Tradition dates the writing of Sri Chaitanya-Bhagavata to 1535 CE. Later literary historians, working from evidence inside the text and in the manuscripts, have argued for a somewhat later date, sometime in the mid-1540s. This is a real disagreement between devotional tradition and academic dating. We state it plainly here instead of settling it by simply choosing one side. Both sides agree that Vrindavana Dasa wrote in Bengali. They also agree that he wrote soon enough after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own life that people who had known the Lord personally were still living. Vrindavana Dasa could draw on them directly as sources, and one of them was his own mother.
A Book Renamed #
Vrindavana Dasa first called his book Chaitanya-mangala. It kept that title until the poet Lochana Dasa Thakura wrote his own, separate biography of Mahaprabhu under the same name. The Premavilasa of Nityananda Dasa tells the lives of Narottama Dasa Thakura and his companions. According to this book, the leading Vaishnavas gathered at Vrindavana and settled the matter by agreement. Lochana Dasa's book would keep the name Chaitanya-mangala. Vrindavana Dasa's earlier work would from then on be known as Sri Chaitanya-Bhagavata. Whether they intended it or not, the new name tied the book even more closely to the Bhagavata tradition. Vrindavana Dasa had written his book to carry that tradition forward into Mahaprabhu's own age.
What Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita Says About It #
No source praises Chaitanya-Bhagavata more highly, or more sincerely, than Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami's own Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. Krishnadasa writes that hearing Chaitanya-mangala "annihilates all misfortune," and that even a confirmed atheist or non-believer who hears it "immediately becomes a great devotee." He goes even further. He writes that the book's subject matter is so exalted that it seems Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself spoke through Vrindavana Dasa's own mouth. This is not an ordinary literary compliment, even if it may sound like one today. In the Gaudiya Vaishnava understanding of how genuine devotional literature comes to be written, it is a specific claim about where the book's real authority comes from. Krishnadasa ends this praise by bowing down completely before Vrindavana Dasa's achievement: "I offer millions of obeisances unto the lotus feet of Vrindavana Dasa Thakura. No one else could write such a wonderful book for the deliverance of all fallen souls."
The Book's Own Warnings #
Chaitanya-Bhagavata is not written only in a gentle devotional tone. In several places, repeated across all three sections of the book, Vrindavana Dasa gives sharp warnings against Vaishnava aparadha, that is, offenses against devotees. He warns in particular against anyone who would speak badly of Nityananda Prabhu. Some later readers have found these passages harsh when read out of context. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura answered this criticism. He defended Vrindavana Dasa's tone as itself an act of compassion. A Vaishnava's apparent severity toward blasphemers, he wrote, conceals a limitless underlying concern for the well-being of the very people being warned, since nothing does more lasting harm to a soul than persisting in offenses against the Lord's own devotees.
A Reception That Outlasted the Author #
Chaitanya-Bhagavata has remained continuously read and quoted within Gaudiya Vaishnavism ever since. Centuries later, Srila Prabhupada translated the opening chapters of Srimad-Bhagavatam. In a 1974 conversation he quoted a line from Vrindavana Dasa's book directly, and he named Vrindavana Dasa as its author. The line says that whatever passes for religion throughout the world, the Bhagavata calls entirely cheating. This gives a small glimpse of how naturally Prabhupada, and the tradition before him, used Vrindavana Dasa's own words in everyday teaching. They did not treat his words as an interesting piece of old history. Even four and a half centuries after the book was written, they used it as a living source of teaching.
