Krishnadasa Kaviraja
Krishnadasa, known by the honorific Kaviraja, was the author of the Chaitanya Charitamrita, a biography on the life of the mystic and saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is considered by the Gaudiya Vaishnava school of Hinduism to be an incarnation of Radha and Krishna combined.
Biography
There is scant information about the life of Krishnadasa Kaviraja. Krishnadasa was born in 1496 in a Bengali Baidya family in the village of Jhamatpur, within the district of Bardhaman, Bengal. His father was called Bhagiratha, and his mother was named Sunanda. He also had a younger brother. Both his parents died when he was young and he and his brother were raised by relatives.He died on October 15, 1588. His samadhi shrine exists within the Radha Damodar Temple, Vrindavan premises.
Instructions
Krishnadasa relates in his Chaitanya Charitamrita that once his brother argued with the prominent Vaishnava devotee Minaketana Ramadasa over the ontological positions of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda and belittled the position of Nityananda. Krishnadasa considered this to be an unpardonable offence and rejected his brother forthwith.After receiving instructions in a vision from Nityananda, Krishnadasa left Bengal and travelled to Vrindavan where he took initiation from Raghunatha dasa Goswami, one of the direct followers of Chaitanya.
Chaitanya Charitamrita
At an advanced age and in poor health Krishnadasa commenced work on his magnum opus, the Chaitanya Charitamrita after being repeatedly petitioned by the devotees in Vrindavan who had never met Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and who were eager for details. He vividly describes in the text itself: “I have now become too old and disturbed by invalidity. While writing, my hands tremble. I cannot remember anything, nor can I see or hear properly. Still, I write, and this is a great wonder.”In composing his Charitamrita, Krishnadasa used the diaries of Murari Gupta and Svarupa Damodara, both of whom were intimate associates of Chaitanya. Krishnadasa was also given a great deal of information by his guru, Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, who had served Svarupa Damodara when the latter was Chaitanya's personal secretary.
Due to its amount of detail on the life of Chaitanya and his precepts, the Chaitanya Charitamrita became the definitive biography of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
In the Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika of Kavi Karnapura, Krishnadasa Kaviraja is identified as being an incarnation of the handmaiden of Radha called Kasturi Manjari.