Udupi. Dancing Gopāla. Caitanya
To continue the theme of the “dancing Gopāla” (nartaka-gopāla) from Caitanya-caritāmṛta 2.9.245–246.
“Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went to Udupi, the town of Madhvacharya, where the Tattvavadi philosophers lived. On seeing Krishna’s Deity there, He became distraught with ecstasy” (2.9.245)
“In the monastery at Udupi, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw a beautiful Deity who goes by the name of Nartaka Gopala [“dancing Gopala”]. This Deity appeared to Madhvacharya in a dream” (2.9.246)
In the Bengali original, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja does not speak of a “monastery”. The word “monastery” was added by Prabhupāda and his followers, apparently translating the word sthāne (place, house, etc.) with it. A monastery is usually called (vihāra, maṭha, āśrama). In the sixteenth century there were nine “monasteries” (maṭhas) built around the Kṛṣṇa-temple (kṛṣṇa-maṭha) in the centre of Udupi. In which particular Udupi monastery was Caitanya, the Caitanya-caritāmṛta does not say.
However, in that monastery Caitanya saw the deity “dancing Gopāla” (2.9.246, nartaka gopāla dekhe). It is said simply “in the place of Madhvacharya saw the Udupi dancing Gopala.” Kavirāja adds that this deity appeared to Madhvācārya in a dream.
So, in some monastery in Udupi there was a deity of dancing Gopāla. Which monastery exactly? In the Kṛṣṇa-temple, the main deity is Kṛṣṇa with a whorl (as tradition says). This deity was on the ship. In 2.9.247 Kavirāja says that the dancing Gopāla was on the ship. But according to Madhva tradition, it was the deity of Kṛṣṇa with the whorl, not the dancing Gopāla, who was on the ship. And here an interesting story begins.
In 2013-2014, I asked Bannanje Govindacarya — a leading paṇḍita and ācārya of the Madhva school at that time, if the deity of dancing Gopāla was known in the history of Udupi temples? Bannanje said that there never was and is no such deity. According to one of the Śaṃkara-vijayas (hagiographies of Śaṃkara, of which there are many), Śaṃkara came to a sacred pilgrimage site, Udupi (in the text “Rajatapīṭha”) and a local brāhmaṇa named Hastāmalaka from a village near Kodavura (6 km from Udupi) became his disciple. Rajatapīṭha (the place where there is silver) is one of the names of Udupi. The area of several dozen square kilometres around Udupi has been considered the place of Śiva since ancient times. According to the Madhva-vijaya, “Udupi” — means “Lord Śiva carrying the moon in his hair”. The oldest of the local temples is the Śiva-temple of Candramūleśvara (opposite the Kṛṣṇa-temple).
According to Anantānandagiri’s Śaṃkara-vijaya, about what is also written by Bannanje in his book Udupi: past and present, Śaṃkara sent two disciples to preach to the east and west. Lakṣmaṇa went to the east and Hastāmalaka went to preach to the brāhmaṇas in the west, where he taught them how to wear the five important signs on the body (urdhvapuṇḍra and the signs of Viṣṇu) and also revealed to them the secret of the eight-syllable mantra. Anantānandagiri goes on to say that Hastāmalaka established (pratiṣṭhāṃ) Kṛṣṇa’s deity Gopāla with a flute (veṇugopāla). It’s not very clear yet why the advaitin Ḥastāmalaka taught Vaiṣṇavism to brāhmaṇas and installed idols of Kṛṣṇa. But that is the legend.
Bannanje writes that Gopāla with the flute of Hastāmalaka was installed in Kangur-matha in Kodavur. In the fourteenth century, the deity came under the patronage of Balegar-matha (82 km from Udupi, 88 km from Kodavur) and its head, Akṣobhyatīrtha, who allotted one brāhmaṇa to worship the deity. In course of time the brāhmaṇa ceased to pūjā and the deity was transferred to the Kṛṣṇa-temple in Udupi. It is not known if the deity was in intermediate temples/maṭhas on the way to Kṛṣṇa’s temple in Udupi. After 200 years, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja tells the story of Caitanya’s visit to Udupi and his ecstasy at seeing the dancing Gopāla.
Veṇugopāla now stands in the same room as Kṛṣṇa with the whorl, only a little apart. He is swathed in chauri before the evening pūjā. A pūjā is performed for him in the hall after the night worship of Kṛṣṇa. The deity of Kṛṣṇa with a flute (veṇugopāla) has a kind of dancing pose (tribhaṅga-lalita).
Could Caitanya being a māyāvādī-sannyāsin (2.9.250) have known from Śaṃkara-vijaya about Veṇugopāla’s deity in Udupi, which was installed by Śaṃkara’s disciple himself and wanted to see it? In case of this assumption, three elements are the same: place (Udupi), name of the deity (Gopāla), form of the deity (dancing posture). Usually deities installed by famous personalities are treated with great piety.
What exactly was the deity of Kṛṣṇa that Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja had in mind? Kavirāja himself had not been to Udupi himself and had not seen the deity, but had only heard about it. The rest was surmised for a beautiful image (“Madhva’s dream”). Whether Caitanya was even in Udupi remains an open question. At this point most arguments refute Caitanya’s dispute with any of the Tattvavādins in Udupi.
In Madhva-sampradāya there is no any legends about “dancing Gopāla”. This is confirmed by the history of Udupi and the leading paṇḍitas and ācāryas of the Madhva school, including Bannanje Govindacarya.
