Santosha Datta

Introduction

Santosha Datta was a Bengal zamindar, the raja of the pargana of Kheturi on the Padma river. He is remembered today for one thing above all. He was the wealthy relative and disciple who built the temple, paid all the costs and welcomed the guests at the Kheturi Mahotsava. This festival gathered the scattered followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu together in one place for the first time since the Lord's own disappearance. Almost everything known about him comes from his family's connection to Narottama Dasa Thakura. Santosha inherited Narottama's childhood home, and he helped make Narottama's life's mission possible.

Chapter 1

Raja of Kheturi, Disciple of Narottama

How a Bengal zamindar's estate passed to Narottama Dasa Thakura's cousin, and how that heir became one of Narottama's earliest disciples.

Open as a separate page

Kheturi's ruling family had governed the Gopalpur pargana of Rajshahi district, on the bank of the Padma river, for at least two generations before Santosha Datta was born. Raja Krishnananda Datta was the ruler. He and his wife Narayani Devi raised a son, Narottama Dasa Thakura, whose life would one day be far greater than the throne itself. Krishnananda had a younger brother, Purushottama Datta. Purushottama's son, Santosha, would one day inherit everything the family had built.

A Prince Slips Away, a Cousin Stays Behind #

While Santosha grew up as part of the extended royal household, his cousin Narottama was already showing signs of a very different future. As a boy Narottama lost his taste for the throne after hearing wandering devotees describe the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, and his family, alarmed, set a guard to keep him from leaving. He escaped anyway, slipping out of Kheturi on a full-moon night and making his way to Vrindavana as an ordinary pilgrim. That departure, and the years Narottama spent there under Jiva Goswami and his eventual initiating guru Lokanatha Gosvami, are told on Narottama's own page. For Santosha, left behind in Kheturi, it meant that the family's fortunes, and eventually its full weight of responsibility, would fall to him.

By the time Narottama was ready to return to Bengal years later, both Krishnananda and Purushottama had died. At this point Santosha was simply "the foremost of saintly persons in the village," an "erudite scholar as well as expert in the royal administration," according to Gaudiya History's own account. This is the natural description of an heir who had spent the years in between learning to govern, not to renounce the world. The estate and the raja's seat passed to him, and Kheturi had a new ruler.

A Life the Chronicles Barely Touch #

Almost nothing about Santosha's own boyhood, marriage or private devotional life survives in any source. He belongs to the generation after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own lifetime. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata were both written to record Mahaprabhu's own pastimes and His immediate associates, so neither of them has any reason to mention him. Srila Prabhupada's translated works do not name him either. What is known comes instead from three later Bengali chronicles of the generation after Mahaprabhu: Prema-vilasa, Narottama-vilasa and Bhaktiratnakara. It also comes from the modern retellings based on them. This is a real gap in the record. We have not left these details out by choice.

The Cousin's Return #

Narottama's homecoming was itself an occasion for celebration. Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math's own account of these events records that the residents of Kheturi welcomed him back with rejoicing. Santosha did more than celebrate. He was moved by some mixture of family loyalty, personal conviction and plain awe at what his cousin had become. Whatever the mixture, Santosha chose to take diksha from Narottama and become his formally initiated disciple. He was one of the earliest, if not the very first, that Narottama accepted after his return. From that point Santosha set himself to help Narottama's preaching in whatever way a man with land, income and experience in administration could. This partnership would soon produce something far larger than either of them could have managed alone.

A Vow Takes Shape #

Narottama had brought back more than teachings from Vrindavana. Like many of the Six Goswamis' students, he carried the desire to see Deities properly installed and worshiped in Bengal itself. Whether the idea itself began with Narottama or with Santosha, the sources agree on what happened. Santosha decided to have a temple built at Kheturi, and he asked his guru's permission to do so. Narottama agreed. Over the following months, what began as one disciple's devotional offering to his teacher grew into preparations for the largest gathering of Gaudiya Vaishnavas since the days of Mahaprabhu's own presence in Nabadwip. That story is told in full on Host of the Kheturi Mahotsava.

Back to top

Chapter 2

Host of the Kheturi Mahotsava

The temple, the invitations and the festival day that first gathered Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's scattered followers under one roof.

Open as a separate page

Once Narottama Dasa Thakura gave his blessing, Santosha Datta moved with the resources of a raja behind him. Within a matter of months a substantial temple complex rose at Kheturi: a large temple building, a storehouse big enough to feed the crowds that were coming, a kirtana hall, a residence hall and ashram for visiting devotees, a bathing pond and a flower garden, and a guest house besides. The complex would come to be known as the Gaurangabari temple, after the Deity of Sri Gauranga installed at its heart.

Messengers to Every Corner of Bengal #

Santosha and Narottama did not plan a small or private ceremony. Messengers went out for miles around Kheturi carrying invitations to kings, landowners, poets, pandits, singers, orators and Vaishnavas of every description. The date chosen was itself significant: the full-moon day of Phalguna, Gaura Purnima, the anniversary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own appearance in this world. The festival that resulted is traditionally dated to 1574. According to Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math's account of the period, it was remembered as the greatest gathering of Gaudiya Vaishnavas since Mahaprabhu's own pastimes in Nabadwip. Lists of the hundreds of devotees who attended, representing nearly every branch of the young Gaudiya movement, survive in no fewer than three separate chronicles: Prema-vilasa, Narottama-vilasa and Bhaktiratnakara.

Arrivals on the Padma #

Bringing that many guests to a village by the river needed careful planning, and here Santosha's training in administration helped the festival most. He arranged boats to carry devotees across the Padma, and bullock carts and palanquins to take them the rest of the way, so that no one arriving from a distance faced unnecessary hardship. Jahnava Devi, the consort of Nityananda Prabhu, arrived with her own party and was received as the festival's chief guest. Also present were Shrinivasa Acharya, Shyamananda Pandit, Ramachandra Kaviraja, Vrindavana Dasa Thakura (author of Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata) and Kavi Karnapura Goswami. After witnessing these very events, Kavi Karnapura would go on to write Sri Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika. Santosha, Narottama and Shrinivasa personally welcomed guests with sandalwood paste and flower garlands as they arrived, and rooms and attendants were arranged for each one.

Six Deities Installed #

On the morning of Gaura Purnima, the assembled Vaishnavas gathered at the temple to watch Shrinivasa Acharya perform the installation. One by one he placed six Deities on their thrones and announced their names: Sri Gauranga, Sri Vallabhi Kanta, Sri Vraja Mohana, Sri Krishna, Sri Radha Kanta and Sri Radha Ramana. Accounts describe the mahants moved to tears at the sight. They describe Vedic hymns rising alongside the sound of kirtana instruments, and Jahnava Devi seated in her own place of honor. The ceremony went on for most of the day, with offerings of food, lamps, sandal paste and garlands. These were followed by hours of sankirtana. By tradition, this sankirtana drew Mahaprabhu and His own associates back into visible form among the dancing crowd.

The festival also settled matters that had nothing to do with ceremony. Neither Narottama nor Shyamananda had been born into a brahmana family. Because of this, some Gaudiya Vaishnavas were divided over whether a non-brahmana could serve as a diksha-guru. At Kheturi the assembled acharyas decided that he could. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself taught Ramananda Raya this same principle: "Whether one is a brahmana, a sannyasi or a sudra, regardless of what he is, he can become a spiritual master if he knows the science of Krishna" (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 8.128). Birth does not decide it; knowledge of Krishna does. At that same festival, the concept of the Pancha-tattva also gained the wide acceptance among Gaudiya Vaishnavas that it still has today. The Pancha-tattva means Chaitanya, Nityananda, Advaita, Gadadhara and Srivasa together. As Srila Prabhupada explains in his purport on this point, "Spiritually there are no differences between these five tattvas, for on the transcendental platform everything is absolute. Yet there are also varieties in the spiritual world, and in order to taste these spiritual varieties one should distinguish between them" (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila 7.5). None of this theological work was Santosha's own to do. His part was to make the room, the food and the welcome possible for the acharyas who did it.

A Grateful Farewell #

As the festival drew to a close and devotees began departing for their own sripats, Santosha and Narottama saw them off together. Santosha distributed gold coins, cloth and waterpots as parting gifts. He touched the feet of the exalted guests one final time before they scattered back across Bengal, Odisha and beyond. They carried with them not just Narottama's songs but also a shared feeling. For the first time since Mahaprabhu's disappearance, they felt that the scattered branches of His movement were one community after all.

Kheturi Since #

The temple Santosha built has outlasted him by more than four centuries, but not without loss. The original Deities Narottama installed there went missing during the wars that swept through Bangladesh in the 1970s. Only some of Narottama's worshipable shalagram-shilas are reported to remain on the site today. In recent years ISKCON Bangladesh has begun observing an annual Narottama Purnima festival at Kheturi Dham. Devotees come back to sing and gather on the same ground Santosha once prepared. It is a small reminder, four and a half centuries later, of the far larger crowd he once welcomed there himself.

Back to top

Closing

Disciple of Narottama Dasa Thakura #

Narottama returned to Bengal after years of study in Vrindavana under Jiva Goswami and after initiation from Lokanatha Gosvami. The people of Kheturi welcomed him home with celebration. By then Santosha was the head of his own household, and he went further. He took diksha from his own cousin and became Narottama's disciple. He set himself to help Narottama's preaching with whatever a man of land, wealth and training in administration could offer. Soon this devotion took a practical form. Santosha made a vow to build a temple worthy of the Deities Narottama wished to install.

What Remains of Kheturi Today #

The temple Santosha built at Kheturi is still standing. But the original Deities Narottama installed there were lost during the wars that swept through Bangladesh in the 1970s. A few of his worshipable shalagram-shilas are reportedly still preserved on the site. In recent years ISKCON Bangladesh has revived an annual Narottama Purnima festival at Kheturi Dham. It draws devotees back to the same ground Santosha once prepared for a very different, much larger crowd. No portrait or painting of Santosha Datta himself is known to survive. Unlike Narottama, he left no songs, and there is no separate devotional biography of him. He is remembered today almost entirely through the place he built and the festival he made possible.