By the time Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's South India tour brought Him near the Godavari river in around 1510, Ramananda Raya was already an important man in the world. He held the post of governor at Vidyanagara. He ran that province of the Gajapati kingdom on behalf of Maharaja Prataparudra. The post gave him genuine authority over revenue, justice and order along a stretch of the empire's territory near the river. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita simply calls him "a responsible government officer" at Vidyanagara. Srila Prabhupada's purport to that verse notes what Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura wrote in his Amrita-pravaha-bhashya commentary. Bhaktivinoda Thakura identified this Vidyanagara with a town on the Godavari that was also called Porbandar. This is a different place from the better-known Porbandar in Gujarat, far to the west.
A Governor's Life #
Holding a post like this in the Gajapati kingdom meant more than paperwork. Ramananda Raya was responsible for a province that bordered rival powers to the south. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita later describes him travelling with the full company of followers that such a position required. There were horses, elephants, soldiers, and a large company of Vedic brahmanas, who went with him even for ordinary religious observances like his visits to bathe in the river. Later, he urged Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to travel on to Puri without him, and his stated reason was exactly this. His own journey to Puri would come with so many horses, elephants and soldiers, "all roaring tumultuously," that it would not be suitable company for the Lord's quiet pilgrimage. It is a small detail, but it shows how grand a life Ramananda Raya was still living, even after his transformation had begun.
A Reputation That Preceded Him #
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to meet this governor for a reason that had nothing to do with his office. Before the Lord ever set out for South India, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya spoke to Him about Ramananda Raya. Sarvabhauma was the great scholar of Puri who had recently become Mahaprabhu's own follower. He told the Lord plainly that there was a government officer on the Godavari whose understanding of the moods of Radha and Krishna's love had no equal among the devotees Sarvabhauma knew. Sarvabhauma urged the Lord not to let Ramananda Raya's worldly position keep Him away: "Please do not neglect him, thinking he belongs to a shudra family engaged in materialistic activities... No other devotee can compare with him in knowledge of the divine sentiments." Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took the recommendation so seriously that He later said He had gone to that stretch of river for no other purpose than to meet him.
Poet, Dramatist and Scholar of Rasa #
Ramananda Raya was known as a rasika, one who deeply knows and relishes devotional mellows. This reputation rested on real accomplishment, not rumor. He was a Sanskrit poet and dramatist. He wrote Jagannatha-vallabha-nataka, a play on Radha and Krishna's pastimes in Vrindavana, which later became one of the works performed and sung at the Jagannatha temple itself. All accounts agree that he was also a trained musician and a man deeply read in the literature of rasa. This branch of Vaishnava theology, still called rasa-shastra, describes and explains the different flavors of loving relationship a devotee can have with Krishna. This was Ramananda Raya's real field of expertise long before he had any reason to expect a young sannyasi to test it directly, in person. That test came on the bank of a river he had come to visit for entirely ordinary religious reasons.
The Man Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Went to Find #
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sought this meeting out very deliberately. He did not simply meet Ramananda Raya by chance in the course of His South Indian travels. He went to the Godavari specifically because Sarvabhauma had told Him to, and He sat waiting at the riverbank for Ramananda Raya's party to arrive. Afterward He even spoke of the meeting as the whole purpose of that part of His journey. From the outside, a governor with soldiers, elephants and a household of brahmana priests in his service was about the most unlikely partner imaginable for a sannyasi's most private theological conversation. What happened when the two of them actually met is told in The Meeting on the Godavari.
