Composition of The Caitanya Caritamrta
Although the author, Krishna Dasa Kaviraja, never met Caitanya personally, his guru Raghunatha dasa Goswami (1494–1586 CE) was an associate of Caitanya and was close to others who were intimates of his. In composing his work, Krishna Dasa Kaviraja also referred to the shrIkr^ShNachaitanyacharaNAmr^ta of Murari Gupta and also the works of Swarupa Damodara, both of whom knew Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Krishna Dasa Kaviraja composed the Caitanya Caritamrta in his old age after being requested by the Vaishnavas of Vrindavana to write a hagiography about the life of Caitanya. Although there was already a biography written by Vrindavana Dasa, called the Chaitanya Bhagavata, the later years of Caitanya’s life were not detailed in that work. Krishna Dasa’s Caitanya Caritamrta covers Caitanya’s later years and also explains in detail the rasa philosophy that Caitanya and his followers expounded. The Caitanya Caritamrta also serves as a compendium of Gaudiya Vaishnava practices and outlines the Gaudiya theology developed by the Goswamis in metaphysics, ontology and aesthetics.
The Caitanya Caritamrta was frequently copied and widely circulated amongst the Vaishnava communities of Bengal and Orissa during the early 17th Century. Its popularity during this period can be attributed to the propagation of three Vaishnava preachers called Narottama Dasa, Shyamananda and Srinivasa who were trained by Jiva Goswami and Krishna Dasa Kaviraja himself. However, during the 18th Century, copies of the Caitanya Caritamrta became rare. In his autobiography, Kedarnatha Dutta Bhaktivinoda writes that for many years he found it difficult to procure a copy of the book. Upon finally finding a copy of the Caritamrta, Bhaktivinoda reprinted it along with his Amrita Pravaha commentary. After his death, his son Bimala Prasada (later to become known as Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati) printed the Caitanya Caritamrita en masse. He also wrote his Anubhasya commentary to this book.
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