Caitanya Caritamrta of Krsndasa Kaviraja: A Translation and Commentary

The Caitanya Caritamrta 
is an early-seventeenth-century Bengali and Sanskrit biography of the great saint and Vaisnava leader Caitanya (1486–1533 CE) by the poet and scholar Krsnadasa, who has been given by Bengali tradition the title Kaviraja—“Prince of Poets.” The text is of interest to theologians—Caitanya was, in Krsnadasa’s view, an androgyne of Krsna and Radha; philosophers—his theory was that aesthetic and religious experience are much the same in kind; historians of religion—the movement that Caitanya inspired has encompassed the great part of the eastern Indian subcontinent, and Krsnadasa has some interesting observations on his own times; and appreciators of literature—in Krsnadasa’s very long poem are embedded some lyric gems_The Authors_Edward C. Dimock, Jr., is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago. Tony K. Stewart is Associate Professor of South Asian Religions at North Carolina State University and Director of the North Carolina Center for South Asia Studies.