanya.ls
As will be seen, Caitanya, in the GaurapadcLs,
acts in either one of these two bhavas now he is
like Ersna, the charming light-hearted boy, mis-
chiearous, arch, play-ful, or like Krsn. a the youth, the
object of the love of the womeIl of Navadnp as
li-rsna was the object of the love of the Gopls at
V.rudavana; and now he is like Radha, falling
faint at the sight of a blue cloud, or staring
mournfully at the dark waters of a river, as Radha
at the Yamuna.
One may speculate upon the reasons for this
curious development. Perhaps the most obvious
reason for thinking of Caitanya as iELadha was his
incredible emotionalism. The emotional depths
which can cause a person to faint and weep with
the thought of love, even love for God, are perhaps
more feminine than masculine. And Caitanya,
transported in the Radha-bhara, calls continually
for his "husband," the lord of his life Ersna.
In any case, once the doctrine was conceived, the
details were found to fit. The color of Caitanya's
skin is described as golden, the color of Radha,
while Wrsna is blue.20 His religious attitude was
that of Radha, but the factual details of his life
allowed for parallels between it and the life of
Krslla. Caitanya's taking of a samnyasin's vows,
leaving his sorrowing family and friends, is paral-
lel to :Ersna's departing for Mathura, leaving the
grief-stricken Gopls. The self-sacrificing love of
the intimates of Caitanya for his person parallels
18 sei krsna avatarb
cfpone caitanyarupe kailo avatara
19 radh4-krsna eka atr>d dui deha dhan
anyanya vilase rasa dssadana kari
sei dui eka ebe caitanyagossami
20 There is a full discussion of this question in as, Zdr
ITI: 29 ff.
 DIMOCE: Gauracandrzka in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
that of the Gopls for S.rena, and so on. These
parallels are very carefully drawn out, and go so
far as to establish Nityananda, (:aitanya's closest
companion, as an avatar of Ers.na's brother Bala-
rama, and others of Caitanya's attendants as
avatars of :Krena's attendants in V.rndavana. It is
an intricate system, the point to which is that
Caitanya was Radha and Ersna in one: Radha
without, with the color and grace of Radha's body,
and Ena within, with the full divinity of Ers.na.
He was the lover and beloved in one body, and
within that body each tasted, in as intimate a way
as is possible, the love of the other.21 In the padas,
Caitanya himsel! does not often understand what
the overpowering emotion is, which drives him to
frenzy, and makes him weep and grieve. But to
the writers of the padas it is clear enough: it is
the viraha of Radha, deprived of her lover. A pada
of Jnanadasa says:
He sobs, from time to time, " O, Lord of
my life . . ."
In the fever of his former straha, he
finds no peace.22
III. GAURAGANDRIEA
The origin of the practice of singing a (3auro-
candrika as an introduction to a set of padas is
obscure. The reason why it developed is perhaps
obvious: the revered place with Caitanya held, and
holds, in the religious life of Bengal. As has been
seen, this reverence was ofered him even in his
lifetime; many almost contemporary works begin
with a pransum to him and his disciples. The
Caitonya-bhagavata of VTndivana-dasa has as an
introduction:
jaya jaya jaya prabhqb srtgaurangasundara . . .
" Praise be to the L-ord, the beautiful Gauranga
,,
* * -
And the (7aitanya-carttamrta has this vandana at
the beginning of each section:
jaya jaya srtcaitanya jaya nityananda
jaya advaitacandra jaya gaura-bhakta-brnda . . .
81 More explicitly, they were one soul, and became two
bodies (Ersna and Radh§) in order to taste each other's
Bweetness in ltla, and then became one body, Caitanya
as the ultimate in union. CC, Zds IV: 85 reads:
radha k.rsna eche sada ekai ssvri4pa
ltla-rasa assadite dhare dr4i ri4pa
22 Vaiava padavals, pada 5; also Padakalpataru
pada 1897.
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157
" Praise be to Arlcaitanya, praise to Nityananda,
praise to Advaita and the hosts of bhaktas . . ."
The dramas of Rupa Gosvamin and Ramananda
Raya also have this sort of introductory homage,
and it is perhaps here that the source of the
practice lies. In any case, it was a practice estab-
lished early, since there is no extant collection of
podas of the post-Caitanya period which does not
have it.23 Also, if the pada of Narottama-dasa
quoted below is genuine, we have some indication
that the practice came intol being very soon after
Caitanya's death, since Narottama was his later
contemporary. This pada also seems to suggest a
somewhat more comples reason why the practice
began. It says:
The heart of him who hears the sweetness of
the Caitanya-llla is freed from impurity.
In the heart of him who takes the name of
Gaura, pure love is born.24
The interpretation of these lines suggested by
Navadnpacandra BraJabasl and }ihagendranath
Mitra in their introduction to Paddmrta-madhurz
(p. 28) is that the purification of the minds and
hearts of both singer and listener is necessary,
since some of the padas, particularly those in the
madhmbra-rasa on the Radha-Ers.na theme, tend to
be rather frankly sensual. Thus, by taking the
name of him whose life was known, remembered,
and beyond reproach, the mind is prepared to re-
ceive such padas in a purer way. It is not an
impossible explanation.
Whatever the facts of its origin, the Gauracan-
driWka-pada represents a special class of pados, in
terms of its subject matter and in terms of its
place of honor in the corpus. It must be noted,
however, that not all padas on Caitanya are Gaura-
candrzka. There are many prayers, hymns, de-
scriptions of ktrtan, and the like, which cannot be
considered Gauracandrika because they have no
counterpart, and no equivalent rasa, in the Xrsna-
ltla. We will also find sometimes simple and some-
times comples theological flights which speak of
Caitanya as the destroyer of the old ritualism, as
the elephant of the Eali Age, and in various terms
aSFor some of the Vaisnava anthologies and their
dates, see bibliography.
24gaurdnga madhura ltla yara karne praveRila
hrdaga niwrmmala bhela tara
ye gat4ranger name laya tara haty premodaga
Sen, 7tBBL p. 94, mention's Narottama-dasa's date as
1583-50 years after the death of Caitanya.
158 DIxoas: Gauœacarbdrika in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrtos

of this kind.25 These must find their own special And what beauty is there in the moon
place. The term Gauracandrika is reserved for compared to the incomparable lustre of her lip
those Gaurapadsls which serve to introduce a set of . . . (No. 389, Yogoka)
padas on the Radha-KWna theme.
Behold the risen moon-face of my darling,
where the only blemish is
IV. TRANSLATIONS
that I've compared it to the blem
1. INTRODUCTORY (No. 396, anon.)
The padas which follow, with one exception, are
with these lines from padas given below:
from the Padakalpatarqh (hereafter abbreviated
P1fT), an anthology of over three thousand lyrics The moon of the sky seems stained, nor does it
compiled in the middle of the 18th century 26 by shine like my GLaura,
one Vaisnava-dasa.
that stainless full moon over Nadlya . . . (No.
Despite the fact that they have at the root of 10, Paramananda-ddsa)
their inspiration a real and historical figure, the
reader will be disappointed if he expects to filld (The moon speaks:) My own complexion is but
poor, when next to his,
in them the earthiness and humanness which
people in the West have come to look for in good and my mind, because of it, is anguished.
poetry. The world of real people was clearly not My body burns in the fire of sorrow. (No. 9,
the world in which the post-Caitanya writers were Jagananda)
interested. But it is also clear that, i! these padas
Again, this was, to the pada-writers, reality.
are unworldly and to Western eyes artificial, they
I have selected the lyrics for their interest as
are profoundly sincere. To the pada-writers, the
poetry or religious e2mpression, rather than attempt
world of the " pastoral idyll " was the real world.
The reality which these writers recognised was theto select a Gauracandrik& representative of each
living presence of Krsna. It must be remembered rasa, as might have been done. In presenting them
that, although Caitanya was a man, and a man I must apologise both to the reader and to those
whose faith they represent. First, they are meant
known personally to many of the poets, his signifi-
cance to them was neither the beauty of his per- to be sung. When read, even in Bengali, some of
sonality nor his teachings, but his being the aspecttheir beauty is lost. When read in translation,
of divinity in the Eali Age; again, that in his
only a hint can be gained of their real grace and
person, in some way, was not only Erena but refinement of structure. I only hope that I shall
Radha as well. Finally, in the minds of thesebe able to transmit this hint.
poets, everything physical that surrounded Caita- The arrangement of the padas is meant, roughly,
nya had its reality only as a reflection of thatto approximate the sequence of the facts of C:aita-
eternal Vrndavana where the eternal :&rsna takesnya's life.
his pleasure.
Notes on the lives of the poets are drawn from
In reconstructing this unworldly atmosphere,
the atmosphere of the Bhagavata, the pada-writers
the 5th volume of PSET and from Sen's HBBL.
adopted most of the stylizations and conventions As a practical consideration of space, I have given
of Sanskrit court poetry. Thus, the padas will be Bengali readings only where the passage seeins in
found to be full of black bees and lotuses and some way questionable.
peacocks and blueness and, as J. C. Ghosh 27 puts
it, " the rest of the machinery of the ancient pas- I am further indebted to Professor Ingalls for giving
toral idyll." As one of innumerable possible e2[- me access to part of his unpublished MS of a transla-
tion of this work; it will appear as a volume of the
amples, compare these lines from D. E. H. Ingalls' Elarvard Oriental Series.
translation of the Subhasita-ratncgkosa: 28 29 See Ingalls' commentary on this ( loc. cit. ): " The
moon's blemish in Indian terms is its deer or rabbit, in
2b Some non-Gauracandrika G>aurapadas will be quoted European terms the man in the moon. The trope here is
as padas 26-28 in the section of translations. vyatsrekha . . . contrast working to the disadvantage
26 See Padakalpataru, 5, 179 B.
of the object which furnishes the metaphor." It is a
27 Bengali Literature, p. 57.
figure of speech which is frequently found in the padas
28 From section 16, On theas beam4ty well. of young toomen.

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 DIlu:oas: Gauracawldrika in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
2. GAURACANDETKAS
1. PKT 11al; a pada of Caitanya's Xrsnar
bhava, in the vatsalya-rasa. It is Gauracandrika
to a section called kaumara-pauganda-kalocita-
vatsalya, dealing with :&rsna's childhood and
youth.
In the courtyard of (the house of) Sacl,1 the
young Visvambhara dances.
Now laughing, now darting away, he hides from
his mother.
Holding a cloth over his face he says "I am
hiding . . .",
and S;acl says, " Visvambhara, (where are you?)
I cannot see you."
And then, in play, and pulling at the border of
his mother's sari,
he dances, mimicking the motions of the khan-
jana bird.2
Vasudeva Ghos says: It is a charming and a
lovely scene.
The hearts of all are smitten, when they see the
beauty of the child.
The poet, Vasudeva Ghos, was one of Caitanya's early
companions in Navadvlp, and the author of many padas
on Caitanya the man.
The name of Caitanya's mother.
2 mayera ancala dhari cancala carane
ndoiyd naciyd yaya khanjana-gamane
2. P1ET 277; a pada of Caitanya's Radha-bhava,
from the section of madhura rasa called rupanu-
raga, on the beauty of the form of Radha.
In my mind, I am numbed
I have just seen Gauranga
going to the bathing-ghat with his companions; 2
I have just seen the beloved son of Sacl, on the
road,
laughing and joking with his friend
laughing, flirting with glance and gesture, in
what game I cannot say.3
If of all lightnings one were made, and that
one caught,
even that would not compare to one line of my
Gauranga's body.4
At the dancing of his eyes and the arching of
his brows,
the heart within me leaped.
In the features of his face, the moon was glow-
ing,
and at the sight of him,5 a wreath of flowers in
his curly hair,
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159
a stream of tears welled from my eyes.
He drives young women to madness, and to dis-
grace their families.6
But he wears clothing on that beautiful body-
it is for this that Govinda-dasa weeps.
The poet, Govinda-dZsa, was given the title kaviraja,
because of his poetic excellence. Ele was a disciple of
Brlnivasa Acarya (see the Rarndnanda of Yadunandana-
dasa, prathama niryasa), and lived in the late 16th cen-
tury (HBBL pp 106 ff) . Ele has the reputation, and
probably rightly so, of being one of the best poets
Bengal has ever produced.
1 Some MSS have these two lines as the beginning of
the pada:
clara clara /camca ecancana rns
. . . . .
ks chara campara kalrka gani
Trembling, glistening liquid gold is (to his body)
as ashes to the cdmpa blossom.
See note 2 to the pada (PRT vol. I, p. 184)
9 The word is sakhz ( female companions ), a term
usually applied to the friends of Radh4.
8Cf. Ingalls, op. cit., sec. 16, no. 339:
Elow sweet the eyebrow's play, though slight
from natural shame and fear of elders.
kakila thdrdthdri ki rasa-range
thtra bijuri kariyd eke
se nahe gaurdnga angera rekhe
See ante, note 29.
6 The word is y?4sati (young woman); a possible
alternate reading might be: " At the sight of him, a
wreath of flowers . . . young women weep."
6 yuvati umati kulera khomta
3. PleT 67; a pada of Radha-bhava, from a
purvaraga section of sambhoga-rasa.
From his cloudy eyes, water spills over,
nourishing the flower of joy.
And from his nectar-sweat trickling down,
the 7cadamba-bhava blooms.1
Oh! What do I see ! The dance of the youth
Gauranga-
The new, golden, swaying kalpataru 2
glittering on the banks of the Ganges.
And around his moving lotus-feet the bhaktas
swarm
like black bees, humming,
attracted by the scent; the gods and demons
hasten, and
the whole night long remain absorbed.
Unsparingly sowing the jewels, the flowers, of
love,
he fulfills the desires of all.
But the poorest of the poor deprived of his
feet-
Govinda-dasa is far away.
160 DI3IOCK: Gauracandrika in Bengali Vawnava Lyrics
The poet is again Govinda-dasa Kaviraja, who has
over 400 padas in the collection.
1 Perhaps the implication is that his body is burst-
ing or trembling like a kadamba flower, in emotion.
kadamba is the flowering tree, in the groves of which
R§dha and lirna made ltla in Vrndavana.
s The nvishing-tree of heaven.
4. PXT 586; a pada of Radha-bhava, from a
vipralambha section under mana (pique) and
further under karanabhasa (on imaginary grounds).
O matchless 1z1v of Gauranga !
He went to bathe in the Suradhunl,
his mind in the bhava of Radha.
He was staring fixedly into the black waters7
and saw his reflection there.
Something angry in his heart said:
" He is two-faced, is my blue-complesioned
lover,2
and is flirting with another.'
And, furious, he went home.
so says Earirama-dasa.
According to Sen (HBBL p. 407), Earirama-dasa was
a disciple of Govinda-dasa Kaviraja. The pada, what-
ever the quality of its poetry, illustrates perhaps better
than any other the dual personality of Caitanya.
t The river which flows from heaven. Eere, of course,
the Ganges.
s Erna. The line is: dhxta napara Syama-raga.
5. PXT 463; a pada of Xrsna-bhava, from a
vipralambha section called kalahantarita, in which
the girl has been separated from her lover by a
quarrel.
Fate has been hostile to me-
in pique, Prabhu 1 has slighted me.
What shall I do? Tell me a means
by which I might win back my Gaura-ray . . .2
I do not know what happened,
that my life my heart should flee from me . . .3
Who knows what will happen now.
I tried to tie my wealth in the corner of my
sari, but it fell into the sea.4
In such a state was Caitanya-dasa.
When he regains his Gaura, he will never
abandon his worship.
The author, according to Sen (IlBBL p. 89f), can be
dated about 1583. He has fifteen poems in the PRT.
1 A common term of reference to Caitanya: " lord," or,
sometimes, " husband."
2 { lord Gaura."
Sparana-putali gat4ra more chari gela; lit. "the doll
of my heart."
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4 ancale bandhite dhana sayare poribe; a coInmon
practice in Bengal for women to carry money this mray.
dhana obviously refers to Caitanya.
6. PXT 485; a pada of Radha-bhava, from the
mana section of vipralambha.
Gaura is sitting in a lonely place,
his head bowed,
tracing in the dust with his toe-nail.l
He cannot see, through the tears in his eyes;
in his mana his face is pale,
and when they see (its paleness), the hearts of
his companions grow heavy.
Why doesnnt he speak ? 2
Prema-dasa (can only sit) with his head in his
hands.8
There are 31 poems by Prema-dasa in the PKT; Sen
(IIBBL p. 262) dates him at the beginning of the 18th
century.
t pada-nakhe khit« para lekhi
SThere is a traditional Bengali saying that this is a
womanly characteristic; buk phd te to mt4kh phote na
(Though her heart burst, her mouth does not open).
8 premadasa ;re hata
7. P]ET 665; a pada of Xrsna-bhava, although
this is not specified, from a sambhoga section called
rosodgara, in which delight is in the memory of
former joy.
A wonderful avatar Gauranga a wonderful
avatdr is made . a .
Jagai, Madhai a tribute to the Master danc-
ingnl
The moon is dancing, the sun is dancing, and
the stars are dancing, dancing,
The denizens of hell are dancing, singing
" Gaura, Gaura."
Crowds of bhaktas, joyful, dancing,
the poor and broken, love-drunk, dancing,
the dumb and blind and sick (are dancing), the
out-caste in deliverance 2 (dancing)
and only Vasu Ghos can say: I have been de-
prived.
See pada 1 for a note on Vasudeva Ghos.
1 Lit. " Jagai and Madhai dance it is a great achieve-
ment of the Master ": japai madhai noce bara thakurala.
Jagai and Madhai were two bandits who were converted
by Caitanya.
2 jara andha atura uddhvare patita. patita probably
refers to casteless or low-caste people; Caitanya has
the reputation of a social reformer, and it is said that
he did away with caste structure wherever his influence
permitted. If such a thing was done, it was probably
Nityananda who did it. See De VFM p. 81, note l.
 s . . . and loins.'} aruna vasana kati viputa vitamba.
DIMOCE: Ga¢racandrika in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
8. P1tT 973; a pada of Radhv-bhava, from a
sambhoga section called abSisaranuraga, dealing
with the joy in the meeting of the lovers.
C:ome, let us go to see Gaura in all his beauty,
the wonderful form of Gaura, in Nadlya city.
His body glistens like liquid gold,
and who can look, unmoved, on the waves (of
tears) which flow from his eyes,
or on his arms, columns of gold reaching to his
knees,2
or on the cloth, the color of dawn, around his
waist,3
or on the garland of jasmine, hangillg to his
feet, swinging.
Vasu says: Come, let us worship the living God.
The poet is Vasudeva Ghos.
1 Navadup.
2 A mark of beauty. The line reads: ajan?lambita
bh?ja kanakera stambha.
9. PRT 1032; a xpada of Radha-bhava, from a
madhura-sambhoya-anuraga section called rupol-
Iasdelight in the beauty (of Radha).
lVt the sight of the majesty of a streak of light-
ning,
the pride of a prolld man is shattered.
Just so, by comparing him to the gold of the
safEron flower
or the red-eyed grief of the dawn,1
I cannot describe the beauty of GSauranga.
I see the moon, swooned at his feetn
when I look at his ten toe-nails.
" I 2 see his beautiful complexion, and my own
seems poor;
my mind, (because of it), is anguished, and
my body burns to ashes in the fire of sorrow."
The feeling of Brahma is not equal to, nor is it
greater than, this ;s
so there is no basis for comparison.
Jagananda says: The only thing which can be
compared to Prabhu is Prabhu himself.
IIow beautiful is the youth Gauranga I
There are eight poems in the PXT with this bhanita.
If the theory of Professor Sen (HBBL pp. 23B B), is
correct, Jagananda can be dated about the middle of the
17th century.
1This sort of simile is very common in Saurapadas.
Caitanya is the epitome of the joy which i8 potential
grief. It i8 a conception which rlms deeply through
Bengali poetry, to the present day.
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161
2 The moon is speaking.
tyd sama vidhika adh«ka nahe anubhavi
10. PKT 672; a pada of Radha-bhava, from a
vxpralambha section called udgaranuragathe
pleasure of recalling pleasure of the past. The
pada is also given in Vatsnava-padavali (num-
ber 3).
To what can I compare the philosopher's stone l
whatever it touches becomes gold . . .
But (at the touch) of my Gauranga, his dancing
and his singing,2
men have become jewels.
Sacl's son is vanamalz.3
In the three worlds, there is nothing to compare
to him-
to Gaura, dear to my heart.4
The moon of the sky seems stained, nor does it
shine like my Gaura,
that stainless full moon over Nadlya,
which drives the darkness of the mind away.
The scent of his body is yet more sweet than
(that of) that heavenly tree
from which whatever one asks he will receive.5
(My Gaura) gives, throughout the world,
(even) to him who does not ask,
spontaneously, of his wealth of love.6
Comparable to Gaura (can only be) Gaura him-
self-
of this, any man may be the Judge.7
The mind of Paramananda is in agony;
when will Gaura grant his mercy (unto me) ?
The poet is probably Paramananda-dasa, a poet and
scholar of the middIe of the IBth century.
Lit. " touch-stone ': paraSa-mani.
2 Lit. " at the qualities of . . .": dmara gaurdngerc
gune
3 An epithet of Krsna in the Mahabharata.
Lit. "the doll of my heart": parana-putali.
6 e gune surabhi s?4ra- taru sama nahe re
mapile se paya kona jana
ena mapite akhila bhuvana bharif jane jane
yaciya deola prema-dhana
There is an alternative reading for yaciya deola: dpone
dilen.
7 vifeara *ariga d ekha sabhe
11. PXT 1883; a pada of RadhGz-bhava, from a
vipralGfmbha section called dasa dasa (the tenth
stage of love-longing, penultimate to death, in the
classical scheme), dealing with the ?viraha of
Radha.
 DIMOCli: Gaxracandrik& in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics

Today I saw, lost in meditation, viraha refers to the viraha of Radha in the dvdpara age.
Gauranga, the moon of Navadvlp. See aa Zdi III: 7ff.

Day and night, my thoughts tremble toward

him,l 13. PXT 2512; a pada o£ Radha-bh&va, from a
and my eyes run with tears. sambhoga section called astakaltya-nitya-ltla, which
This burning in my heart describes the ltla of the eight watches of the day.
is like the passion of the hero of Gokula 2 for This one is from divaya-ltla, at daybreak.
the Gopls . . . As Gauracanda awoke in the morning,
O, how much weeping have I done ! his friends (turned to) see the features of his
With my sighs I have written in the dust face.
(the story of) his wasting body,3 (lIe awoke) from sleep drowsily, with reddened
his moon-like face sunk in his left hand, eyes
a veil of tears in his eyes.4 opening slowly, lazily; 1
Full of compassion for the world, he freely gives he clasped his hands and stretched his body 2
his wealth of love, like the golden bow of Xama.8
and no poverty (of soul) remains.5 The crowds of bhaktas came to see,
(Only) Radhamohana is deprived (of it),6 gathered in the morning with joyful minds.
sunk in the fault of his own karma. Gaurahari,4 having washed his face,
sat down, his followers about him in a circle.
The poet is Radhamohana Thakura, the compiler of
the Vaisnava anthology Padaxnrta-samudra, and a direct Such was the viMsa 5 in Nadiya city
descendant of Brlnivasa Acarya. lIe lived in the middle which Yadunatha saw, seated at the side of
of the 18th century. Gadai.6
tahe majhu Frnanasa kampai ahanigs The poet might be either of two, both of whom often
2 Krsna.
signed themselves " Yadunatha ": Yadunandana Cakra-
s ghana ghana gasa darata mahif ltkhata varti or Yadunandana-dasa. Sen (BBBL pp. 52, 180)
visarana bbela aru ksxna leans toward identification of the present poet with the
4 locana nirajhara-"na latter, since Yadunandana Cakravarti was a disciple of
6 darida ndZ raha koi Gadadhara, and deals with him in most of his padas.
6 radhdmohana puna tahit bhela vancita Yadunandana-dasa can be dated early in the 1 7th
century.

12. PXT 1897; a pada of Radha-bhava, from a 1 alase isata mudita pata
2 anguli muriya morage tanu
vipralambha-viraha section called tanava-dasa, a
3 The love-god.
sub-section of dasa-dasa. 4 Caitanya
6 Itla
The limbs of Gaura are held up by the limbs of 6 Gadadhara.
. .

. llS COmpanlOnS-

he cannot walk - from time to time he slips to
the ground, fainting,
his body so weak that he cannot hold it up.
Fallen to the earth, he gazes up at the faces of
* .
14. P1f T 2742; a pada of Radha-bhava, Gaura-
candrika to a sambhoga section of astakaltya-nitya-
ltla called priya-narmma-sakhtna sevana, in which
the attendance of the sakhts upon Radha is de-

. l1S companlons,
scribed, and to a sub-section called nidra-ltla, the
sobbing " O lord of my life,l where are you 9 " !1la of the hours of sleep.
In the fever of his viraha, he has no peace.2
Why it is like this, O my Gaura, I cannot under- Toward the end of the night,1 the son of Sac
stand. lay down,
Jnana-dasa says: Let your sorrow come unto me, exhausted with emotion.
that I (might) die (in your place). Whether in dream or waking he knew not,
and tears of joy were flowing from his eyes;
Sen ( HBBL p. 67 ) rates Jfiana-dasa as one of the
he could only guess the meaning of this joy.2
best poets of Brajabuli as :rell as Bengali literature.
He was the pupil of one of the wives of Nityananda, Like the Gopls embraced by the lord of Gokula 5
and can be dated in the early 16th century. his hands and feet embraced each other; 4
l prana-natha; perhaps also " husband." with half-opened eyes he muttered sweet words,
2 purava viraha-jeare thira nahz bandhe. purava through a smile.

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 DIMOCE: Ga¢racandrika in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
II1 such emotion appears the son of Nanda,5
now in the form of Gaura.fi
PCadhamohana sings (of it) incessantly, spread-
iIlg the word in Navadvlp.
The poet iB Radhamohaxla ThZkura-see pada 11.
lOr "on the last night of the month": Seaa rojons
rnah4.
2 anumAne bujhaha ranga. Some MSS read bujhala
for bxjhoha; see note 2 to the pado in PXT.
s yaichano gokula-nayaka-korahi. Gokula was the
town near MathurZ where, traditionally, Kra and llis
brother Balarama were raised.
' bAma carana bhuja puna puna agorat
gamta$ dakin-e pafia
Again, Caitanya as both Radha and Kra. There
is an alternate reading for yamtai: yatahi.
«Ea; Nanda was EErsnas foster-father.
6 Or " appearing now in white ( complexion ) "-rather
than his blue complexion of the dsapara age.
15. PXT 2024; a pada of Radha-bh&va, from a
vipralambha section known as strahotkanthitanu-
raga, dealing with the an2riety of the girl in her
separation from her lover.
It i8 spring-time, in Navadn
a time of matchless beauty, on the banks of the
Ganges.
The nightingale sings his five sweet notes,
and everywhere the kqbsuma flowers bloom,
as if come to see the young Gauranga.
XEe is absorbed, and filled with love;
his eyes brim with tears,
and his body trembles with delight as he speaks,
choked with joy
" IIearn O Mukunda, my heart's desire;
I want to take my joy today with the son of
Nanda.
If I can but gain a glimpse of his face,
my sorrows will be dispelled and I will sing of
its beauty.
O, let me be united with the Prince of Vraja ! "
And, saying thi6, he breathed a sigh.
I cannot understand so great an emotion,
and this is sorrow, to Vaienava-dasa.2
Vaisnava-dasa was the compiler of the PKT and in-
cluded in it are twenty-six padas of his own. He lived in
the early 18th century.
1 Or perhaps " . . . in the 5th pitch (of the tonal
scale ) ." The line reads: kokila madhukara pancama
bhaa. cf Ingalls, op. cit., note on 334 (from section 15,
';Adolescence"): sCpancana is the note of the cuckoo,
and serves to usher in the springtime."
2 Or that the emotioll means sorrow; see pada 9,
note 1. The line reads: Xvarnava ddeaka ats dxkha
Idybha.
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163
16. PET 1606; a pada of Xr$na-bhava, al-
though nowhere specificaJly indicated as such. It is
from a section of vip1*alambha called bhav-viraha.
O BIukunda, dear to my heart, I suddenly heard
today-
in telling of it, my breath fails . . . (the words)
will not come out of my mouth . . .
(I heard) that GEauranga will leave Navadvlp !
T do not understand . . . I met him, in the
morning-
he was sitting with his head bowed-
his eyes were flowing with tears, falling in a
stream to his breast,
and his moon-like face was dark.l
When r saw him like that, my heart was anxious,
and (at first) I could ask him nothing.
But then he awoke from his meditation,2 and I
asked him . . .
and when he heardy he said (that he would
leave)-
I was unstrung I could say no more,
and I ran to you.
I tell you this (and pray) that you can help . . .
there is no hope (left) in my life.
When Mukunda heard, and saw the face of
Gadadhara,
he wept, alld his heart was brokell.8
Govinda Ghos says: May it not happen;
for, if it does, (I know) that I shall die.
Govinda Ghos was a brother of Vasudeva Ghoa, with
dates approximately the same.
1 The word which I have translated "dark "alina
means more than the translation implies. It means
that the eyes were sunken, the face dry, the features
lined and pinched.
2 Lit. " regained constiouseess."
s " . . his heart was not unmoved." The line reads:
Juniya mxktbnda kdnde higa thira nahs bandhe:
17. Vawnava-padavali T; this pada does not
occur in PIRT, but is of &uch quality that I have
hesitated not to include it. It is a pada of Caita-
nya's Kr$na-bhava, and might be sung as Gaura-
candrika to vipralambha padas of Ersna's leaving
ATrndavana for Mathura. It deals with Caitanya's
leaving home to take samByasan as aoes the pada
following.
Visnupriya,l like a madwoman, her hair and
clothes disheveled,
runs to the room of her mother-in-law, gasping
 5
164 DIMOCE: Gruracandrika in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
Sobbing in bewilderment, she cannot speak.
Sacl (in astonishment) cries "What has upset
you so ? "
Visnupriya sobs, " What can I say, my mother
* * . Vasu Ghos says: And such was the condition of
everywhere is evil omen, and my heart trembles
in fear; 2
in my bath, my nose-ornament fell into the
water 3
fate is frowning on me a thunderbolt is going
to fall on my head
my heart often catches my left eyelid is quiver-
ing 4
sometimes I think I see a snake to my right
* * -
Vasudeva weeps: What should I say, O faithful
wife;
today your beloved husband will leave Navadup.
The poet is again Vasudeva Gho.
The second wife of Caitanya.
2 Cars dike arnangala karnpiche parans.
s nahite parile jale nakera veSara. This and the fol-
lowing are signs of impending misfortune.
' thaki thaki prana kamde nace barna amkhr.
6 dakaine bhujonga yena rahi rahs dekhr.
18. PKT 2221; a pada of the same type as
number 17.
She comes to Sacl's room and sinks down in the
doorway;
Visnupriya slowly speaks . . .
"IIe was in the bedroom . . . towards dawn
he went away . . .
the thunderbolt has fallen on my head."
lIer own eyes sleepless with thought of Glau-
ranga,l
mother Sacl, when she hears, springs up.
Her hair falling loose, her clothing awry,2
the words of her daughter-in-law in her ears,
she runs-
she quickly lights a lamp and searches every-
where,
(but) finds no sign of him.
With Visnupriya at her side, she goes weeping
to the road.8
" Nimai," she calls, " Nimai ! "
The people of Wadlya hear, and they take up
the cry;
of every passer-by they ask for news.
A man comes up the road ten men demand of
him:
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"Have you seen Gauranga going anywhere?"
ISe says, " I saw him on the road, alone.
He was running-on the road to Eancanana-
gara."
Sacl.
And I-I fear that he will shave his head.4
The poet is Vasudeva Ghos.
gauranga jagage mane nidra nahiw dunvyane.
2audara-keSe dhaVa vasana na 1ahe gaga.
a visnupriya badhu s&the kandite kandite pvthe.
iThat is, take a samngasin's vows. The line reada:
pache jani mastaka tnuraya
19. PXT 2232; a pada of :Krsna-bhava, given
in P:XT not as Gauracandrzka, but in a group of
Gaurapadas called gauranger samnyasa ityadi.
Since, however, it might be used as an introduction
to pcldas concerned with lirsn. a's departure for
Mathura and the sadness in Vrndavana after-
wards, it is counted here among Gauracandrikas.
" Ah, friend Malini,1 let us go to Advaita's
house.2
Nimai 3 iS there, so said Nitai.4
But how can I look upon him, without his curly
hair 2
And when I see his staff and begging bowl, I
will die."
So saying, mother Sacl, in deep sorrow,
pursues him to Santipur, crying " Nimai . . ." 5
The people of Nadlya (also) run to see Gau-
ranga,
and Vallabha, in sorrow, goes (with them),
weeping.
Vallabha-dasa was a friend of Govinda-dasa, and can
be dated in the latter half of the 16th century.
1 The name of Erlvasa's wife, a friend of gaci.
8 advaita-mandire. Advaita, known in the literature
as Advaita Acarya, was a scholar of Eantipur, a diaciple
of Madhavendra Puri, and an early follower of Caitanya.
It is recorded that Caitanya paid his last viait to
Advaita in Cavntipur just before taking samngasa, and
that it was there that he made his farewella to hia
mother and friends.
s Caitanya's nickname, before hia samnyasa.
Nityananda, an early friend and follower of Caita-
nya,, and one of the great names of the Caitanya move-
ment. It vwaa largely Nityananda who prevented the
movement from falling to pieces in Navadvip, after it
had been deprived of the presence of Caitanya himaelf.
6These two lines are not given in the PKT veraion,
but are given in that quoted in Vassnava-podavalr
( number 10 ) .
 DI1WOCE:: Gauracandrik& in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
20. PIYT 1711; apada of Xrsna-bhasa, from a
vtpralambha section called vasanta-samayocita-
virahasastha, dealing with the pain of the separa-
tion of the lovers in the springtime.
Prabhu took samyasa in the evil month of
Magh,l
and with him went the hope of my life.
Day by day, my body wastes away, my eyes fill
with tears-
how much longer can I live, without my Gaura ?
Now it is spring, and the world is filled with
happiness;
but for me there is none, and I wish away this
cruel and bitter life.2
So much love I had for my GLaura.
To remember, now, is like a noose around my
neck.
Ramananda says: He was the lord of my life.
When will I see him, with Gadadhara,3 again ?
Satlficandra Raya, in his notes to PRT (Volume 5, pp.
202ff), does not commit himself as to which of several
possibIe Ramanandas composed this pada. The proba-
bilities are that it was either Ramananda Vasu, an early
follower of Caitatlya, or Ramananda Raya, one of his
later intimates. Sen (HBBL p. 41) leans toward Ram§-
nanda Vasu, on the grounds that Ramananda Raya did
not know Caitanya at the stage of his life which this
pada describes.
l January-February.
2 e chara kothina prana bahira na hay.
s A Navadvlp disciple of Caitanya. The curious idea
is found that, despite the clear Rddha-bhava of Caitanya
himself, Gadadhara was the incarnation of Radha. We
sometimes find in the padas Gadadhara even putting on
the dress of Radha, to Caitanya's R.r6xa-bhava. See De
VFM p. 74 note, and PRT 2182.
21. PXT 1766; a pada of iK.rsna-bhava, although
this again is not specified. It is one of a series of
Gauracandrikas to a section called dvadasmasika-
virahavastha, dealing with the pain of separation
of the lovers throughout the twelve months. The
Gauracandrikas are, appropriately, a pada of the
same rasa for each of the months.
It is the month of Phalgun -
where has fate taken my lord?
It brought him on the full-moon night.2
I remember well that night, and my heart bursts.
I remember well the joy of that night, and my
heart bursts with gladness.
I sang, on that night of his birth;
and the bhakf;as, like cataka-birds,3 (were ) con-
stantly
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16a
calling, at the thought of the happiness (to
come) .
What gOod is this wretched life to me now,4
when I cannot see the body of my GLauraiiga.
I remember his beauty, and his playful ways-
and my breast is torn.
Since the poem is only the first of a cycle, there is
no bh,anita. The bhanita comes in the twelfth of the
series, and is " EacInandana-dasa." Little is known of
the poet, except that he was a brother of Ramacandra
Gosvami, and thus can be dated about the middle of the
16th century. See PKT vol. 5, p. 211, and HBBL p. 206.
February-March.
2 Caitanya was born in Phalgun, during an eclipse of
the full moon. See ante, p. 4.
s Birda which are said to drink rain-drops. The
reference to Caitanya's tears is obvious.
4 hAma kaiche rikhaba prana pAmara.
22. PKT 1770; a pada of the same cycle as
number 21.
My pain and longing grow,
and Ssarh brings no relief.2
The skies are clouding anew,
and all the people are coming home.
All the people coming home, seeing the rain-
clouds come.
But my heart is full of trouble-because of my
former sinfuluess 3
my Prabhu has not returned.
iEIow beautiful was his dark ccimcara 4
and his charming cibrna-kuntala,5
and on his forehead a phota 6 of sandalwood, a
drop of musk;
and even Eama was bewitched.
tsiroha-daruna; daruna has an untranslatable sense
of extremity or urgency.
2 tahe aoye maha asarh. Asarh is June-July.
spurasa pdpini. papini is a "sinful woman; purava
might refer either to sin in a previous life or to sin at
some previous time in this life.
a " Top-knot," or perhaps simply " curly hair."
sCurls around the sides of the forehead. The two
lines have a complete double meaning; Asarh is the
rainy season in Bengal, and the two lines might also
read: " Like lightning adorning the dark, curling clouds
(curna-kuntala)." Syama (dark) is a term which has
particular reference to the dark color of Rrsna. A11
these various meanings are implied, in the Bengali. The
lines read:
kibd se cdmcara cikura Syd?nara
curna-kuntola sobSita.
sA decorative mark on the forehead; tilaka.
23. PiRT 1970; a pada of K.rana-bhava, from a
166 DIMOCK: Gauracandrika in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
section of sambhoga known as bhavollasdescrip-
tion of the joy at the reunion of the lovers after
their separation.
Gaura is coming back to Wadiya city !
It is a joyful thought !
And I will watch the source of the joy
once more make ktrtana-vilasa.l
I will shout the name of lIari, when I see that
moon-like face,
for on that day I shall have reached the other
shore of the sea of viraha,2
and the tumult in my heart shall be made to
cease.
When I see the brilliance 3 of his shining golden-
ness
and, against it his sacred thread (standing out),4
I will lift up my arms, and I will sing the name
of Hari,
and I will dance, among the bhaktas.
The eyes of the people are (already) dimnedn5
and running over with love for Gaura.
Narahari-dasa will be filled with hope,
when he sees again his youthful G#aura.
Adopting the criteria of Sen (BBBL p. 32) for dis-
tinguishing among the various Narahari-dasas, we might
assign this poem to Narahari Sarkar, a poet of the late
15th and early 16th centuries, and a disciple of Caitanya
after the latter's samsydsa.
1 kirtana-lxlo-
2viraha-pagodhz kavahu dina panaraba.
8 kamtliterally, " outward appearance " or ssqual-
ity."
4 yajnaks sutra viraja.
6 eta kahi nvyana mundi rahu sava jana. Other texts
read mudi for mundi.
24. PXT 1976; a pada of the same bhava aIld
rasa as number 23.
When my beautiful Gaura returns to Nadlya
city,
the people, excited when they see him from afar,
will make joyful preparations (for his com-
ing)-
they will fill ghats 1 with water, and bring
mango branches
and arrange them side by side,
and they will bring a plantain sapling, and
plant it, and put a garland of flowers upon it.
WheIl they hear of his coming, the people 2 of
the city will run to see him,
and the sound of Hari's name, and shouts of
. 6
Joy o
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will be raised, in all the houses.
Xnd when she hears these things, his mother
will rush to take him in her arms; 4
the tears of her eyes will drench his body,
and she will take him quickly home.
The bhaktas, gazing joyfully on him, will be in
ecstacy with love,
and Yadunatha will go, and fall upon the earthn
and take the dust from his feet.
It is not clear which Yadunatha this is; see notes to
pada 13.
1 A ceremonial pot used on festive occasions; the fol-
lowing two lines also describe preparations for cele-
bration.
2 nadiyd-nagari. The feminine is used, but, as has
been seen before, this does not indicate that only the
female population of the city would turn out, but that
the citizens of Navadvip are equivalent to the Gopis of
Vrndavana. In Vaisn. ava thought, there is ox}ly one
maleg Krsna.
s jaya jaya banz.
4 Lit. " take him in her lap." The line reads:
guniya janani d hdibe amani
karibe dpana kore
25. PXT 1994; a sambhoga pada of rosodgara;
the re-union is completed.
Finally, this day, fate has been gracious to me,
and has brought me my Gaura.l
This day, at last, my sorrow is ended.2
My eyes have justified their being, and have
brought me a sight of his moon-like face.
A long time fasting, were my eyes . . .
And I am like a thirsty cakora-bird, finding the
light of my moon.3
Vasudeva Ghoe sings a hymn to his Gaura; 4
I feel like a man blind from birth, wheIl he first
sees the sun.
1 " . . . the treasure-house of qualities." The line
reads:
azi milayala more gaura guq.a-nidhi.
2 daruxa-dukha, " my e:S:treme sorrow."
8 The cakoro is a bird said to subsist on moon-beams.
The moon is, of course, Gauracandra.
4 v&sudeva ghose gaya gaura-parabandha.
3. OTHER GAURAPADAS
The following three padas cannot be considered
Gauracandrik. They are included here more as
typical examples of other types of Gaurapada^s
thaIl for any particular literary merit.
 DIMOCE: Gauracandrzka tn Bengalt Vaisnava Lyrics
26. PKT 2068; from a section of the anthology
devoted entirely to Caitanya, and a sub-section
called gauranger nrtyadi lil.
IIis companions £orm a circle,
and Gaura dances among them.
Visvambhara dances (among them), and with
him dances Gadadhara,
and dances the lord Nityananda.
They are transported in their eagerness; 1 in an
ecstacy of love,
they realize their own (true) natures.2
In every house, a beautiful blue image,3
(ensllrined in) love and devotion;
and (Prabhu) goes (spreading) the wealth of
his love, making samktrtan 4
with all his companions.
Men dancing in the prakrti-bhava,5
young women in the bhsa of puruts
each in the bhasa of his own true nature,
all kinds of people dance.
Nayananda says: The joy of Nadlya
fills the world with joy.
O you who live in sorrow, our refuge
is at the feet of Madhava-nandana.6
Again, there are at least two Nayanandas who might
be considered as the author of this pada (Sen HBBL pp.
45ff, 311ff). It seems likely that the author is Naya-
nanda ( i ), a nephelv of Gadadhara who lived in the
middle and late 16th century.
purava kam4tuko bhtzGije prema-stzkha.
2 evabhave bujbiya paya; i. e., their divine natures:
Caitanya as Krsn. a, GadaSdhara as Radha, Nityananda
as Balarama.
S Of Krsna.
4 kare samkq/rtaq2a yace prema-dhana.
8 full note on the terms prakrti and puru.sa as in-
terpreted by the Caitanyite Vaisnavas would mean a
complete exposition of Vaisn. ava philosophy, which ob-
viously can have no place here. Briefly, it is the dual^
istic conception of matter and energy, not exactly in the
active-passive sense of the Samkhya, but in terms of a
more mutual relationship of love, realized as Radha and
S;Fsna. It is possible that the terms have Sahajiya
significance here. See M. M. Bose, The Post-Caitaqwyo
Sahajtya Cult of Bengal ( Calcutta University, 1930 ),
pp. 235 ff.
6 Krsna-Caitanya.
27. PB:T 266; from another section of the an-
thology dealing with description of ktrtan.
In the courtyard of Arlvasa, transported with
Joy,
the lord GEauranga dances.
Men and gods, rnale and female,
all hurry to see
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167
the circle of bhaktas, singing his praises.
Ehol and cymbals are sounding,
and in the midst (of the bhaktas) Nitai, mrilaly
dancing,
intosicated by the bhava of his brother.
Shouting, leaping again and again,
in a wrestlers dress,2 he dances.
From reddened eyes, by a rain of love,
the earth around is watered.
The earth (around him), drenched in love,
is washed clean as the moon.3
IS:e knows neither man nor woman, nor the four
directions of the earth- -
he sees the shapes of everything (blurred)
through his tears.
The lord of Santipur shouts continually,
seeing this delirium of love.
Embracing the feet of the Lord,4 weeping,
is the great pandit Arlvasa.5
fiIukunda, eager, his eyes swollen with weeping,
embraces Gadadhara.
And the Lord, beautiful, with love flowiIlg from
his eyes,
loudly calls " " O my brother, brother . . ."
Drifting in an ecstasy of love, he knows neither
night nor day,
nor any companion*6
Vrndavana-dasa preaches the love of the lotus-
feet of Nitai.
The pada is as mueh on Nityananda as on Caitanya,
and might well be eonsidered in that eategory. It is
ineluded here beeause it is eonsidered a Gaurapada by
PET, and is ineluded in a seetion ealled £rq/gauracandra-
sya-somktsttaovartlanarn. After the death of Caitanya,
the Bengal Vaisnavas divided themselves into two major
sehools, one eonsidering Nityananda as their leader, the
other Advaita Aearya. This pada in all liklihood repre-
sents the former sehool.
The poet, Vrndavana-dasa, is probably not the author
of the Caitan3ta-bhapavata, but a later and lesser Vrdna-
varla-dasa. See Sen HBBL pp. 321 ff.
1 Figuratively. Expressions of this kind have given
rise to the belief that Caitanya and Nityananda were
related by blood. There is no evidenee for that view.
2 Meaning, probably, that his dress was a short dhoti
drawn tight, looking like a wrestler's dress. The e2z^
pression is mallabesa dhari nacai. It is also possible
that the -beSa suffix simply means " like " i. e., " like
a wrestler he dances (leaping again and again)."
s karala avadhauta canda. There is a possible pun:
Nityananda had been an Avadhuta; see aa B4Wdhya
XII: 186ff, CBh Adi II: 134, ete.
4 Caitanya.
6 The word ud ara, whieh I have translated zc great,"
has the eonnotation " high-minded, noble, generous," etc.
6eakala sahacara-vrnda.
168 DIMOCK: Gauracandrikci in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
28. PXT 617; a pada used as a general intro-
duction to the third book of the anthology. It is
included, not for its beauty, but because it is of a
somewvhat different nature than most Gaurapadas.
It is, for the most part, a long pun on the word
hari, which can be translated either as " IIari "-
a name of God, in this case IVrsna or as " lion."
It is also an interesting mixture of metaphors.
Before the charge of the bull-elephant of the
Eali Age,1 the cow-elephant of wickedness
flees.
He has hung on the necks of the distressed and
wretched a hundred strings, with pearls of the
name (of Hari)-
Gaura, the beautiful, has conquered.2
A powerful lion rules, in Navadnhis moun-
tain cave-
and at the sound of his roar the samktrta
the leopards of wickedness flee.
The does of the anima 8 tremble in fear; pious
men lose their pride of piety;
tyaga, yaga, yama, tirithi, varata, samall are
dissolved (in panic)4 like jackals and rabbits.
Balarama-dasa says: it is because the name of
Hari resounds throughout the world.5
The authorship of the pada is not undisputed; there
are several poets who used the bhanita " Balarama-
dasa." For a discussion of the possibilities ( and
another translation of the pada), see EBBL pp. 75ff.
Caitanya.
sOr 'rules." The term is vtraja.
s Supernatural powers, attained by meditation.
4 jars yati. The implication is that Caitanya negated
these virtues of orthodoxy by substituting for them faith
and love. For the positive characteristics of a Vaisnava,
see the introduction to Gaurapadatarangini.
6 Or " this is why ...." The line reads:
balarama-d asa kaha ataye se jaga maha
hari-d hane sabad a kheyati.
V. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPEY
1. Bengali
a. Padakalpataru; an anthology of Bengali
Vaisnava verses, compiled by Vaisnava-dasa
about the middle of the 18th century. The
standard edition, and the one used for this
paper, is that of Satlscandra Ray, published
from the Banglya-sahitya-parisad, Calcutta,
in five volumes between 1915 and 1931. The
Sth volume has excellent notes, indeDc, and a
glossary of many Brajabuli words with their
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modern Bengali equivalents. The edition is
unfortunately out of print.
b. Pada7nrta-samudra; an anthology compiled
by Radhamohana Thakura, the guru of Vais-
nava-dasa, about twenty years before PI[T.
Published by the Radha-ramana Press, Mur-
sidabad, no date.
c. Ksanadcl-glta-cintanzani; the earliest known
Vaisnava anthology, compiled, with commen-
tary, by Visvanatha Cakravartin in 1704.
The work is published in many editions,
among them that of Ersnapada Das, from
the Devaklnandana Press, Vrndavana, llO
date.
d. Gaurapada-tara,iginz; an anthology of Gau-
rapadas, with padas also on Nityananda and
others of Caitanya's followers. AI1 excellent
compilation of some 1500 padas, made by
Jagabandhu Bhadra and published from the
Banglya-sahitya-parisad in 1903. Again, the
edition is unfortunately out of print.
e. Padamrta-madhurz; a modern anthology,
compiled and edited by Navadnpacandra
Brajabasl and Shagendranath Mitra; Cal-
cutta, Nagendra-kumar Lodha, 1948. Five
volumes, the first of which is available.
f. Vaisnava-padavali; compiled and edited by
Shagendranath Mitra et al. A small but
selected group of padas, with a lengthy intro-
duction by Khagendranath Mitra. Calcutta
University, 1952.
g. Caitanya-caritamrta of lirsn. a-dasa Eaviraja,
in the edition of Radha-govinda Nath, with
extensive commentary by him. Published by
the Bhakti-grantha Pracara, Calcutta, BS
1355 (A. D. 1948. Four volumes of text and
commentary, plus two volumes of introduc-
tory material. The work is the standard
orthodox biography, and has a very wide
variety of editions, none of them critical.
h. Caitanya-bhagavata of Vrndavana-dasa, in
the edition of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvatl,
published from the Gauriya Math, Calcutta,
Gaurabda 448 (A. I}. 1934). In one volume,
with notes, introduction, and commentary.
i. Srtcaitanyacariter upadan, by Bimanbihari
Majumdar; Calcutta University, 1939. An
indispensable survey of the sources for Cai-
tanya's life, with evaluation of and comment
upon them.
 DIMOCK: Gauracandrika in Bengali Vaisnava Lyrics
j. Bangla-s£lhityer-itihas, by Sukumar Sen; 2nd
editi<)n 1948, published by the Modern Book
Agency, Calcutta. The first volume of this
extensive and extremely valuable literary
history deals with the period of the present
interest.
2. English
a. El 6story of Brajabuls Literature, by Sukumar
Sen; Calcutta University, 1935. A selection,
translation, and commentary upon a wide
range of BraJabuli padas, including some
(7aurapadas. Most valuable is the biographi-
cal information on the poets themselves,
together with padas drawn from unpublished
MSS.
THE TEXT OF T1IE ARTHASASTRA
D. D. EOSAMEI
TATA INSTITUTE OF FUNDAMENTAL RESEARC}[
THE DISCOVERY of the Patan Bhandar palm-leaf
fragments (dated on palaeographic grounds at
about the 11-12th century s. o.) was the first real
step forward in the textual problem of the Artha-
sastra since the appearance of printed editions 1
based on southern texts. Acarya-Arl JinaviJaya
Muni has made the new material available to all
scholars, and lightened their future labours, by his
comparative edition (printed, but not yet pub-
lished ) of the Patan folios. The actual text-
fragment covers the whole of the first book (adhi-
karana) e2cept the very beginning, the first si2r
chapters of the second, and substantial portions of
2. 7 and 2. 10. Here, the gloss is in the form of
minuscule notes on the margin by several different
hands. The other part with the commentary of
Yogghama extends, with lacunae, only over the
1R. ShEma Sastrl, lst ed. (Mysore, 1909); 2nd ed.
(1919); 3rd (1924). T. Ganapati Eastri (Trivandrum,
1923-5; in three partss with a commentary, Trivandrum
Sanskrit Series, 79, 80, 82 ) . J. Jolly and R. Schmidt
(Lahore, 1923-5). The fine German translation by J. J.
Meyer (Leipzig, 1926) deserves special mention.
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169
b. Vaisnava Faith and H¢ovement, by Sushil
Sumar De; General Printers and Publishers,
Calcutta, 1942. An excellent history of the
early phases of the Caitanya movement, from
both Sanskrit and Bengali sources.
c. The Caitanya Movement, by Melville T. Ken-
nedy; Association Press, Calcutta, 1925.
a. Ilistory of the Bengals Language and Lit-
erature, by Dinesh Candra Sen; 2nd edition,
Calcutta University, 1954.
e. Caitanya and His (7ompanions, by Dinesh
Candra Sen; Calcutta IJniversity, 1917.
f. Castanya and Bis Age, by Dinesh Candra
Sen; Calcutta University, 1922.
g. Bengali Literature, by J. C. Ghosh; 02rford
University, 1948.
first three chapters of book two and the opening of
the fourth. Nevertheless, the importance of the
material is far greater than its relative extent,
because substantial contributions are made thereby
not only to the problem of the Arth. transmission,
but to Indian textual criticism in general.
1. To consider minor points first: The author's
personal name, also preserved by the later drama
Mudrarak$CFsa, seems to have been Visnugupta.
Canakya is presumably the patronymic; the pos-
sible connection of this appellation with a Canaka-
ruja-ntti reported in the Tibetan TanJur 2 iS not
clear. The gotra name by which the brahmin
author would be known outside his gens was gener-
ally taken as :Sautilya, and the gotra name sur-
vives in that form today.3 However, T. Ganapati
2 In the Tanjur Catalogue by M. Lalou; but no
analysis of the specific text is available to me.
a J. Brough, The Early Brahmanical System of GWotra
and Pravara ( the Gotra-pravara-man jars of Purueot-
tama ) ( Cambridge, 1953 ), pp. 82, 88, 96 ( Bhrgus ); 107,
109 (Gautamas; a Kulkarnl family with this gotra was
reported by V. T. Shete: Sukla-Ya jurved qra-Mad hyandiqu