Part 18 - Baladeva and His Works

[Full title: Other Commentators and their Works (4) Baladeva]

Baladeva is another commentator on the Brahma-Sutras. He interprets them from the Dvaita point of view, though he follows Chaitanya, the great resuscitator of Vaishnavism in Bengal. Baladeva's preceptors were Radhadamodara and Pitambara, of whom the former belonged to the Kanyakubja country. His commentary is known as Govinda Bhashya, so called after Lord Govinda, at whose command it is said to have been composed. It is mentioned in the introductory part of one of Baladeva's works (the Siddhantaratna) that the Bhashya was made known to him by Lord Govinda in a dream. This statement is re-affirmed in the Siddhantatippani, another of his works, as well. Either for this reason or otherwise, Baladeva was also known as Govinda or Govindaikantin and had the title of Vidyabhushana. There can be hardly any doubt that he based his interpretation primarily on that of

Anandatirtha. Thus in his Bhashya, Govinda refers to Anandatirtha and states that he follows his doctrine of Dvaita in accordance with Chaitanya's view. He later wrote, in support of his Bhashya, another treatise called the Siddhantaratna, also known as Govindabhashyapithika, which means An Introduction to the Govinda Bhashya. This is a work in eight chapters on the Dvaita system of Vedanta from Chaitanya's standpoint. Three of the chapters in it are devoted to the rejection of the Advaita system. To explain the meaning of this work, Govinda wrote a commentary on it called the Siddhantaratnatippani. In this last-mentioned work, he refers to one Prataparudra Gopaladasa, a king of the Utkala country, and to the latter's guru, who was one of his own ancestors. Another work which he wrote is Krishna Chaitanyamrita (see Madras T.C. of Sanskrit MSS., IV, i. B, No. 2989 (a) and (b); also No. 2990; Madras D.C. IX, Nos. 4649 to 4657), which sets out the essence of Chaitanya's teachings. A fourth work that has been assigned to him is the Prameya Ratnavali which is highly popular in Bengal. MS. copies of Govinda's Bhashya are met with largely in the Ganjam District of the Madras Presidency, which is close to Orissa and Bengal where the system of Chaitanya is predominant. His System based on Chaitanya's Teachings. Chaitanya was, according to one set of authorities, born in 1486 A.D. and died in 1534; according to another, he is said to have been born in 1485 and died in 1533. His family belonged originally to Orissa and subsequently emigrated to Navadvip in the Nadia District of Bengal. The system of Anandatirtha had been largely followed in parts of the Orissa country for over two centuries before the birth of Chaitanya and had spread north-westwards to Benares, Prayag and Gaya. The Gayawals had embraced it long before the birth of Chaitanya. Naraharitirtha, after whom the Uttaradi Mutt, the chief Mutt of the Madhvas, is named, belonged to the old Kalinga

country. Through his influence-he was was evidently a Minister and wielded some political power-Madhvaism soon spread to Puri, the great religious centre of Orissa, from thence it pressed on to Bengal where it laid the foundation, first for the cult of Vishnusvami and later for that of Chaitanya. Vishnusvami developed the Krishna part of Madhva's religion, while Chaitanya carried it still further by including in it Radha as well. Otherwise, there is really little to distinguish the Vishnusvami and the Chaitanya cults from Madhvaism. Two Madhva writers prominently stand out in the work of popularizing Anandatirtha's religion in Bengal prior to the rise of Chaitanya. These are Vishnupuri, who lived in the thirteenth century and Madhavendra Puri, in the fifteenth century. Vishnupuri, by his famous work Bhaktiratnavali, also called Bhagavad Bhaktiratnamala, made the themes of the Bhagavata Purana not only popular but also beloved of young and old in Bengal. This work is really a treatise on Bhakti based on a number of stanzas taken from the Sri Bhagavata. In the colophon found in it, it is stated that Paramahamsa Vishnupuri was its author and that he was the disciple of Sri Purushottama (Srimanpurushottama charanaravinda kripa makaranda bindu pronmilitha viveka, see Madras D.C. of Sanskrit MSS., XI, No. 5144, pp. 3942-3944).00 Madhavendra Puri appears to have been an equally popular teacher. made the religion of Krishna better known among among the people and won a large and influential following. Among those who became his disciples were some who moulded the religious life of Chaitanya. He 60 In the Madras Catalogue quoted, this work of Vishnupuri and his other works are included under the head" Vedanta: the Philosophy of Vallabha". As will be seen, this is not a correct representation of Vishnupuri's philosophical position. Vishnupuri was really a follower of Madhva and his work is a development of the idea underlying Anandatirtha's Bhagavata Tatparya Nirnaya. His guru Purushottama was evidently a Madhva ascetic and the title Paramahamsa assumed by Vishnupuri indicates that he also belonged to the ascetic order.

Chaitanya's Indebtedness to Madhvaism. 183 Chaitanya may thus be said to have begun his religious life as a Madhva and to have developed some aspects of Madhva's religion on his own lines. It is not surprising, therefore, that we find Chaitanya's first initiator into the mysteries of the Bhakti cult was Isvara Puri, the Madhva guru at Gaya. The significance of this initiation, which occurred in 1508 A.D., will be readily imagined when it is stated that the worship of Krishna is to this day the predominant cult at Udipi, the centre of Madhva's cult. From the day he was initiated by Isvara Puri, Chaitanya became an ardent devotee of Krishna and dedicated the rest of his life to his service. Chaitanya's principal assistant in spreading his religion was Nityananda, another Madhva Sanyasin. Finally, we have to note that the teacher who, in 1510, initiated Chaitanya into Sanyasa was Kesava Bharati, who was also a Madhva guru. Among the principal places visited by Chaitanya in his grand pilgrimage of India were Sri Kurmam, Simhachalam, Srirangam and Udipi,-all places specially sacred to Madhvas. At Sri Kurmam are the inscriptions of Naraharitirtha, the direct disciple of Anandatirtha, the founder of the Dvaita system, dated in 1281 and 1294 A D. (Madras Epigraphy Report , Nos. 290 and 291 of 1896; see also Epigraphia Indica , VI, 260-68.) Among the other places mentioned as having been visited by Chaitanya in his tour is Vidyanagara, which has been generally identified with Rajahmundry, which at least seems doubtful. Chaitanya was born in the year in which Saluva Narasimha I usurped the Vijayanagar throne, and 1534 A.D., the year of Chaitanya's death, falls in the reign of the Vijayanagar King Achyuta (1530-1542 A.D.). The forty-eight years of the lifetime of Chaitanya are accordingly covered by the reigns of the greatest Vaishnavite kings of the Vijayanagar Kingdom, viz., Saluva Narasimha I (1486-1499 A.D.); his son Saluva Narasimha II (1493-1509 A.D.), which period includes those of the usurper Narasana Nayaka (or Vira Narasimha I) and his son Vira Narasimha II; Krishna

Deva Raya the Great (1509-1530 A.D.); and Achyuta Deva Raya (1530-1542). Vijayanagar was, during this period, the most flourishing centre of Vaishnavism in Southern India and Chaitanya could not have missed it-the more so as it was located in the famous Kishkinda of Puranic fame in his travels down south. As Vijayanagar was long known as Vidyanagar, the Vidyanagar of Chaitanya's chroniclers will have to be identified with Vijayanagar. As Ramananda Raya is, however, said to have been Governor of Vidyanagara on behalf of Pratapa-Rudra, the king of Orissa, it has to be concluded that the chroniclers have by a mistake made him the Governor of Vidyanagara, the capital of the Vijayanagar Empire instead of describing him as the Governor of a province of the Empire of Vijayanagar."1 Baladeva's Commentary based on Anandatirtha's. It will thus be seen how close was the contact between Chaitanya and Madhva teachers of eminence of his time. Like Anandatirtha, who was the first to stress the importance of the Bhagavata-Purana (see his Bhagavata Tatparya Nirnaya), Chaitanya and his followers based their teaching on the Bhagavata. Anandatirtha was probably the first to rest the practical part of religion on the Brindavan-lila as it is set down in the Bhagavata, though he did not go beyond it. Chaitanya developed it by making devotion to Krishna-in conjunction with Radha, evidently under the influence of the religious systems of Nimbarka and Vallabha-his exclusive cult. With these close associations with Anandatirtha's system of thought and teaching, there will be little difficulty in appreciating the position of Chaitanya and his followers in the philosophic approach they Ramananda Raya was evidently a poet. There is a drama in five acts, called Jaggannathavallabhanatakam, having for its plot. the love-story of Radha and Sri Krishna, attributed to him. In it. he describes himself as the son of Bhagavadanandaraya and states that he wrote the work at the instance of King Gajapati PratapaRudra Deva. (See Madras T.C. MSS., V, i. A. R. No. 4198, pp. 6192-6194.) 61

make in interpreting the everlasting theme of Tattvamasi. There is current a tradition that Chaitanya himself wrote a commentary on the Brahma-Sutras but such a work has not come down to us. But the commentary of Baladeva alias Govinda, above mentioned, is from the Chaitanya viewpoint, though admittedly it is based on the Bhashya of Anandatirtha. Baladeva could not, having regard to the indebtedness of Chaitanya to Anandatirtha's School, have materially departed from it. Hence the frank confession in the introductory verses of certain of his works (see Siddhantaratna and Siddhantaratnatippani) that his interpretation is based on Anandatirtha's as understood by Chaitanya. Date of Baladeva. The date of Baladeva has to be fixed with reference, first, to the period of Chaitanya, after whom he came, and, secondly, to the time of Pratapa-Rudra Gopala Dasa, King of Utkala (Orissa) country. The lower limit is fixed. by the date of Chaitanya's death, 1533 A.D., while the upper limit has to be fixed with reference to the period of the king of the Orissa country mentioned above. This king was evidently a later king of that Province, who is not otherwise known to history. We may not be far wrong if we tentatively set him down to the beginning of the eighteenth century-a century after the time of Pratapa-Rudra Deva, the Gajapati king who was the opponent of Krishna Deva Raya, the great Vijayanagar king. This would give sufficient time for the period covered from the death of Chaitanya to the rise of Baladeva. Mr. Sewell, in his List of Antiquities, mentions a grant by one Pratapa-Rudra-Narayana-Deva dated in 1728 A.D. found at the Jagannathasvami temple at Balaga in the present Chicacole Taluk, Ganjam District. An inscription of this Pratapa-Rudra is to be seen at Sri Kurmam dated in Saka 1425 (=1503 A.D.), see Madras Epigraphy Report , No. 346 of 1896. Pratapa-Rudra's minister Bhattacharya Sarvabhauma is said to have been converted by Chaitanya to his religion. It was the first great event in the career of Chaitanya as a religious teacher 62 62

Evidently there was a line of kings of the old Gajapati dynasty who set up some sort of rule in a part of their ancient kingdom down to the eighteenth century A.D.