OF THE HINDUS. Ill 



into the world. Chaitanya was, in fact, an incarnation of Krishna, or Bha- 

 gavdn, who appeared for the purpose of instructing mankind in the true 

 mode ^of worshipping him in this age: with the like view he was, at the same 

 time, incarnate in the two greater teachers of the sect as principal Ansas, or 

 portions of himself, animating the form of Adwaitanand, whilst Nityanand 

 was a personal manifestation of the same divinity, as he had appeared for- 

 merly in the shape of Balarama: the female incarnation was not assumed on 

 this occasion, being, in fact, comprised in the male, for Radha, as the Puma- 

 Saliti, or comprehensive energy, and Krishna, as the Purna-SaJctimdn, or 

 possessor of that energy, were both united in the nature of the Nadiya saint. 



The father of Chaitanya died in his son's childhood, and his elder bro- 

 ther, ViswARUPA, had previously assumed the character of an ascetic : to take 

 care of his mother, therefore, Chaitanya refrained from following his incli- 

 nations, and continued in the order of the Grihastha, or householder, till the 

 age of twenty-four, during which time he is said to have married the daughter 

 of Vallabhacharya. At twenty.four,* he shook off the obligations of so- 

 ciety, and becoming a Bairagi, spent th« next six years in a course of peregrina- 

 tions between Mathura and Jaganndth, teaching his doctrines, acquiring fol- 

 lowers, and extending the worship of Krishna. At the end of this period, hav- 

 ing nominated Adwaitacharya and Nityanand to preside over the Vaish- 

 w«t;dr5 of Bengal, and Rupa and Sanatana over those o? Mathura, Chaitanya 

 settled atNildchal, or Cuitack, where he remained twelve years, engaging deep- 

 ly in the worship of Jaganndt'h, tQ,.whose festival he seems at least to have 

 communicated great energy and repnte.t The rest of his time was spent 



* Not forty, as stated by Mr. Ward, (2. 173.) his whole life little exceeded that age, as 

 he disappeared at forty-two. 



f It may be observed, that in the frequent descriptions of the celebration of the Hat'h Yd- 

 <m, .which occur in the work of Krishna Das, no instance is given of self-sacvifice, amongst the 



