CHAITANYA, a Hindu religious reformer. He was born A.D. 1485. His father was a Brahman, who had come from Srihatta, Sylhet, or Tibet, and settled at Nadiya, where Chaitanya was born. In his early youth he married the daughter of a cele brated saint ; but in 1509, when twenty-four years of age, he seems to have abandoned the world and domestic life, and, after long journeying, repaired to Cuttack in Orissa, where for twelve years he laboured to extend the worship of Jaga nath at Puri, and devoted the rest of his life to the propagation of his views, aided by Adwaitanand and Nityanand, two men of domestic habits. The age in which he was born had been preceded by one of great religious reforms and innovations. There had been Ramananda, who had revived the anti caste movement ; and Kabir, who set aside alike the Hindu Shasters and the Koran, and preached a universal religion. In Bengal, Buddhism had maintained its supremacy up to the 10th century. On the accession of the Sena princes, Saivism gained the ascendency, and predominated in the land. Under coalition with Saktaism, the worship of the emblems of the energy of man and the fruitfulness of woman, it had degenerated to the very licentious creed of the Tantro - Shastras, which culminated in the worst forms of libertinism about the time of Chaitanya. Two thousand years before, a greater reformer had viewed with disgust and a relenting heart the bloody rites and sacrifices of the Vedic Yagya, and to reform the abuses Buddha had promulgated the doctrine of non-cruelty to animals. In like manner, the bacchanalian orgies of the Tantrika, and their worship of a nudely exposed female, had pro voked the abhorrence of Chaitanya, and roused his energy to remove the deep blots upon the national character. He commenced his labours by holding meetings of his immediate friends at the house of Sri Bhasa. His labours lasted through six years, when he entrusted his disciple Nitya nanda to propagate his views ; and it is to Nitya nanda that the origin of the Gosai is owing. Chaitanya was brought up in the faith of a Vaishnava, but his opinion took a great tinge from the doctrines of his two immediate pre decessors. From his early childhood Chaitanya gave signs of an eccentric disposition, but he possessed a very superior intellect, and the purest morals. He had also a very affectionate heart, and simple, winning manners. From 1509, when Chaitanya, styled Nemi, formally renounced the world by embracing the life of an ascetic, he wandered from place to place, travelled to Gour, proceeded to Benares, visited Vindraban and Puri; teaching his sentimental theology, making numerous converts, and devoting all his energy, time, and life to the fulfilment of his mission. His peregrinations lasted for six years, at the end of which he returned to Nilachal near Jaga nath, and, settling there, passed twelve years in an uninterrupted worship of that divinity. He became afflicted with epileptic seizures, which received the name of Pran Pralap. While still in the prime of life, however, he was afflicted with hallucinations and beatific visions, and in that state of mental derangement he disappeared in A.D.
1527, supposed to have drowned himself at Nila chal or Cuttack, where he had resided, adding energy and repute to the worship of Jaganath.
It was a main part of Chaitanya's doctrine to abolish all caste distinctions amongst his followers, and that they should bestow implicit faith with incessant devotion, which he termed Bhakti. All persons of all castes and occupations are admitted to the sect, from the conviction that all are alike capable of feeling the sentiments of faith and devotion. His doctrine was essentially the worship of Krishna as an incarnation or avatar of Vishnu ; and his sect worship Krishna as Parmatma, or Supreme Spirit, prior to all worlds, and alike the cause and substance of creation. In his capacity of creator, preserver, and destroyer, he is Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva ; and in the endless divisions of his substance or energy, he is all that ever was or will be. Besides these manifestations of himself, he has, for various purposes, assumed specific shapes as incarnations or avatars,—as ansa or portions, as ansana or portions of portions, and so on ad infinitum. His principal appearance, and in faot his actual sensible manifestation, was as Krishna, and in this capacity the sect believe he again was present as Chaitanya, who is wor shipped as the deity, as are the other forms of the same god, particularly as Gopal the cowherd, or Gopi Nath, the lord of the milkmaids of Vindraban (Bindraban), as his Lila or spirit. His disciples form the largest sect in British India, numbering nine or ten millions, and to be found in every vil lage of Bengal. The date of his birth has also been given as A.D. 1479, also 1485 and 1486, and those of his death 1527 and 1534, at Nilachal or Cnttack.
All castes are admitted into Chaitanya's fra ternity, and, once admitted, are associated with on equal terms by all the brethren. His prede ccasors, Ramanand and Kabir, had taken low caato men for their disciples. But he scrupled not to permit even Mahontedans to enter his fold ; and two of his most eminent followers, Rupa and Sonatun, were originally Mahoinedans, ministers in the court of (lour.
The Gosai marry ; most of the Banya of Bengal follow their tenets, but their doctrines are held in little esteem. They are regarded as gurus or teachers, and no scandal has arisen from them. The Gosai observe none of the Hindu festivals except those of Krishna • but the anniversaries of the deaths of their founders are observed as such. They do not, says Mr. Ward, reject the mythology, or the ceremonies of the Hindus, but they believe that those of Hari (Krishna) only are necessary. On the nights of their festivals, the initiating invocation, or some sectarian exclamations, may be heard resounding through the streets of Calcutta : Hari, Krishna ; Bari, Krishna ; Krishna, Krishna ; Hari Ilari ; Ilari, Ram ; Hari, Ham; Ram, Ram, Bari, Ilari.—Calcutta Rev.; Cole, Myth. hind. 240.