1898.] M. M. Chakra varti— Language and literature of Orissa. 357 
According to Puri traditions, he was a Bharu-a, an illegitimate 
class attending on dancing girls and playing on musical instruments in 
accompaniment to their dancing and singing. He led at first a strug¬ 
gling life, and later on became a Vaisnava. He is said to have resided 
at Puri and died there. Corroboration of these facts is found in his 
works. His illegitimacy partially explains his great humility, and 
probably led him to select Vasistha as the speaker in his Pratapasindhu. 
Vasistha was known to the author as the son of a prostitute. 1 His 
Vaisnavite tendency and his residence at Puri his works fully show. 
For unknown reasons he was absent from Puri for some time, as a 
couple of stanzas 8 in the Rasakallola would seem to indicate. He 
knew Jagannatha and his daily services intimately. 3 Dinakrsna is 
said not to be his original name, but to have been given at the time of 
his initiation as a Vaisnava. 
• • 
Dinakrsna composed several works, of which I have seen in 
1 The poet remarks that every object in this world has some defect or other :— 
(?) i 
yfk 11 II 
“ Who can find out a nelumbium without stain ? Blots are found in every 
object.” 
Then he goes on illustrating this. After quoting several examples he says:— 
I 
II II Pratapasindhu MS., Fol. 14. 
“ (Even) Vasistha Rsi has his blot. He is known to all as a prostitute’s son.” 
?rfi, *T Tff, 
ii ^ ii 
2&R fWT VTO %*JT rn^T, 
% rn^T I 
WS II n R. K., 24th Ch., p. 89. 
“To reside in that Tcsetra (land), Dinakrsna had wished; what bad fate is his— 
he could not stay there, the Lord not favouring. [26]. What was in his fate, he 
has to suffer. Who can do otherwise, if fate’s master, the giver of salvation, 
Bmileth not npon him ? [27].” 
8 Rasakallola, 19th Ch., 14-24; Gundicabije, and others. 
