Dutt, Romesh Chunder: The literature of Bengal: being an attempt to trace the progress of the national mind in its various aspects, as reflected in the nation’s literature from the earliest times to the present day ; with copious extracts from the best writers (Calcutta, 1877)

74 LITERATURE OF BENGAL.

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those of the Jumna. The biographers Of Chaitanya have
represented him as an incarnate deity, but let not then-
inflated language and vulgar errors prevent us Yrom
viewing with adequate admiration and respect the actions
of a man who, when Hinduism was firmly established,
could brave persecution and suffering, (and call into
question its fundamental tenets, rites and distinctions,
who, at a time when travelling was attended with
danger, preached the religion of Krishna through
the length and breadth of India, who sacrificed every
feeling and affection that was in him, and 'left mother,
wife, friends and home for ever, to wage eternal war
against Bhavanism and the other depraved forms of reli-
gion prevalent in the sixteenth century.

Chaitanya set out for Vrindavan, on the banks of the
Jumna, accompanied by Nityananda, Ratna and Ma-
kunda, three of his followers. He crossed the Hugli,
and, filled with enthusiasm, proclaimed the name of
Krishna in every village through which he passed, to
men, women and "children. People were struck with his
wild enthusiasm and strange mantfers, and it is no won-
der if many, in a superstitious age, actually mistook the
wild enthusiast for a deity. His follower Nityananda
was one of those who would have liked to see his master
always in his native town, it was not. difficult to mis-
lead Chaitanya from the right way to Vrindavan, and
after three days' wanderings through several villages to
the west of the Hugli, Nityananda brought back his
master to the Hugli again. Chaitanya reproved his
follower, but was obliged to cross the river and to rest