The Date of Caitanya-Caritamrta of Murari Gupta

Summary

Focusing on the hagiographical poem Sri-Krsna-Caitanya-caritamrta, this article surveys the debate over its authorship and date. Scholars agree that the text contains interpolations but disagree on whether Murari Gupta wrote only the sections dealing with Caitanya’s early life or the entire work. Some think later chapters were added by another devotee after Saka 1435 (1513 CE), while Biman Bihari Majumdar argues that Murari wrote the whole poem and that the verse giving its date is spurious. The article analyses the verse that places the composition before 1513, compares it with passages mentioning Caitanya’s death and later events, and evaluates arguments from modern scholars like Dinesh Chandra Sen, S. K. De and Sukumar Sen. Attention is given to internal references that reveal when Murari was urged by Srivasa to compose the poem and to the role of Damodara in the narrative. By examining these textual clues and subsequent biographies, the author contends that the sections covering Caitanya’s later life were likely written by someone else. The article situates the composition of the authentic portion of the poem around 1513–1520 and suggests that even the description of the saint’s early life may contain later additions, making it difficult to isolate Murari’s original verses. Ultimately, the study illustrates the complex transmission history of the Caitanya-caritamrta and the methodological challenges in dating medieval devotional literature.