Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/583

 V.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 545 suddenly a tear starts to his eyes and he clasps his brother Valarama to his breast saying “O tell me, Brother, where is my unfortunate mother, where are my comrades of the Vrinda groves and where is my Radha? Away with my royal robes and kingdom ;—where are the scenes of our boyhood— the dear Jumna and its bowers?’ The whole scene changes—from the grandeur ofa royal palace to the groves of Vrinda. The reason why he did not invite the people of Vrindavana is that he held them as his own, and it would be dishonouring the sacred _ relation- ship to send the formal letter of invitation due only to those who are more or less distant. Of the Pada kartas (lit. masters of songs) that followed Vidyapati and Chandidas, the greatest by unanimous consent of all parties is Govinda Das. We find accounts of this poet’s life in Bhaktiratna- kara, Narottamavilasa, Saravali, Anuragavalli, and Bhaktamala. He was a son of Chiranjiva Sen, an illustrious companion of Chaitanya Deva and was a grandson, on his mother’s side, of Damodara who Was a great Sanskrit poet and scholar of (€ri- khanda at the time. Chiranjiva left his village home at Kumaranagara and settled at Crikhanda where he had married. But the Cakta element there was powerful and showed open hostility towards the Vaisnavas. The result- was that Govinda Das had to leave Crikhanda in his old age and settle at the village of Telia Vudhuri on the Pudma. Govinda Das belonged to the Vaidya or the physician caste. His elder brother Rama Chandra 09 Govinda Das 1537- 1612 A.D.