# Krishnadasa Kaviraja
Krishnadasa Kaviraja (কৃষ্ণদাস কবিরাজ) was a Bengali Vaishnava poet and theologian who settled in Vrindavana in the second half of the sixteenth century and wrote the [Chaitanya Charitamrita](https://www.edgepedia.org/chaitanya-charitamrita), the most theologically significant hagiography of Krishna Chaitanya (1478-1533), the saint regarded by the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition as an incarnation of [Radha](https://www.edgepedia.org/radha) and Krishna combined.[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) • [2](https://www.exoticindiaart.com/author/srimad-krishnadasa-kaviraja-gosvami/) He lived his entire later life in [Vrindavan](https://www.edgepedia.org/vrindavan), in the Braj region.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Caste and origin | Vaidya (physician) family of Jhamatpur village, Katwa area, Burdwan district, Bengal[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) |
| Birth year | Disputed: 1496 (Jadunath Sarkar), 1517-1528 (Banglapedia's report of scholarly consensus), about 1520 (Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati), 1518 (library authority records)[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) • [1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) • [4](https://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/krishnadasa-kaviraja-goswami-biography-2/) • [5](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/author/DA03812079?l=en) |
| Parents | Bhagiratha, an Ayurvedic physician, and Sunanda; both died when he was young[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) • [6](https://www.iskconbangalore.org/blog/sri-krishna-dasa-kaviraja-goswami/) |
| Principal work | Chaitanya Charitamrita, a Bengali-Sanskrit biography and theology of Chaitanya of about 24,000 lines[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) |
| Other works | Govindalilamrita, a Sanskrit kavya, and a Sanskrit commentary on Bilvamangala's Krishnakarnamrita[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) |
| Guru | Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami; the six Gosvamis of Vrindavana were his instructing teachers[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) • [6](https://www.iskconbangalore.org/blog/sri-krishna-dasa-kaviraja-goswami/) |
| Death | No firm date is established; Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati concluded he died about 1616 or 1617[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) • [4](https://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/krishnadasa-kaviraja-goswami-biography-2/) • [7](https://vaishnava-news-network.org/vaisnava-news/krishnadasa-kaviraja-goswami-appearance/) |
## Origins and family
Krishnadasa was born into the Vaidya caste, the physician caste of Bengal, at Jhamatpur, a village of the Katwa sub-division of Burdwan district, near Naihati.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) • [6](https://www.iskconbangalore.org/blog/sri-krishna-dasa-kaviraja-goswami/) His father [Bhagiratha](https://www.edgepedia.org/bhagiratha) practiced Ayurvedic medicine and his mother was Sunanda; both died when he was very young, leaving him and his younger brother Shyamananda to be raised by relatives, in his case his late father's sister.[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) • [3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) Orphaned early, he studied Persian at the village school and then Sanskrit, preparing for the Hindu medical practice of his caste.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm)
## Career
Conversion and move to Braj. While still unmarried, Krishnadasa was converted to [Vaishnavism](https://www.edgepedia.org/vaishnavism) by [Nityananda](https://www.edgepedia.org/nityananda), a close associate of Chaitanya, and begged his way on foot to Vrindavan, where he spent the rest of his long life in religious study, meditation, and worship.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) The Chaitanya Charitamrita itself records that Nityananda instructed him in a dream to leave his home village for Braj.[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) • [6](https://www.iskconbangalore.org/blog/sri-krishna-dasa-kaviraja-goswami/) In Braj he was initiated as a Vaishnava monk by Raghunatha Dasa, who had been a body-servant of Chaitanya at Jagannath, and he studied with each of the original six Gosvamis, the theologians who organized the Gaudiya school in Vrindavana.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) • [1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja)
The Chaitanya Charitamrita. At the request of the Vrindavan devotees, led by Haridas Pandit, chief servitor of the Govindaji temple, Krishnadasa undertook a fuller life of Chaitanya than Vrindavana Dasa's Chaitanya Bhagavata.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) He copied the organization of the [Chaitanya Bhagavata](https://www.edgepedia.org/chaitanya-bhagavata), accepted its sequence of events for Chaitanya's early period, and claimed his own text finished what Vrindavana Dasa began, frequently calling Vrindavana Dasa the Vyasa of Chaitanya's acts.[8](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Chaitanya_Bhagavata) The work is divided into three books, Adi Lila, Madhya Lila, and Antya Lila, covering Chaitanya's early years, his years of pilgrimage, and his later years at Puri.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm)
The dating of the work is unsettled. [Jadunath Sarkar](https://www.edgepedia.org/jadunath-sarkar), the historian and editor of Chaitanya's Life and Teachings, states that the aged Krishnadasa completed the text on the bank of the Radha-kunda tank in 1582 after nine years of unremitting toil.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) The Marathi Vishwakosh instead says he began at age 75 and completed it over twenty to twenty-two years of continuous effort.[10](https://vishwakosh.marathi.gov.in/21720/) A disputed passage of Nityananda Dasa's Prema Vilasa would place the completion around 1599, but many scholars believe the text was finished some fifteen years after that date.[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja)
Other works. In Braj he also composed the Sanskrit kavya Govindalilamrita and a Sanskrit commentary on Bilvamangala's Krishnakarnamrita.[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) According to one devotional account, Jiva Gosvami gave him the title Kaviraja, the king of poets, in honor of the Govinda-lilamrta.[12](https://www.dandavats.com/?p=32246)
## Political influence
The Chaitanya Charitamrita supplied a subtle interpretation of Chaitanya's life that the earlier Chaitanya Bhagavata did not attempt.[8](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Chaitanya_Bhagavata) Its reception was contested at first: [Jiva Goswami](https://www.edgepedia.org/jiva-goswami) and the older school of Vaishnava teachers objected to publication, fearing that a vernacular work would cause Sanskrit treatises on bhakti to be neglected.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) The text nonetheless reached Bengal and was widely propagated there by the trio of Gosvami-trained disciples Shrinivas Acharya, Narottama Dasa, and Shyamananda, which fixed it at the center of the tradition's teaching in Bengal.[13](https://bn.banglapedia.org/index.php/%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%83%E0%A6%B7%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A3%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B8_%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C)
## Death and successors
No death date is securely established.[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati concluded that Krishnadasa died about 1616 or 1617.[4](https://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/krishnadasa-kaviraja-goswami-biography-2/) • [7](https://vaishnava-news-network.org/vaisnava-news/krishnadasa-kaviraja-goswami-appearance/) His own handwritten manuscript of the Chaitanya Charitamrita is preserved in the Radha-Damodar temple of Vrindavan, worshipped as a holy relic, and his samadhi tomb stands in the temple courtyard.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) • [9](https://sahityasamrat.in/krishnadas-koviraj/)
## Historians' assessment
The main point of scholarly disagreement is chronology. Banglapedia reports that scholars have generally accepted, without citing sources, a birth between 1517 and 1528; Jadunath Sarkar gives 1496; Bhaktisiddhanta [Saraswati](https://www.edgepedia.org/saraswati) concluded about 1520; and library authority records give 1518, with the RelBib record marking the life dates as not secured.[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) • [3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm) • [4](https://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/krishnadasa-kaviraja-goswami-biography-2/) • [5](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/author/DA03812079?l=en) • [14](https://relbib.de/AuthorityRecord/077185072) The composition date of the Chaitanya Charitamrita varies accordingly, from Sen's 1560-1580 to Majumdar's 1612-1615.[11](https://www.banglasahitto.in/2018/08/Banglasahitte-Krishna-Das-Kabiraj.html) On the work itself, assessment is consistent: Banglapedia calls the Chaitanya Charitamrita the most theologically significant hagiography of Chaitanya, and the Bengali Banglapedia calls it his most important biographical and theological text.[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) • [13](https://bn.banglapedia.org/index.php/%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%83%E0%A6%B7%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A3%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B8_%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C)
## Legacy
Narottama Dasa Thakura praised Krishnadasa in his Prarthana as the connoisseur among devotees.[12](https://www.dandavats.com/?p=32246) The Kavikarnapura's Gauraganoddeshadipika identifies Krishnadasa in Krishna's eternal play as Kasturi Manjari, a handmaiden to Radha and other gopis, a designation within the tradition's devotional theology rather than a historical claim.[1](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja) His Gaura-Nitai deities are still worshipped in his home town of Jhamatpura, and the Radha-Damodar temple in Vrindavan preserves both his manuscript and his tomb.[4](https://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/krishnadasa-kaviraja-goswami-biography-2/) • [3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm)
## References
1. [Krishnadasa Kaviraja - Banglapedia](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Krishnadasa_Kaviraja)
2. [Books authored by Srimad Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami - Exotic India](https://www.exoticindiaart.com/author/srimad-krishnadasa-kaviraja-gosvami/)
3. [Chaitanya's Life And Teachings, by Jadunath Sarkar - Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38016/38016-h/38016-h.htm)
4. [Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami - Gaudiya History](https://gaudiyahistory.iskcondesiretree.com/krishnadasa-kaviraja-goswami-biography-2/)
5. [CiNii Books Author - Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, b. 1518](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/author/DA03812079?l=en)
6. [Sri Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Goswami - ISKCON Bangalore](https://www.iskconbangalore.org/blog/sri-krishna-dasa-kaviraja-goswami/)
7. [Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami Appearance - VNN](https://vaishnava-news-network.org/vaisnava-news/krishnadasa-kaviraja-goswami-appearance/)
8. [Chaitanya Bhagavata - Banglapedia](https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Chaitanya_Bhagavata)
9. [কৃষ্ণদাস কবিরাজ - Sahityasamrat](https://sahityasamrat.in/krishnadas-koviraj/)
10. [कृष्णदास कविराज - मराठी विश्वकोश](https://vishwakosh.marathi.gov.in/21720/)
11. [কৃষ্ণদাস কবিরাজ - Banglasahitto](https://www.banglasahitto.in/2018/08/Banglasahitte-Krishna-Das-Kabiraj.html)
12. [Srila Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Gosvami - Dandavats](https://www.dandavats.com/?p=32246)
13. [কৃষ্ণদাস কবিরাজ - বাংলাপিডিয়া](https://bn.banglapedia.org/index.php/%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%83%E0%A6%B7%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A3%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B8_%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C)
14. [Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami 1517-1615 - RelBib](https://relbib.de/AuthorityRecord/077185072)
15. [Krishnadas in the Bhaktamal in English - Satsang with Ananta](https://anantasatsang.org/scripture/bhaktamal/247)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › India and South Asia › Mughal Empire to Aurangzeb (1526 to 1707) › Artists, poets, and scholars*
*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license