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Prabodhānanda, Hita Harivaṃśa and the Rādhārasasudhānidhi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

J. K. Brzezinski
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, London

Extract

In an earlier article (‘Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī: from Benares to Braj’, BSOAS, LV, 1, 1992) an attempt was made to establish an authoritative biography of Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī, the author of a number of devotional poems and commentaries in Sanskrit. It was shown there that the sannyāsin Prabodhānanda's life can be divided into three parts: the first, about which we know little, in which he was a Śankaraite monk living in Benares; a second, in which he came under the influence of Caitanya and his devotees, and a third, in which he associated closely with Hita Harivaṃśa, the founder of the Rādhāval-labhī sect in Braj.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1992

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References

1 For a full bibliography, see BSOAS, LV, 1, 1992, 73–5Google Scholar. Abbreviations of other titles used in this paper are as follows: ARP = Āścaryarāsaprabandha; BhP = Bhāgavatapurāṇa; BRK = Bhaktiratnākara; BRS = Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu; CP = Hitacaurāsī or Caurāsī Pada; CCA = Caitanyacandrāṃṛta; CC = Caitanyacaritāmṛta; Gītag = Gītagovinda; HBV = Haribhaktivilāsa; HC = Harivaṃśa Carita or Hita Carita; KKA = Kṛṣṇakarṇāmṛta; PV = Premavilāsa; Saṅg M = Saṅgītatnādhava; UN = Ujjvalanīlamaṇi; VMA = Vṛndāvanamshimāmṛta.

I should like to express here my thanks to Dr. Rupert Snell of SOAS for corrections and suggestions which have been of great help in the writing of this article.

2 Published in Rasika Ananya, Māla, (ed.) Lalitāprasāda Purohit (Vrindavan, 1961: 99100Google Scholar.)

3 Bhaktakavi, Vỵāsajī, (ed.) Vāsudeva Gosvāmī (Mathurā: Agrawāl Press, 1953, 193–4)Google Scholar.

4 RRSN, Introduction by Hitadāsa, , 30. This anecdote appears in a rather late work of Mīṭhā Bhāī; cf. Snātaka, Rādhāvallabhasampradāya (1968:92). It is not in the earlier account of HCGoogle Scholar.

5 Nāgarīdāsa's, Aṣṭaka, Rūpalāla's Vānī, Jatanlāl's Rasika Ananya Sāra, etc. Cited, Snātaka (1968:98)Google Scholar. Another version is that she appeared to him and told him the mantra outright, kṛpā kari SrīRādhā prakaṭa hoya darśana diyo/ apane hita ko jānikai hita son mantra sunāya diyau//; Uttamadāsa, HC: eka divasa sovata sukha lahyau ŚrīRādhe supane meṃ kahyau/ dvāra tihāre pīpara jo hai ūṃcī ḍāra sabana meṅ so hai/ tā meṅ aruna patra ika nyārau jāmai jugala mantra hai mārau/ lehu mantra tuma karahu prakāsa rasika hanana kī pujibahu āsa//

6 Vṛndāvanadāsa's, BābāŚrīHitaharivaṃśa sahasranāma, p. 11 Rasika Mala, cited in Snātaka, (1968:97)Google Scholar. misra bāga meṅ kūpa nihārau tāmai dvibhuja svarūpa hamārau/ sundara Śyāma bāṅsurīlie mama gādī sebabu mana diye//

7 (ed.) Stārām, ŚaranBhagavān, Prasād (Lucknow: Tejkumar Press, 1962), chappaya 90. Rādhācarana pradhāna hṛdai ati sudṛḍha upāsī/ kuṃja keli daṃpati tahāñ kī karata khavāsī// sarvasu mahāprasāda prasidha tāke adhikārīj vidhi-niṣedha nahiṃ dāsa anani utkaṭa vratadhārī// Vyāsasuvana patha anusarai soi bhalai pahiṃcāni hail Śrī Harivaṃśa gusāī bhajana kīrīti sakṛt kou jāni hai//Google Scholar

8 In Śrīhita Caurāsī(i.e. CP), (ed.) Lalitācaraṇa, Gosvāmī (Vrindavan: Veṇu Prakāsana, 2nd ed., 1979), 68–9Google Scholar.

9 Translation by Rupert, Snell ‘The Caurāsī Pada, a Rādhāvallabhī text in medieval Hindi’, Ph.D. thesis, SOAS, 1984, 24.Google Scholar

10 Second letter; Jo śāstra maryādā satya hai aur guru mahimā aisā hī satya hai to Braja nava taruṇi kadamba cūṇāmaṇi ŚrīRādhe tihāre sthāpe guru mārga viṣai aviśvāsa ajñānīko hota hai. Tāte yaha maryādā rakhanau. Text taken from Snātaka (1968: 331).

11 Berhampore edition, 275; Gopāla Bhaṭṭera śiṣya yāra yei nāma/ kona deśe kāra vāsa śunahaīkhyāna// Śrīnivāsācārya Gauḍe Harivaṃśa Vrajavāsī/ Gopīnālha pūjāri haya baḍa gunarāśi/ ŚrīRādhārmaṇa sevā yāre samarpila/j ei tina śiṣya Bhaṭṭera ākhyāne kahila// guru ājñā nā māniyā gelā Harivaṃśa/ āchila aneka guṇa saba haila dhvaṃsa//. This edition has eighteen chapters. The Yaśodālāla Tālukdāra edition of 1913 is the inflated version.

12 Bhaktamāla, 224–5. Śrīmiān Harivaṃśa Gosvāmī caritra/ jagale vyāpita haya parama pavitra// Śrīmān Gopāla Bhaṭṭajīra śiṣya teṃha/ mahābhaktivān teṃha Rādhā Kṛṣṇa premavaha// eka ekādaśī dine tāmbūla prasādi/ khāilā baliyā guru kailā aparādhī// antare gosāñi ruṣṭa nāhi ta hailā/ bāhya lokaśikṣā hetu śāsana karilā// Harivaṃśa gosāñira śiṣya anukramej ebe Rādhāvallabhī gosāñi Vrajadhāme// Śrīmān Gopāla Bhaṭṭa tāhāte praṇālī/ phirāilā ki hetuka nā jāni ki bali// ye hetuka anya anya sampradāya sane/ vyavahāra āhāra paramārthe nāhi bane// viccheda haila eka-pataṅga nā haya/ Rājā Jayasiṃha bahu vicāra karaya// se saba kahāte ebe phala kichu nāil koṭi koṭi daṇḍavat sabhākāra ṭhāi// The translation above is from Snell (1984: 30) who credits it to Tarapada Mukherjee.

13 This reference is not available, even in secondary sources. Snātaka discusses the issue (1968: 97–9, 113–17).

14 Guṇamañjarīdāsa, , ŚrīGopālabhaṭṭaśataka (Vrindavan, 1908). Birth, p. 2: V.S. 1555Google Scholar; Death, p. 23, 1642; establishment of Rādhāramaṇa, Vaiśākhapūrṇimā 1599 (p. 7). This author, a Gosvāmī of the Rādhāramaṇa family writing in the late nineteenth century, also seems to have taken much of his information about Gopāla Bhaṭṭa from the PV accounts mentioned above for he identifies Verikata Bhaṭṭa as his father (p. 2) and Hita Harivaṃśa as his disciple (p. 56).

15 See R. Snell's notes on CP, 40.6 and 65.4.

16 Snell (1984: 492–9) compares a number of commentaries on certain padas of CP and concludes that RRSN is the dogmatic source for the interpretative tradition. Since the purpose of this article is to ascertain the authorship of this work, we intend to use only CP as the authoritative indicator of Harivaṃśa's doctrinal position.

17 In Vāsudeva Gosvāmī (1953: 193).

18 HBV, 13.

19 See the discussion in De, S. K., Early history of the Vaiṣṇava faith and movement in Bengal (1942: 104–7)Google Scholar. BRK, 1.800–801; karite Vaiṣṇava smṛti haila bhaṭṭa mana/ …Gopālera nāme SrTGosvdmT Sanatoria/ karila Haribhaktivilāsa varnana//, etc.

20 The same scene is portrayed in RRSN, 5, 112, 201, 209, 233. See also the māna verses of CP.

21 Rūpa Gosvāmī, in his Bhaktirasāmṛtasindhu, identifies the qualification for rāgānugabhakti as the ‘non-dependance on scriptural injunctions or logical argument’ (tattadbhāvādimādhurye śrute dhīr yad apekṣate/ nātra śāstraṃ na yuktiṃ ca tal lobhotpattilakṣaṇam// I.2.292.

22 Kṛṣṇavallabha commentary on verse 3.

23 Chakravarty, Ramakanta, Vaiṣṇavism in Bengal (Calcutta: Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, 1985), 308.Google Scholar

24 tau santoṣayatā santau śrīlarūpasanātanauj Dākṣiṇātyena Bhaṭṭena punar etad vivicyate// tasyādyaṃ granthanālekhaṃ krāntavyutkrāntakhaṇḍitam/ paryālocyātha paryāyaṃ kṛtvā likhati Jīvakaḥ//. These two verses introduce each of the six volumes of this work.

25 See Kṛṣṇasandarbha, para. 171ff.

26 viz. Gosvāmī, Srīvatsa, ‘Rādhā, the play and perfection of rasa’ in The Divine Consort, (ed.) Hawley, J. S. and Wulffe, D. M. (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984), 7288.Google Scholar

27 ‘A vernacular portrait: Rādhā in the Sūr Sāgar’, in The Divine Consort, 4256, esp. 53Google Scholar.

28 1.7.126; talhāpi sambhogasukhād api stutaḥ sa ko'py anirvācyatamo manoramaḥ/ pramodarāśiḥ pariṇāmato dhruvaṃ tatra sphuret tad rasikaikavedyaḥ//

29 Bṛhad Bhāgavalāmṛta, II.6.352–5.

30 Antya 1.66–67: Kṛṣṇake bāhira nāhi kariha Braja haite/ Braja chāḍi Kṛṣṇa kabhu nā yāya kāhāṅte//, This is followed by a quote from Yamala.

31 Laghubhāgavatāmṛta, 1.5.461: Kṛṣṇo –nyo Yadusambhūto yas lu Gopendranandanaḥ/ Vṛndāvanaṃ parilyajya sa kvacin naiva gacchati//; UN (Haridāsa Dāsa edition), 15.185–7: Atha saṁyogaviyogasthitiḥ. Harer Iīlāviśeṣasya prakaṭasyānusārataḥ / varṇitā virahāvasthā goṣṭhavāmabhruvām asau// Vṛndāraṇye viharatā sadā rāsādivibhramaiḥ/ Hariṇa Vrajadevīnāṃ viraho ‘sti na karhicit// Tathā ca Pādme Pātālakhaṇḍe Mathurāmāhātmye: gogopagopikāsaṅge yatra krīḍati Kaṁsahā//; Padyāvalī, (ed.) De, S. K. (Dacca, 1934)Google Scholar.

32 Gopālacampū, II.29.116.

33 vidagdhānām milho līlāvilāsena yathā sukham/ na tathā samprayogeḥa syād evam rasikā viduḥ //UN, 15.253.

34 See in particular 2.1, 4.1–10.

35 (ed.) Kaviratna, Syāmācarana (Calcutta, 1911), 1329. evam ekāntinām prāyaḥ kīrtanam smaraṇaṃ prabhoḥ/ kurvatām paramaprītyā kṛlyam anyaṃ na rocayet// bhāvena kenacit preṣṭhaŚrīmrler ahghrisevane/ syād icchaiṣāṃsvamantreṇa svarasenaiva tadvidhiḥ// vihiteṣv eva nityeṣu pravartanle svayaṃ hi te/ ity ādy ekbhāti māhatmyaṃ likhitaṃ hi tat)//Google Scholar

36 In 1888, the Rādharāmaṇa sevāyata Rādhācaraṇa Gosvāmī wrote a book called Śrt Caitanya-carita sāra in which he stated that Gopāla Bhatta was spiritual master of Hita Harivaṃsā. He was taken to court, and on 5 October of that year was judged guilty of defamation. He was made to pay a 5 rupee fine and revoke his claims with an apology, saying he had no proof. Snātaka (1968: 98–9) has taken this information from a Hindi work by Gopälaprasāda Śarma called Bhramoccheda about which he gives no further information.

37 Snātaka (1968: 324–30) makes a concerted effort to show that these are Harivaṃśa's own compositions. Snell (1984: 464–9) suggests that they are more likely to come from the body of anonymous literature from which both the compilers of CP and Sūrasāgara drew.

38 Hitacaurāsī aur uskī Premadāṣā kṛta Vrajabhāṣā ṭīkā, (ed.) Vijay Pāl, Siṃha and Candrabhān, Rāvat (Kāśī: Nāgarī Pracāriṇī Sabhā, 1971)Google Scholar. The list is somewhat arbitrary. Snātaka gives a somewhat different breakdown (1968: 294), significantly omitting dāna (51), even though this song starts with the line, dāna dai rī navala kiṣorī&

39 See also CP, 11, 18; RRSN, 10.

40 Harivaṃśa's affinity for Gītag is pointed out by Harirāma Vyāsa: baḍe rasika Jayadeva bakhānī līlā amṛta cucāto/ Vṛnāvana Harivaṃśpa prasaṃsita, suni gaurī musikāta//, Vāsudeva Gosvāmī (1953: 195).

41 CP, 20, mere prāṇanātha ṤrīSyāmā sapatha karauh tṛṇa chiye, etc.

42 CP, 24.4, śrabaṇa phuṭaujo anasunauh bina Rādhā yaśa baina.

43 In this article, references to RRSN follow the Gauḍīya recension. Verses in the Rādhāvallabhī recensions will be one figure lower.

44 De, S. K. (1942: 99); the references given by him are vii.1464–5Google Scholar; p. 131,239, VII. p. 230. Notices, 2nd series, I, p. 384.

45 See for example: 1.12, 1.61, 2.58, etc.

46 Sadyogīndrasudṛṣsyasāndrarasaddnandaikasanmūrtayaḥ sarve ‘py adbhutasanmahimni madhure Vrndāvane sahgatāḥ/ ye krūrā api pāpino na ca satāṃ sambhāṣyadṛṡyāṡ ca ye sarvān vastutayā nirīkṣya paramasvārādhyabuddhir mama//

47 e.g., Kṛṣṇa seeing himself reflected in Rādhā's bright golden skin is also found both in Subhāṣitaratnakoṡa, 4.44 and RRSN, 246.

48 samastavedamaslakair agamyavaibhavām sadā mahāmunīndraNāradādibhiḥ sadaiva bhāvitām/ atulyapāmarair api śritāṃ pumarthasāradāṃ bhaje Kalindanandinīṃ durantamohamanjanīm//, in Bṛhatstotramuktāhāra, (Ahmedabad, 1916), 419–20.