Srila Lochana Dasa Thakura

Srila Lochana Dasa Thakura was a Bengali poet-saint of the generation after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own direct associates. He is remembered above all for two things. He wrote Sri Chaitanya-mangala, one of the earliest full biographical poems on the life of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He also composed many Bengali padavali songs that Gaudiya Vaishnavas, including Srila Prabhupada himself, have sung ever since. He belonged to the circle of Vaishnavas at Srikhanda gathered around his guru, Narahari Sarkara Thakura. We know his life mainly from his own writing and from later devotional biographies, not from Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita itself. That book does not tell his life story at length.

A Physician's Son from Kograma #

Lochana Dasa Thakura was born into a family of vaidyas, hereditary Bengali physicians, in the village of Kograma near the Ajaya River in what is now Bardhaman district. His father, Kamalakara Dasa, and mother, Sadananda Devi, had only the one son, and he was raised largely in his maternal grandfather's home, where his education was completed. Even as a boy, tradition holds, he showed unusual attraction to the company of Vaishnavas who spoke of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's sankirtana movement, an attraction that only deepened after his early marriage. Family details, birth and early married life are covered at greater length on Birth and Early Life.

Discipleship at Srikhanda #

Lochana Dasa Thakura's guru was Narahari Sarkara Thakura. Narahari was a personal associate of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and one of the senior Vaishnavas of Srikhanda. Srikhanda, a village near Katwa, was itself home to a whole circle of devotees, among them Mukunda Dasa and his son Raghunandana Thakura. Sri Chaitanya-caritamrita names Narahari as one of the great branches of the tree of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy. Srila Prabhupada's purport to that verse states plainly that the famous author of Sri Chaitanya-mangala was his disciple. Under Narahari's care at Srikhanda, Lochana Dasa learned the art of kirtana. In time he received his guru's order to compose a Bengali life of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and this order produced the central work of his life. The fuller story of that discipleship, including his presence at Narahari Sarkara Thakura's own disappearance festival, is told on Discipleship Under Narahari Sarkara Thakura.

Composing Sri Chaitanya-mangala #

Lochana Dasa Thakura worked from Damodara Pandita's account of a Sanskrit biography by Murari Gupta. He completed Sri Chaitanya-mangala in 1537 in the Panchali verse-style of eastern Bengal, arranged in four sections running to more than twenty chapters. Vrindavana Dasa Thakura's own life of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had first carried the very same title. So, tradition recounts, Lochana Dasa traveled to meet Vrindavana Dasa Thakura in person before releasing his book. Only afterward did the two works come to be told apart. Vrindavana Dasa's book became known as Chaitanya-bhagavata, while Lochana Dasa's kept the name Chaitanya-mangala. Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition has long noted that the two books complete each other and do not simply repeat each other. Lochana Dasa fills in a number of episodes that Vrindavana Dasa's own telling passes over briefly. One of them is an account of Vishnupriya Devi's final night with the Lord before His sannyasa. Sri Chaitanya-mangala was later printed and distributed by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. For generations wandering Vaishnava musicians have sung episodes from it across rural Bengal. See Writing Sri Chaitanya-mangala for the fuller account. It includes the disagreement among sources over exactly how the question of the two books' names was settled.

Songs for Nitai-Gaura #

Lochana Dasa Thakura also left behind many devotional Bengali songs praising Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu, and Gauridasa Pandit. Several of them are still sung in Gaudiya Vaishnava kirtana and are preserved among the padavali collected in the Vaishnava Song Book. Srila Prabhupada was so fond of these songs that on at least one recorded occasion he sang Lochana Dasa's Parama Karuna and gave a long, line-by-line purport to it. He described its author simply as a "great devotee and acharya of the Gaudiya-sampradaya." The fuller account of his songwriting, and of which of his songs the Vaishnava Song Book holds, is given on Devotional Songs and Padavali.

Disappearance and Enduring Legacy #

No source records a year for Lochana Dasa Thakura's disappearance. What is recorded is that his samadhi lies in the Chaunsath Samadhi, or 64 Samadhis, area of Vrindavan, among those of other confidential associates of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. His writings have lasted longer than any record of his dates. Sri Chaitanya-mangala remains one of the main poetic accounts of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's life, alongside Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami's Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and Vrindavana Dasa Thakura's Chaitanya-bhagavata. His songs are still sung in temples that trace their line back through Srila Prabhupada and Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition he served. Further detail on this legacy, including the Bhakti-ratnakara's account of his role at his own guru's disappearance festival, appears on Disappearance and Legacy.

At a Glance

• A vaidya physician's son from Kograma, Bengal, who became a disciple of Narahari Sarkara Thakura at Srikhanda.
• Author of Sri Chaitanya-mangala (1537), one of the earliest full poetic biographies of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
• A prolific songwriter whose padavali on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu, and Gauridasa Pandit are still sung today.
• Srila Prabhupada personally gave a purport on one of his songs and called him "a great devotee and acharya of the Gaudiya-sampradaya."
• His disappearance year is not recorded; his samadhi stands in Vrindavan's 64 Samadhis area.

Songs in the Vaishnava Song Book #

The Vaishnava Song Book carries 12 songs attributed to Srila Lochana Dasa Thakura: see the full author page here.