+29-33 rasa-panchAdhyAya

With ten commentaries.

Version 1.00 Jagat (June 9, 2006)

Version 2.00 Jagat (2023)

The principal source for the commentaries found in this edition is the Bhagavata Vidya Pith edition: (ed.) Bhagavata Rishi and Krishna Shankar Shastri (Sola Karnavati, 2052 saṁ=1996). Vol. III. I have not included all the commentaries that are found in this huge volume, but only those that are of principal interest to ṅaudiya Vaishnavas. Hopefully all these commentaries will one day be available electronically. That day is still far off, but for the time being we will take the small step of offering this portion of the most vital portion of the Bhagavatam, its five life airs, the Rasa Lila. I have access to a few other editions containing some of these commentaries, which I have used to confirm and check readings. Information about these commentaries, along with a few notes, is given here:

• śrīmad-ānanda-tīrtha-madhvācāryasya bhāgavata-tātparyam

This commentary is not included in the Bhagavata Vidya Pith edition. Only two verses of the Rasa Lila have comments by Madhva (10.29.11, 15). Madhva lived in the 13th century. I have used (ed.) Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha, Calcutta : Chaitanya ṅaudiya Math, 1995.

• 2. śrī-śrīdhara-svāminaḥ bhāgavata-bhāvārtha-dīpikā {#śrī-śrīdhara-svāminaḥ-bhāgavata-bhāvārtha-dīpikā .unnumbered}

(ed. Ramateja Pandeya, Benares: Chowkhamba, 1996). The text for Sridhar Swami's commentary was entered by Robert Gafrik. Sridhar's commentary is probably not the earliest, but it is the one that most influenced the ṅaudiya sampradaya, at least in the beginning.

• 3. śrī-vaṁśīdharasya bhāvārtha-dīpikā-prakāśaḥ {#śrī-vaṁśīdharasya-bhāvārtha-dīpikā-prakāśaḥ .unnumbered}

I earlier stated that this 19th censtury author's commentary is of limited value. In fact, in several places I have found his additions useful and entertaining. It is placed immediately after Sridhar because, as the name of the commentary indicates, it follows Bhāvārtha-dīpikā rather than the Bhāgavata verses directly. It appears that in most cases, Vamsidhar also repeated Vishwanath's commentaries verbatim (see below) and occasionally the Vaishnava Toshani as well. I considered it an unnecessary repetition and a waste of space to do this, so only material original to Vamsidhara has been included there.

• 4. śrī-śrīnātha-cakravartinaḥ caitanya-mata-mañjuṣā {#śrī-śrīnātha-cakravartinaḥ-caitanya-mata-mañjuṣā .unnumbered}

As far as I know, the only published edition of this commentary comes from Haridas Das, no copy of which is in my possession. Srinath Chakravarti was the spiritual master of Kavi Karnapur. It is thus a fairly early text, though in all probability does not precede Sanatan ṅoswami's work. I feel that there is a discernable influence of this commentary on Jiva's Bṛhat-krama-sandarbha, indicating that Jiva was influenced, at least in part, to write another commentary on the Tenth Canto after taking note of Srinath’s tika*.*

• 5. śrī-sanātana-gosvāminaḥ bṛhad-vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī {#śrī-sanātana-gosvāminaḥ-bṛhad-vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī .unnumbered}

My only source for this was the Bhagavata Vidya Pitha edition.

• 6. śrī-jīva-gosvāminaḥ [laghu-] vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī {#śrī-jīva-gosvāminaḥ-laghu–vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī .unnumbered}

Although Puridas published an edition of this text, I only have access to a portion of it. This is the most influential ṅaudiya commentary.

Besides this Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī, I have also included Sanatan's Dig-darśanī comments from Hari-bhakti-vilāsa and those fro Bṛhad-bhāgavatārta, wherever verses from these chapters have been cited in that work.

• 7. śrī-jīva-gosvāminaḥ krama-sandarbhaḥ {#śrī-jīva-gosvāminaḥ-krama-sandarbhaḥ .unnumbered}

Through the kindness of Srivatsa ṅoswami of Jai Singh ṅhera in Vrindavan, I have a copy of Puridasa Mahasaya's 1952 edition, which is the principal source here. It is noteworthy that with the exception of the Tenth Canto, Krama-sandarbha is basically a sequential (krama) displacement of the comments found in Jiva's Ṣaṭ-sandarbha. This exception is to me inexplicable, as the Sandarbha comments to the Tenth Canto verses are not duplicated in any of Jiva's other Bhagavata commentaries (unless they are in the Laghu-vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī). I felt therefore that it was worthwhile to insert those texts here. I may not have included them all, so the files may be updated as these texts are discovered.

• 8. śrī-jīva-gosvāminaḥ bṛhat-krama-sandarbhaḥ {#śrī-jīva-gosvāminaḥ-bṛhat-krama-sandarbhaḥ .unnumbered}

Ekkehard Lorenz made TIF files of Puridas's edition of this text available to me. See Caitanya-mata-mañjuṣā above. This commentary is also included in the Bhagavata Vidya Pitha edition.

• 9. nārāyaṇa-bhaṭṭasya rasikāhlādinī {#nārāyaṇa-bhaṭṭasya-rasikāhlādinī .unnumbered}

This commentary is also quite early, perhaps even preceding Jiva ṅoswami. Narayan Bhatta was born in 1532 (saṁ. 1588) in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, but came to live in Braj in 1546. He was initiated by Krishna Das Brahmachari, a disciple of ṅadadhar Pandit who was serving at the Madan Mohan temple in Radha Kund. He is famous for a number of works like Vraja-bhakti-vilāsa and Vraja-pradīpikā, etc., which are the most exhaustive early descriptions of the Braja Dham parikrama (See Entwistle's Braja: A Place of Pilgrimage). He also had great influence in establishing the Rasa Lila performance tradition in Braja (see Vasant Yamadagni's Rāsa-līlā tathā rāsānukaraṇa vikāsa, New Delhi: Sangita Nataka Academy, 1980). This edition was published by Kusumasarovarawala Krishna Das in the 1950's. The editor is Prabhu Dayal Mittal, a very highly reputed scholar of the Radha Vallabha Sampradaya. This edition was the source of the Bhagavata Vidya Pith edition, to the extent that even obvious errors have been repeated. Though Narayan Bhatta was contemporary to Jiva ṅoswami, there appears to be little influence of his work, or even of Rupa ṅoswami, to the extent that he cites Rasārṇava-sudhākara to the total exclusion of Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi. He appears, however, to be aware of the Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī and, I believe, of Vallabha’s commentary.

• 10. śrī-viśvanātha-cakravartinaḥ sārārtha-darśinī {#śrī-viśvanātha-cakravartinaḥ-sārārtha-darśinī .unnumbered}

(ed. Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha, Calcutta : Chaitanya ṅaudiya Math, 1995). Nothing really needs to be said here except that Vishwanath's popularity has led to the neglect of the Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī, which is, in my opinion, unfortunate. The probable reason for this is that Vishwanath has simplified the commentary and avoided the large numbers of alternative explanations that Sanatan enjoys so much.

• 11. baladeva-vidyābhūṣaṇasya vaiṣṇavānandinī {#baladeva-vidyābhūṣaṇasya-vaiṣṇavānandinī .unnumbered}

Though the Bhagavata Vidya Pitha has published Baladeva's commentary to the Tenth Canto, there does not seem to be anything at the Rasa Lila. Whether Baladeva actually did comment on these verses is unknown to me and is something that needs investigation.