CHAPTER II
The Life of Chaitanya
First Period
Viśvambhara, tenth child of Jagannāth Miśra and his wife, Śachī, Vedic Brahmans of Navadvīpa, in the Nadia district of Bengal, was born in February of the year 1486.
According to popular account, his birth took place during an eclipse of a full moon, a sure omen of future greatness; as was also considered the fact (if such it be) that his birth was delayed considerably beyond the normal time.
The father of the child was not a native of the famous city of Navadvīpa, but had come from Dhākkādakshin, in Sylhet, in order to live near the holy Ganges.
The child's grandfather had migrated from Orissa to Sylhet about 1451, thus the devotion which Orissa has always paid to Chaitanya Deva, claiming him as her own, has a warrant for it.
The parents of the child, Viśvambhara, whom we shall call Chaitanya, although this name was not given him until he became a sannyāsī, gave to the boy a devout Vaishnava upbringing and a wealth of affection.
Born the last of eight children, all of whom, save one, had been lost in infancy, he naturally became the idol of the home.
The father was a Brahman of religious disposition who had studied in a Navadvīpa tol. He was a Vaishnava of strict faith and pious life:
No meat entered the home; for vegetarianism is a matter of religion to the devout Vaishnava. All the food eaten in the house was first offered to Krishna and then taken as prasāda.
The mother, Śachī Devi, was the daughter of a well-known scholar, Nīlāmbar Chakravarti, who had also come from Sylhet to settle at Navadvīpa.
Thus the boy began life a privileged child, inheriting the peculiar social advantages of Brāhminhood, but blessed far more by birth in a home whose standards were formed by traditions of scholarship and religious piety.