CHAPTER IX
The Sect As It Is Today: It’s Cult
Temples and Shrines
Apart from Navadvīpa the Chaitanya sect is not possessed of temples of any size or importance.
There are many small ones scattered about Bengal and Orissa, particularly in places connected with Chaitanya, but it can boast no large and imposing shrine.
Navadvīpa may be allowed as the one exception to this statement. Several temples there, although of no great size, are rich in popular affection. Of greatest sanctity, probably, is the image of Gaurāṅga, made for the stricken wife out of the nim tree which sheltered his birth.
It is open to doubt whether the nearly life-sized image worshipped today in Navadvīpa is the actual image that consoled the young wife, but at least the worshippers believe it and are satisfied.
Some fragments of the original image may very likely be incorporated in the present figure.
This image has, in recent years, been removed from its small shrine to a much more commodious temple, which bears every evidence of prosperity.
It is called Mahāprabhu’s bāṛī, the great Master's house. In front of the shrine is a spacious marble-floored court for Saṅkīrtanas.
The temple is owned by some 40 separate families, from among whom the sevāits, those who serve the god's image, are taken.
The service of the Gaurānga image in this temple is jealously restricted. No Brahman not of these Gosvāmī families is allowed to touch the image.
The families who share in the ownership of the temple all have proportionate shares in its service, and most of them are maintained entirely from its revenues.
These families are members of the Navadvīpa Gosvāmī house descended from Sanātana Miṣra, the father of Chaitanya's second wife, who was himself a staunch Śakta by sect.
One of the most sacred spots in Navadvīpa is the Śrīvāsāṅgaṁ, the so-called site of Śrīvāsa’s courtyard, where Chaitanya inaugurated the famous kirtan which gave birth to the whole movement.
The original site, together with Chaitanya’s own home, was long ago washed away by the Bhāgīrathī river, but the courtyard is shown nevertheless.
It now houses an Ākhrā owned by a Goswami of the Nityānanda line. An image of Chaitanya’s worshipped here.
There is another temple claiming to be Mahāprabhu’s bāṛī, also called the Golden-image Temple because of its gilded life-size image of Gaurāṅga.
It is the property of a Nityānanda Gosvāmī, of Calcutta, and sevāits are employed for its service. There is evidently considerable rivalry between these temples.
A shrine very popular among the women is that of Śachī and Viṣṇupriyā, mother and wife of Chaitanya. Images of both these gentle ladies are worshipped here.
It seems clear that the ownership of a Chaitanya shrine in Navadvīpa is a profitable enterprise, since new temples are being added to the list all the while.
Naturally the Navadvīpa Gosvāmīs, who are the ruling power there ecclesiastically, have somewhat of a monopoly, and most of the shrines that have developed are in their hands.
But others, not of the Gosvāmī class at all, have ventured to dispute the monopoly, and with unblessed shrines, as it were, are competing for the pilgrim business.
At Dhākkādakshin, in Sylhet, the birthplace of Chaitanya's father, there is a temple of considerable size, where Chaitanya is worshipped as an incarnation of Krishna. This temple was founded by a female member of the family from which Chaitanya sprung.
The Sylhet district is predominantly Vaishnava, as is the country round about Dacca in East Bengal. Small temples and numerous ākhrās flourish in these sections, and in many of them images of Chaitanya are to be found, usually associated with Nityānanda.
Forty years ago Dr. Wise's investigations established the fact that in the Dacca district 74% of all temples were Vaishnava. It must not be thought, however, that these are all Chaitanya temples. The great majority of them house images of Rādhā-Krishna.
In a Rāmaite maṭha in Dacca I found the Gaur-Nitāi images in friendly company with Rāma, Sītā and many others.
One of the most curious shrines I have seen anywhere was also in Dacca:
It had a gorgeous array of 5 practically life-sized gilded images, representing the three Prabhus - Chaitanya, Advaita, Nityānanda with Gadādhar and Śrīvāsa added.
Nowhere else have I found these five in equal honour in a shrine. And this particular temple was presided over by a Rāmaite pujārī, who could not tell me how it happened!
Another interesting shrine was found in Dhamrāi, near Dacca. In this small temple the usual Rādhā-Krishna images, about two feet in height, were completely overshadowed by a towering image of Nityānanda, standing near as though keeping guard.
These and countless other incongruities (at least to the Western eye) to be seen in the medley of images in many Hindu shrines, are to be explained very largely by the fact that the owner of a shrine rarely refuses to accept proffered images.
A householder may find it inconvenient to keep up the worship of a household image, and presents it to a temple. Often it may not be the image traditionally worshipped there, but room is found for it.
Usually such gifts are accompanied by grants of money for the upkeep of the worship, and few sevāits can find it in their hearts to refuse this!
Thus the origin of images in many temples is hopelessly confused, and the clarity of sectarian distinctions equally obliterated, to the woe of the foreign observer.
At Kālnā and Ambikā are well-known temples:
The latter was built by Gauri Dās, a contemporary and friend of Chaitanya, and the image of Chaitanya worshipped there was made by Gauri Dās himself. He also made an image of Nityānanda, and the two are worshipped together here.
Two relics of Chaitanya, an oar and a copy of the Gītā, given by him to Gauri Dās, were for long treasures of this shrine.
At Kātwā, the village near Navadvīpa where Chaitanya underwent initiation as a sannyāsī, the memory of that event is perpetuated by a simple shrine. Where the beautiful locks were shaven off and buried, a small brick marker is placed, called the keśa samādhi.
Nearby is a small temple sheltering an image of Chaitanya, said to have been made by Gadādhar, one of his most faithful disciples.
Kheturi, in the Rajshahi district, as we have seen, is a famous Vaishnava centre, because of its connection with Narottama Datta, one of the revered trio of the 17th century revival.
The temple here was built at the instigation of Narottama, and the image of Chaitanya installed there, known as Gaura Rāy, was a famous one in the annals of the sect.
At Bāghnāpāra, near Kālnā, is one of the oldest temples of the sect, bearing the date of 1538. It was founded by Ram Chandra, an adopted son of Jāhṇavī, the accomplished wife of Nityānanda.
Khardaha, a few miles north of Calcutta, is another famous centre of the sect because of its long connection with the Nityānanda family.
Here Nityānanda settled, and began the erection of the temples which were finished by his son. These are probably the oldest temples of the sect, but there is nothing of particular note about them.
Both Nityānanda and Chaitanya images, called Gaur-Nitāi, are found side by side in these shrines. In one of them are to be seen the old tantric symbols, which lend colour to the suggestion of latent Tantrism in the minds of the founders.
Calcutta possesses no public temple of Chaitanya, but there are many small private temples. Usually in the Krishna temples small Gaur-Nitāi images will be found flanking the main figures.
In the Bāghbazar section, near the river, may be seen a wayside shrine sheltering large images of Chaitanya and Nityānanda.
There is a certain fitness about this crude, simple shrine near the bathing ghāṭs:
The images are directly by the roadside, with scarcely enough space about them for the pujārī to sit; open to every passer-by and appealing to the poor and unprivileged; symbolising in their grotesque way the appeal made by Chaitanya himself to the common folk of his day.
I have been told that there are more than a hundred private temples of Chaitanya in Calcutta, but such a statement cannot be verified.
At Purī there is no large temple dedicated to Chaitanya. Jagannāth overshadows everything.
Nevertheless, Chaitanya is venerated throughout Orissa as, perhaps, nowhere else. In Purī itself there are numerous small shrines where his image is worshipped, while through the country hundreds of them are to be found.
The Gopinath temple in Purī is especially associated with Chaitanya. It is here that the devout pilgrim is told of Gaurāṅga’s disappearance into the image.
In the Jagannāth temple also, there are sacred spots, such as the Garuda stambha, the pillar on which Chaitanya is said to have leaned day after day during his long years of residence in Purī.
From this spot he would gaze upon the image, not daring to go nearer lest his emotions should overcome him. The hollow worn by his elbow, and what is claimed to be the impress of his foot upon the pavement, are shown here.
Of chief sanctity are the relics of the saint preserved in the Yameśvarṭoṭa Ākhrā. Here are shown the cell in which Chaitanya lived, and remnants of the quilt used by him, and his wooden sandals.
The saptasthān, the seven seats, is also a spot sacred to pilgrims for its association with Chaitanya. Here stands a small Ākhrā dedicated to the memory of Haridās, the saintly Moslem convert who was buried at this spot by Chaitanya himself.
Elsewhere in Orissa practically every place associated with any visit of Chaitanya is marked by a shrine, or is made the centre of a mela held every year.
Such places, for example, are
Danton, a village originally associated with a story of the Buddha's washing his teeth there, but which has cheerfully put Chaitanya into the story in place of the Buddha, and celebrates the memory by holding a mela annually;
Gargariya ghāṭ, in Cuttack, where Chaitanya crossed the Mahānadī river and where the Balijātrā melā is held, a large gathering; the Mardurbazar temple, in Cuttack, dating from Chaitanya’s day;
Chaṇḍipur on the beach;
Alālnāth, not far from Purī, with its delightful relic in the shape of a stone slab, showing the impress of a man's form (made by Chaitanya when he slept there one night!), also commemorated by an annual festival.
Many more such places there are visited by pilgrims, and marked by festival or shrine.
One of the most interesting images of which we learn is that still to be found at Pratāpapur, near Baripada:
Tradition maintains that this large image of Chaitanya was made to the order of King Pratāpa himself, for his own solace, when Chaitanya left Purī for Vrindāvan.
It was left at Pratāpapur for some reason, and the king then made an endowment for it and appointed priests for the worship. A temple was also built, but after the vicissitudes of 400 years nothing seems to be left but the image itself in a small hut.
Every year, however, on Chaitanya's birthday, the people gather to worship, and an all-day-and-night saṅkīrtana is held.
R. L. Mitra, in his Antiquities of Orissa, makes the assertion that the Chaitanya temples in that country number 800, and another author tells us that Chaitanya is revered by the common people as "the living personality of Jagannātha."
Their two images are worshipped together, and every evening Chaitanya's name is chanted as the Vaishnava scriptures are read.
In Vrindāvan there is no large temple given over to the worship of Chaitanya:
Although this greatest temple centre in the north of India, next to Benares, is itself, in a very real sense, a memorial to Chaitanya and his followers, his actual worship is confined to a few shrines frequented by vairāgīs and pilgrims from Bengal.
In one only of the large temples - the Govindjī - in a small shrine at the rear, the images of Chaitanya and Nityānanda are to be seen.