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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Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a 15th century Indian saint who was also considered as the combined avatar of Radha and Krishna by his disciples. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mode of worshipping Krishna with ecstatic song and dance had a profound effect on Vaishnavism in Bengal. He was also the chief proponent of the Vedantic philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda Tattva. Mahaprabhu founded Gaudiya Vaishnavism. He expounded Bhakti yoga and popularized the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra. He composed the Shikshashtakam.
Bengali poetry is a rich tradition of poetry in the Bengali language and has many different forms. Originating in the Bengal region of South Asia, 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 which was introduced in the 1930s. The national poet of Bangladesh, the country with the highest number of native Bengali speakers, is Kazi Nazrul Islam - a 20th-century writer infamous for his activism against British colonial rule through revolutionary works such as Bidrohi (Rebel).
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognised languages.
Gaudiya Vaishnavism, also known as Bengali Vaishnavism, Chaitanya Vaishnavism, the Chaitanya/Gaudiya Sampradaya and Gaura Dharma, is a Vaishnava Hindu religious movement inspired by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1534) in India. "Gaudiya" refers to the Gaura or Gauḍa region of Bengal, with Vaishnavism meaning "the worship of Vishnu". Specifically, it is part of Krishnaism—Krishna-centric Vaishnavite traditions. Its theological basis is primarily that of the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavata Purana, as interpreted by early followers of Chaitanya, such as Sanatana Goswami, Rupa Goswami, Jiva Goswami, Gopala Bhatta Goswami and others.
Vidyapati, also known by the sobriquet Maithil Kavi Kokil, was a Maithili and Sanskrit poet, composer, writer, courtier and royal priest. He was a devotee of Shiva, but also wrote love songs and devotional Vaishnava songs. He knew Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, and Maithili.
Chandidas was a medieval poet of Bengal, or possibly more than one. Over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in Bengali with the bhanita of Chandidas 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, who has been more or less identified as a historical figure born in the 14th century in Birbhum district of the present-day West Bengal state and wrote the lyrical Srikrishna Kirtan.
Bengali literature denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language. Bengali has developed over the course of roughly 1,300 years. The earliest extant work in Bengali literature is the Charyapada, a collection of Buddhist mystic songs dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries, and considered to be written in an ancestor language of Bengali, Assamese, Odia and many other languages belonging to the Eastern branch of the Indo-Aryan languages. 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. Other than the Eastern Nagari script, Bengali has been written with different scripts such as the Perso-Arabic and Sylheti Nagri in certain parts of history. Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore was 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 or Sri Krishna Kirtana Kabya is a pastoral Vaishnava drama in verse composed by Boru Chandidas. It is considered to be the most significant work 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 is an heritage town in Nadia district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a holy place where Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born. Famous for Rass festival where city is enlited with lights, idols 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 lunal 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 yatra and Rasa purnima.
Radha-Krishna are collectively known within Hinduism as the combined forms of feminine as well as the masculine realities of God. Radha and Krishna are the primeval forms of God and his pleasure potency respectively in several Vaishnavite school of thought.
Mangal-Kāvya is a group of Bengali Hindu 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.
Govindadasa 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.
Krishnaism is a large group of independent Hindu traditions—sampradayas related to Vaishnavism—that center on the devotion to Krishna as Svayam Bhagavan, Ishvara, Para Brahman, the source of all reality, who is not an avatar of Vishnu. This is its difference from such Vaishnavite groupings as Sri Vaishnavism, Ramaism, Radhaism, Sitaism, etc. There is also a personal Krishnaism, i.e. devotion to Krishna outside of any tradition and community, as in the case of the sant-poet Meera Bai. Some scholars do not define Krishnaism as a suborder or offshoot of Vaishnavism, considering it a parallel and no less ancient current of Hinduism.
Nanoor, is a village with a police station 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 in the eastern coast. It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the north-east, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and north-west, Andhra Pradesh to the south and south-west. 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.
The Vaishnava Padavali 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.
Dobhashi, is a neologism used to refer to a register which had the Middle Bengali language as its dialectal basis but was shifted to a highly Persianised format. Traditionally, it was the most customary form of writing in Bengali prior to the language's reformation during the colonial period. This style evolved in not only the Eastern Nagari script, but also in Sylheti Nagri as well as the modified Arabic script used in Greater Chittagong, West Bengal and Arakan. The register has had a major influence to the modern Bengali dialects of Eastern and Southeastern Bengal, such as Chittagonian, Noakhailla, Rohingya, Sylheti among others.
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