No source gives a year for Pundarika Vidyanidhi's disappearance, so we do not make one up. We can say more, and with more confidence, about how the tradition remembered him afterward. In its own way, this is almost as interesting as the events of his life.
A Genuine Puzzle About Vrindavana #
The Chaitanya-charitamrita itself states clearly that Pundarika Vidyanidhi never visited Vrindavana-dhama in this life. It says the same of Haridasa Thakura, Srivasa Thakura, Shivananda Sena, Ramananda Raya, Shikhi Mahiti, Madhavi-devi and Gadadhara Pandit. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, commenting on this point, says plainly that there is no authorized record of any of these great devotees making the journey. But later pilgrimage tradition, as recorded in accounts of the samadhis at Radha-kunda, places a samadhi for Pundarika Vidyanidhi among the 64 Samadhis there. It stands alongside those of many of Mahaprabhu's other associates. So the two traditions disagree. Krishnadasa Kaviraja's own words say one thing, and the later samadhi tradition says another. A reader should take the samadhi as a mark of devotional honor, not as proof that Pundarika Vidyanidhi ever travelled there.
A Family That Did Not Vanish #
What is better recorded is the family he left behind. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura wrote in the early twentieth century. He recorded that descendants of Pundarika Vidyanidhi's line were still living in his own time, among them Sri Harakumara Smrititirtha and Sri Krishnakinkara Vidyalankara. He also recorded that one member of the family, Sarojananda Gosvami, was by then living in Vrindavana itself. There is a quiet irony in this, because it is uncertain whether Pundarika Vidyanidhi himself ever reached that holy town. The family had kept its old pattern of one son in each generation, or none at all. So it had never grown large, but it had also never died out.
The Shripat at Mekhala #
According to Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, the temple Pundarika Vidyanidhi built at his family's shripat in Mekhala was already very old and badly in need of repair. Its brick inscriptions were so worn that they could not be read. A second temple, possibly older, stood nearby. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati did not try to give a complete family tree himself. Instead, he pointed readers who wished to trace the family further to the specialist reference work Vaishnava-manjusha. That same site, in what is now Bangladesh, is still maintained today. It is cared for by ISKCON devotees and known to pilgrims as Pundarika Dham. There visitors can see Pundarika Vidyanidhi's bhajan-kutir, along with a Radha-kunda, Shyama-kunda and small Govardhana built in his memory. Together they form a small devotional picture of Vraja, which reflects the Vraja identity the tradition gives him.
The Third Branch, Remembered #
The tradition uses several names for him. Vidyanidhi, treasure of learning, came from his own family's reputation. Premanidhi was given by Mahaprabhu. Acharyanidhi and Bhaktyanidhi were both used by later devotees. Read together, these names are almost like a record of how differently he appeared from the outside and from the inside over his life. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami's own verse remains the simplest explanation of why any of this was recorded at all. It tells us that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself would sometimes weep on hearing this man's name. Pundarika Vidyanidhi was a wealthy landowner who lived exactly as rich as he looked. More than once he was misjudged by people who should have known better. And he was loved completely by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Gadadhara Pandit and Svarupa Damodara Goswami alike. That is the picture of Pundarika Vidyanidhi that the sources leave us. It is not a thin one, even where the record runs out.
