340 M. M. Chakravarti — Language and literature of Orissa. [No. 4, 
whose tiled or commentry on the Bhagabata Purana is the best known. 
He is believed to have flourished by the 14th century A.D. Hence 
the Oriya Bhagabata must be much later than 14th century A.D. 
Starting from backward I find that it must be earlier than sana 
1143 or 1736 A.D. in which year was copied a MS. of the fourth 
Skandha. * 1 It is earlier than Baideldsabilasa, one of the earliest poems 
of Upendra Blianja, for the Bhagabata is referred to as a tune 
(Brtta) in its 27th Chanda. He preceded Dinakrsna Dasa whose 
principal work the Rasakallola is probably based on the tenth Skandha 
1st to 52nd Adhyaya of the Oriya Bhagabata. Dinakrsna refers to 
a tune Rukmani Cautisa (RasakallSla 25th Chanda), and this tune 
is derived from a song which is likely to have beeu based on the popu¬ 
lar vernacular Bhagabata (10th Skandha 56th to 58th Adhyaya). If 
Dlnakrsna’s time be taken at the middle of the 17th century, as I 
shall show later on, the Oriya Bhagabata must be still older and cannot 
be later than the close of the 16th century. 
This is borne out by the general tradition, according to which 
Jagannatha Dasa, the author of the Oriya Bhagabata, is identifiable with 
the Jagannatha Dasa who founded the Atibara subsect of Oriya 
Vaisnavas, and who was a disciple of Caitanya the great Vaisnavite 
preacher of Bengal. This tradition is strongly corroborated by the 
Jagannathacaritamrta which attempts to give a biography of the 
Atibara founder somewhat like Caitanya’s in the Caitanyacarita- 
mrta. In that work the author Dibakara Kara remarks in the 5th 
Adhyaya :— 
^fNr sjifj; wivpicrro i ^rfsr «T*nxifor n n 
Sr? affair i Srarc n 
fr n? ftnif i n v= n Ms. folio 28. 
“ Having understood the slokas of Bhagabata, I rendered them into 
Bhdsd. The lines which my GfSsaT (i.e., Jagannatha Dasa) had said before 
in Bhdsd, I correctly understood, and wrote following this Bhdsd” 
As Jagannatha Dasa was a disciple of Caitanya, he must have 
flourished in the 2nd quarter of the 16th century, and the Bhagabata 
was probably finished towards the latter part of this 2nd quarter. 
The Jagannathacaritamrta has not yet beeu printed. The manu¬ 
script which I am using consists of 136 folios with four lines on 
1 See Supra pfc. I, p. 330, J. A. S. B., Part I, 1897. The passage runs thus : — 
Tfa ... fwr ^ToqT^r: II ° II TTiTtpS 
*1$ n 3^ (*) I Ms - Folio 127 * 
