Jagat

View from Vindhyavasini temple in Hardwar district, UK. Bhaktivinoda Thakur writes in his memoirs about a book, Hari-bhakti-kalpa-latikā , that fell into his hands while in Jagannath Puri. Here is the relevant paragraph: I did not yet have full mastery of Sanskrit grammar. While in Calcutta I had read Sanskrit literature with the help of [Ishwar Chandra] Vidyasagar Mahashay and Boro Dada [Dwijendranath Tagore]. After that, I had also studied a bit in Midnapore, and in Dinagepore and Motihari also, but in Puri I studied books thoroughly. After finishing the Bhāgavata I copied the Ṣaṭ Sandarbha and read it. Then I copied and read the Vedānta commentary, Govinda-bhāṣya , written by Baladeva. Then I read the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu . Thereafter I made a copy of the Hari-bhakti-kalpa-latikā . Little by little I also began to write in Sanskrit myself. I wrote a book in Sanskrit entitled Datta-kaustubha while in Puri. Many of the verses of the Śrī-kṛṣṇa-saṁhitā were also composed at t...

1. Until recently, Kavi Karnapura has generally been accepted without question as the author of a book on the life of Sri Krishna Chaitanya entitled Śrī-caitanya-caritāmṛta-mahā-kāvya [CCMK]. The date of this work is given as 1542(1) by the author himself in its final verse. In the two penultimate verses of the work, he identifies himself as the youngest son of Shivananda Sena and as a mere child ( śiśu ).(2) If Kavi Karnapura is indeed the author, it is certainly a matter of great interest as he is one of the most prolific and authoritative writers amongst Chaitanya's followers. His father, Shivananda Sena, was a rich and influential devotee of Chaitanya, responsible for the management of the yearly trips to Puri that played such an important role in the latter part of the great saint's life.(3) Unfortunately, with the exception of a few such autobiographical words in Karnapura's own compositions, such as the Ānanda-vṛndāvana-campū [AVC], Caitanya-candrodaya-nāṭa...