In the Chaitanya Era (16th-17th century), the later Vaishnava Poetry and the hagiography of Sri Chaitanya flourishes. In this period, the translation of Mahābhārata into Bengali grows, and important development in Mangalkāvya tradition is seen.
In the Later Middle Age, the tradition of Shakta Poetry or Shakta Padāvali grows. The age of Mangalkavya meets its end with the composition of Annadamangal by Bharatchandra Ray. The Baul tradition emerges as an intellectual icon with Lalan Fakir. The most important development is the rapid growth of Eastern Bengal Ballads and MuslimGhazals are among the most important aspects of this period, particularly the work of poets like Alaol and Daulat Qazi.
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Bengali poetry is a rich tradition of poetry in the Bengali language and has many different forms. Originating in Bengal, the history of Bengali poetry underwent three successive stages of development: poetry of the early age, the Medieval period and the age of modern poetry. All ages have seen different forms of poetry and poetical tradition. It reached the pinnacle during the Bengali Renaissance period although it has a rich tradition and has grown independent of the movement. Major Bengali Poets throughout the ages are Chandidas, Alaol, Ramprasad Sen, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Nabinchandra Sen, Rabindranath Tagore, Dwijendralal Ray, Satyendranath Dutta, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Jibanananda Das, Jasimuddin, Sukanta Battacharya, Al Mahmud.
Kirtana, also rendered as Kiirtan, Kirtan or Keertan, is a Sanskrit word that means "narrating, reciting, telling, describing" of an idea or story, specifically in Indian religions. It also refers to a genre of religious performance arts, connoting a musical form of narration, shared recitation, or devotional singing, particularly of spiritual or religious ideas, native to the Indian subcontinent. A person performing kirtan is known as a kirtankara.
Vidyapati, also known by the sobriquet Maithil Kavi Kokil, was a Maithili and Sanskrit polymath-poet-saint, playwright, composer, biographer, philosopher, law-theorist, writer, courtier and royal priest. He was a devotee of Shiva, but also wrote love songs and devotional Vaishnava songs. He had knowledge of, and composed works in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha and Maithili.
Chandidas was a medieval Bengali poet from India, or possibly more than one. He wrote over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in medieval Bengali. The poems of Chandidas with bhanita are found with three different sobriquets along with his name, Baḍu, Dvija and Dina as well as without any sobriquet also. It is not clear whether these bhanitas actually refer to the same person or not. It is assumed by some modern scholars that the poems which are current in the name of Chandidas are actually the works of at least four different Chandidas, who are distinguished from each other by their sobriquets found in the bhanitas. It is also assumed that the earliest of them was Ananta Baḍu Chandidas. His father Durgadas Bagchi, was a Bengali Brahmin of Varendra clan. Baḍu Chandidas has been more or less identified as a historical figure, born in the 14th century in a Bengali Brahmin family of a small Tehsil city named Nanoor in Birbhum district of the present-day West Bengal state and wrote the lyrical Srikrishna Kirtan.
The Chaitanya Charitamrita, composed by Krishnadasa Kaviraja in c. 1557, is written in Bengali with a great number of Sanskrit verses in its devotional, poetic construction, including Shikshashtakam. It is one of the primary biographies detailing the life and teachings of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. The stories of Chaitanya's life are mixed with philosophical conversations detailing the process of Bhakti yoga, with special attention given to congregational chanting of the names of Krishna.
The Charyapada (চর্যাপদ) is a collection of mystical poems, songs of realization in the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism from the tantric tradition in Assam, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha.
Bengali literature denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time and dynastic patronization or non-patronization. Bengali has developed over the course of roughly 1,400 years. If the emergence of the Bengali literature supposes to date back to roughly 650 AD, the development of Bengali literature claims to be 1600 years old. The earliest extant work in Bengali literature is the Charyapada, a collection of Buddhist mystic songs in Old Bengali dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries. The timeline of Bengali literature is divided into three periods: ancient (650–1200), medieval (1200–1800) and modern. Medieval Bengali literature consists of various poetic genres, including Hindu religious scriptures, Islamic epics, Vaishnava texts, translations of Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit texts, and secular texts by Muslim poets. Novels were introduced in the mid-19th century. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore is the best known figure of Bengali literature to the world. Kazi Nazrul Islam, notable for his activism and anti-British literature, was described as the Rebel Poet and is now recognised as the National poet of Bangladesh.
Shreekrishna Kirtana Kabya is a Bengali pastoral Vaishnava drama in verse composed by Boru Chandidas. It is considered to be one of the most significant works after Charyapada in the history of Bengali literature. These verses are believed to be written in the pre-Chaitanya era of the later half of 14th century CE.
Nabadwip, also spelt Navadwip, anciently Nadia or Nudiya, is a heritage city in Nadia district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is regarded as a holy place by Hindus, and is the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Famous for Rass festival where city is illuminated with lights, deities of God and goddesses are made on each corner of Nabadwip town. Hundreds of people gather to this small town on the occasion of raas utsab. Located on the western bank of the Hooghly River, it is considered to have been founded in 1063 CE, and served as the old capital of the Sena dynasty. A center of learning and philosophy in medieval India, the city is still noted for its traditional Sanskrit schools. The Navya Nyaya school of logic reached its peak with the efforts of some well known contemporary philosophers of Nabadwip. The great Vaishnava saint, social reformer and an important figure of the Bhakti movement, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) was born here. It was after Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's birth that Nabadwip became an important center of pilgrimage for the Vaishnavas worldwide as well as for Hindus in general. Many who follow Gaudiya Vaishnavism visit Nabadwip to celebrate the auspicious birthday day of Shri Mahaprabhu, which, as per lunar calculations, occurs on Phalguni Purnima. This day is commonly known as Gaura-purnima. Aside from this, Nabadwip is visited for various other festivals like Dol Jatra and Rash purnima.
Radha-Krishna is the combined form of the Hindu god Krishna with his chief consort and shakti Radha. They are regarded as the feminine as well as the masculine realities of God, in several Krishnaite traditions of Vaishnavism.
Mangal-Kāvya is a group of Bengali religious texts, composed more or less between 13th and 18th centuries, notably consisting of narratives of indigenous deities of rural Bengal in the social scenario of the Middle Ages. The Mangal-Kāvyas usually give prominence to a particular deity amalgamated with a Vedic or Hindu mythological god and the narratives are usually written in the form of verses.
Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā was a form of Hindu tantric Vaishnavism focused on Radha Krishna worship that developed in Eastern India. This tradition flourished from the 16th to the 19th century. The Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyā tradition produced many great poets who wrote in the Bengali language, the most famous of these poets all wrote under the pen name Chandidas. Their religious literature was mainly written in Bengali vernacular.
Govindadasa (1535–1613), was a Bengali Vaishnava poet known for his body of devotional songs addressed to Krishna. Living in an atmosphere of Krishna-bhakti preached by Sri Chaitanya (1486–1533), he composed extensively on the Radha-Krishna love legend. He is also known as Govindadasa Kaviraja.
Nanoor, is a village in Nanoor CD block in Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal. Nanoor is the birthplace of 14th century lyric poet Chandidas of Vaishnava Padavali fame. It is developing as a craft centre with NGO support. With the massacres in 2000, Nanoor was in intense media focus.
Odisha is one of the 28 states of India, located on the eastern coast. It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the northeast, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and northwest, and Andhra Pradesh to the south and southwest. Odia is the official and most widely spoken language, spoken by 33.2 million according to the 2001 Census. The modern state of Odisha was established on 1 April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Odia-speaking regions. April 1 is celebrated as Odisha Day.
Culture of Birbhum refers to the culture of Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
The Chandimangal is an important subgenre of mangalkavya, the most significant genre of medieval Bengali literature. The texts belonging to this subgenre eulogize Chandi or Abhaya, primarily a folk goddess, but subsequently identified with Puranic goddess Chandi. This identification was probably completed a few centuries before the earliest composition of the Chandimangalkavya. Most of the texts of this subgenre comprises two unrelated narratives. The narrative of Kalketu and Phullara is known as the Akhetik Khanda, and the narrative of Dhanapati and his wives, Lahana and Khullana is known as the Banik Khanda. Both of these narratives were probably mentioned in a sloka of the Brihaddharma Purana also. In Mukundaram's work an additional section, Deb Khanda is found. This section comprises the narratives of Sati and Parvati and has mostly followed the Puranas.
Bengali Hindus are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand, and Assam's Barak Valley region. In Bangladesh, they form the largest minority. They are adherents of Hinduism and are native to the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Comprising about one-third of the global Bengali population, they are the largest ethnic group among Hindus. Bengali Hindus speak Bengali, which belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and adhere to Shaktism or Vaishnavism of their native religion Hinduism with some regional deities. There are significant numbers of Bengali-speaking Hindus in different Indian states. According to the census in 1881, 12.81 per cent of Bengali Hindus belonged to the three upper castes while the rest belonged to the Shudra and Dalit castes.
The Vaishnava Padavi movement refers to a period in medieval Bengali literature from the 15th to 17th centuries, marked by an efflorescence of Vaishnava poetry often focusing on the Radha-Krishna legend. The term padavali has the literal meaning "gathering of songs".
Kashiram Das or Kāśīrām Dās is an important poet in medieval Bengali literature. His Bengali re-telling of the Mahābhārata, known as Kāśīdāsī Môhābhārôt, is a popular and influential version of the Mahābhārata legend in Bengal. Although the entire work is intra-textually ascribed to him, most scholars agree that he composed only the first four of the eighteen books (parvas). As with the Rāmāyaṇa of Kṛttibās Ojhā, Kāśīrām freely removed elements and added other legends to the story. Dās is not a last name and is a title meaning 'servant' in the Vaiṣṇava tradition; the name is also written as Kashiramdas.
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