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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
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INTRODUCTION.
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
For Private And Personal Use Only
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festival of Jagannátha. He established an image of Krishnarayají in his native town, which still continues to be the resort of large numbers of pilgrims from the neighbouring districts.
Of the life of Kavikarṇapura little seems to be known, although as a Sanskrita author of great eminence, his name is familiar with the Vaishnavas. His earliest work is the Alankára Kaustubha, a treatise on rhetoric, the principles of which he was destined to illustrate with remarkable success in his after years. His next essay in the field of Sanskrita literature was a poer on the life of Chaitanya, but his reputation as a writer, however, was not established until after the publication of the A'ninda-Vrindavana Champu, which for richness of style and beauty of imagery claims the highest praise. It is written in a species of poetical prose of which Macpherson's Ossian may be quoted as an example. Its subject is the life of Krishna as narrated in the 10th book of the Bhagavat. Subsequent to the Champu, Kavikarṇapura published the Krishna-ganoddessa-dipiká, the Gour-ganoddessa-dipika and the Chaitanya Chandrodaya. The last is a historical drama in 10 acts, and was first represented at the sandal festival of Jagannátha, in the court of Rájá Pratáparudra, king of Cuttack. It belongs to the class technically termed Nátaka, and in its name and plot is an imitation of the Probodha Chandrodaya, of Kesava Misra. The subject is taken from the Karchá of Rupa Goswámí, which describes in tedious detail even the most trifling incidents in the life of Chaitanya. It may be easily supposed that the biography of a hermit unconnected with the world furnishes scanty materials for a ten act play, and accordingly the Chaitanya Chandrodaya is made up of too many dialogues that lead to nothing, and is peculiarly deficient in unity of action. A profusion of alliterations and a gorgeously ornate style are also amongst its faults, which considerably detract from its merits as an acting drama-for it would, no doubt, fail, in performance, to master the sympathy of a large and promiscuous audience; as the result of reflected-not of immediate
