Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/525

V.] ever recovered. The high esteem, in which the book is held by the Vaiṣṇavas is evidenced by the following remarks of the late veteran Vaiṣṇava book. Pandit Hārādhan Dutta Bhaktinidhi of Vadanganj (Dist. Hugli).

‘The day I consider as wasted, in which I have not read a chapter of this book.’

Referring to the author’s unfortunate death, the Pandit writes:—

“I cannot relate the story of Kriṣṇa Dāsa’s death. One ought not to write about anything so sad. If I attempt to do so, my heart breaks.”

We shall here touch upon another biography of Chaitanya Deva which also enjoys a great popularity. It is the Chaitanya Maṅgal by Trilochan Dās, commonly known as Lochan Dās. Lochan Das was born in 1523 A.D. at Kogrām, a village 30 miles to the north of Burdwan and 10 miles from Guskharā, a station on the East Indian Railway. He was a Vaidya by caste. His father’s name was Kamalākar Dās. Narahari Dās of Çrikhanda, one of the most noted followers and friends of Chaitanya, was the religious preceptor of Lochan Dās. In the brief autobiographical account he gives of himself in his Chaitanya Maṅgal and also in another work named Durlabha Sār, he writes:—

“On both my father’s and mother’s side I was the only male child. My maternal grandfather was