Kavi Karnapura

Kavi Karnapura or Kavikarnapura was a 16th-century Indian Bengali poet in Sanskrit; best known for verse works, Chaitanya Charanamrita and Chaitanya Chandrodaya. He was a junior contemporary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Life and works

Kavi Karnapura was born as the son of Shivananda Sen, a Vaidya and a prominent disciple of Chaitanya. He was born on 1524 in Nadia district of Bengal, about a decade before Chaitanya's passing in 1533 and met Chaitanya several times in Puri and was received the honorific title of 'Kavi Karnapura' by Svarup Damodar. He was spent his last days at Vrindavan.
He has written extensively on the life and teaching of Chaitanya and on the faith of bhakti movement. These include the 'Mahakavya' and 'Nataka' referred to earlier, Alamkara-Kaustubha, Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika, Ananda -Vrindavana-Champa and a commentary on the Srimad Bhagavat. Karnapura sought to systematize the faith within a theoretical framework.