Vṛndāvana dāsa

Vrndavana dasa Thakura, 1507 to 1589, is among the most historically significant poets in this entire anthology: the author of the Chaitanya-bhagavata, the first full-length biography of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu written in Bengali, composed at the direct order of Nityananda Prabhu, whose last accepted disciple Vrndavana dasa is recorded to have been. Born at Mamgachi near Navadvipa to a mother who was Srivasa Pandita's own niece, he originally titled his work Chaitanya-mangala; when the leading Vaishnavas of Vrindavana learned that Locana dasa Thakura, elsewhere in this same collection, had independently written a book under the same title, Vrndavana dasa's work was renamed Chaitanya-bhagavata to distinguish the two, the name it carries to this day. The four songs gathered under his own signature here are comparatively modest beside that major prose achievement, touching on Gaura-Govinda together and on Madana-mohana's form.