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CHAPTER XXXII
CAITANYA AND HIS FOLLOWERS
Caitanya's Biographers. CAITANYA was the last of the Vaişnava reformers who had succeeded Nimbārka and Vallabha. As a matter of fact, he was a junior contemporary of Vallabha. So far as he is known to us, he did not leave behind any work treating of his own philosophy, and all that we can know of it is from the writings of his contemporary and later admirers and biographers. Even from these we know more of his character and of the particular nature of his devotion to God than about his philosophy. It is therefore extremely difficult to point out anything as being the philosophy of Caitanya. Many biographies of him were written in Sanskrit, Bengali, Assamese and Oriya and a critical study of the materials of Caitanya's biography in Bengali was published some time ago by Dr Biman Behari Mazumdar. Of the many biographies of Caitanya those by Murārigupta and Vịndāvanadāsa deal with the first part of Caitanya's life, and the latter's work is regarded as the most authoritative and excellent treatment of his early life. Again, Krsnadāsa Kavirāja's Life, which emphasizes the second and third parts of Caitanya's life, is regarded as the most philosophical and instructive treatment of his most interesting period. Indeed, Vịndāvanadāsa's Caitanya-bhāgavata and Krsnadāsa Kavirāja's Caitanya-caritāmrta stand out as the most important biographical works on Caitanya. We have already mentioned Murárigupta, who wrote a small work in Sanskrit, full of exaggerations, though he was a contemporary. There are also biographies by Jayānanda and Locanadāsa, entitled Caitanya-mangala. Some Govinda and Svarūpa Dāmodara, supposed to have been personal attendants of Caitanya, were said to have kept notes, but these are apparently now lost. Kavi Karņapūra wrote the Caitanya-candrodaya-nāțaka, which may be regarded as the principal source of Kęsņadāsa Kavirāja's work. Vịndāvanadāsa was born in śaka 1429 (A.D. 1507); he had seen Caitanya during the first fifteen years of his life. Caitanya died in saka 1455 (A.D. 1533) and the Caitanya-bhāgavata
