Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/469

 V.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 433 Krisna Chaitanya as a Sanyasin and has ever since been called Chaitanya or Chaitanya Deva. He went to Orissa, where he met Vasu Deva Sarbabhauma, the greatest Indian scholar of the period. Vasu Deva was already advanced in years. He took Chaitanya to task for turning a Sanyasin when only a young man, as he had no right to do. Chaitanya said in reply “O my venerable sir, do not call me by such a high epithet as that of a Sanyasin. The Love of God has driven me mad and | have thrownaway my sacred thread and shaved my head for this. Bless me_ sir that my mind may be ever devoted to him.” Vasu Deva was explaining the Gita, but Chaitanya inter- preted it in a new light. The veteran scholar was struck by the new ideas, by the flow of sentiment and by the remarkable intellect of the young Sanyasin. When after three continuous nights Chaitanya had finished his exposition, Vasu Deva felt that he was in the presence of a superhuman man, endowed with poetical and spiritual gift, the like of which he had never before seen. From that time he became a humble disciple of Chaitanya Deva. Pratapa Rudra the King of Orissa, who was dreaded by the Pathans and was known as a powerful prince of India at the time, became his next disciple, and his prime minister Rama Ray, deeply versed in Sanskrit lore and an eminent poet avowed his faith in Chaitanya Deva and was so much devoted to him that he constantly sought the company of the great master in subsequent times. From Orissa with the blacksmith Govinda as his single companion, though hundreds had wanted to follow him, the young Sanyasin started for and travelled over the whole of southern India. 35 To Orissa Travels over the Southern India.