Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/588

 Jadunan- dana Das born 1537. 550 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. event in Vaisnava society having been graphically described by many writers, chiefly by Narahari Chakravarti who in his Narottama Vilasa gives an elaborate list of the important members of the Vaishnava community who attended it. Govinda- das, Jnana Das, Valarama Das were all there and Vrindavana Das, the famous author of Chaitanya Bhagavata, was atthe time a hoary-headed old man, described as ‘venerable and learned’ who took a prominent part in the affairs of the cere- mony. We also find Vasanta Roy there—the clever poet who revised Vidyapati’s poems and changed his Maithili to elegant Brajabuli in which we find his poems in the Bengali collections of the present day. The Mahotsava ceremony at Crikheturi is indeed a landmark in the history of the Vaisnavas and a sort of light-house discovering to our view a whole panorama of scenes in which the illustrious Vaisnavas of the early 16th century, whose names are so familiar to us by their writings, played an important part. Besides, the history of social manners and customs and ways of life of the Vaisnavas of that period have been faithfully recorded in the accounts of this festival. About the other Padakartas we jot down the following notes :— Jadunandana Das, bornin 1537 A.D. He wrote an historical work called Karnanandain 1607 at the command of Crimati Hemalata, daughter of Crinivas Acharyya. He was 70 years old when he wrote the above work. Jadunandana, besides, tarnslated Govindalilamfita by Krishna Das Kavira] and Vidagdha Madhaba, a drama by Rupa Gosvami from Sanskrit into Bengali metrical verse,