Cauvery River
The Cauvery or Kaveri River begins at Talakaveri
in Kodagu in the Indian state of Karnataka and
flows about 600 miles, mostly through Tamil
Nadu to the Bay of Bengal. It is known as the GAN-
GES of South India. Along its course are numerous
holy sites, the most important of which is SRI-
RANGAM, an island famous in VAISHNAVA tradition
where there is a shrine to Vishnu under the name
Ranganatha. The river is used as a symbol of Tamil
literature and culture (see VAISHNAVISM).
There are various legends about the river’s ori-
gin. One story says that there was once a sage Kav-
era who performed austerities in the mountains
near the source of the current river to propitiate
BRAHMA. Brahma gave him the daughter Lopamu-
dra, who manifested herself as the river Cauvery.
Later, the sage AGASTYA married Lopamudra and
placed the great river in a water pot. As chance
would have it, one day a crow tipped over the pot
and the Cauvery flowed out.
Further reading: G. Michell with Clare Arni, eds., Eter-
nal Kaveri: Historical Sites along South India’s Greatest
River (Mumbai: Marg, 1999).
Chaitanya, Sri Krishna (1486–1533)
Vaishnavite saint
Sri Chaitanya was born in Mayapur in what is now
West Bengal to a learned teacher of the tradition.
The written accounts of this great saint portray
him as a miraculous child who had adventures and
misadventures while still an infant that resemble
those found in the stories of KRISHNA, of whom Sri
Chaitanya was considered an incarnation.
As were many of the other great teachers of
Indian tradition, Sri Chaitanya was a master of
SANSKRIT. When he was only 16 he already knew
as much as professors at Sanskrit schools. That
same year his wife died of snake bite; he was then
married to a daughter of a wealthy and respected
teacher, a sign that his social standing was already
on the rise. On a trip to Gaya to perform rituals
for his ancestors he visited a Vishnu shrine and
there fell into a trance. He was caught before he
fell by a noted ascetic, Ishvara Puri, a practitioner
of devotional VAISHNAVISM. When Chaitanya came
to his senses he asked Puri to help him under-
stand RADHA’s love for Krishna.
The stories of Radha’s love affair with Lord
Krishna were the backdrop for the intense Vaish-
navite devotion that Chaitanya was to experience.
Radha’s passionate, uncontrollable love for her
lover Lord Krishna was the model for this devo-
tional path. Receiving the Krishna MANTRA from
Puri, Chaitanya went into a prolonged and ago-
nizing state of mystical longing; at times he was
ecstatic at realizing the presence of Lord Krishna
everywhere; at times he felt deep sorrow from los-
ing this sense of passionate contact.
At this point Sri Chaitanya ceased being a
pandit or teacher, overwhelmed as he was with
intense moods of frenzy and mystic passion—the
passion of God-love. It was not long before he was
recognized as an incarnation of Krishna. He began
to attract followers with whom he would spend
his days singing praises of the Lord, dancing and
falling into trances. It is said that his passion-
ate religiosity was so strong that he converted a
Muslim ruler of Bengal who had previously been
known to persecute Hindus as infidels.
At times Sri Chaitanya felt himself to be the
embodiment of Krishna; at other times he embod-
ied the essence of Radha. He was an exemplar of
the most emotional type of devotion, wherein the
devotee loses sense of himself or herself in the
thrall of the mystic vision. This devotional atti-
tude is precisely the one that SRI BHAKTIVEDANTA
PRABHUPADA, the founder of the Hare Krishna
movement in America, took to the shores of the
West to develop and spread. Sri Prabhupada is in
the direct lineage of Sri Chaitanya.Further reading: S. N. Dasgupta, A History of Indian
Philosophy. Vol. 4 (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1975);
Edward C. Dimock Jr., Caitanya Caritamrta of Krsnadasa
Kaviraja: A Translation and Commentary (Cambridge,Chaitanya, Sri Krishna 101 J