Chandidas

Chandidas (Bengali: চণ্ডীদাস; born 1408 CE) refers to a medieval poet of Bengal or possibly more than one. Over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in Bengali with the bhanita of Chandidas are found with three different sobriquets along with his name, Baḍu, Dvija and Dina as well as without any sobriquet also. It is not clear whether these bhanitas actually refer to the same person or not. It is assumed by some modern scholars that the poems which are current in the name of Chandidas are actually the works of at least four different Chandidas, who are distinguished from each other by their sobriquets found in the bhanitas. It is also assumed that the earliest of them was Ananta Baḍu Chandidas, who has been more or less identified as a historical figure born in the 14th century in Birbhum district of the present-day West Bengal state and wrote the lyrical Srikrishna Kirtan (Songs in praise of Krishna).

Quotes

• Ah lady! ah lady! hear a word,
  At length having seen (him) I have come again;
  Looking, looking, (my) pain increased,
  Whatever was done profited not.
  He binds not his hair, he girds not his waist,
  He eats not food, he drinks not water.
  The colour of gold Šyâm has become,
  Constantly remembering thy name.
  He does not recognize any one, his eye does not wink,
  He remains with fixed look like a doll of wood.
  I placed a piece of wool to his nose,
  Then only I perceived that he breathed,
  There is breath, but there remains no life,
  Delay not, my happiness depends on it!
  Cha.n.dî Dâs saith (it is) the anguish of separation
  In his heart, the only medicine is Radha.
  • THE EARLY VAISHNAVA POETS OF BENGAL: II. CHA.N.DÎ DÂS By JOHN BEAMES, B.C.S., M.R.A.S., &c.

Quotes about Chandidas

• Chandidas celebrates the divine love by singing the love of Radha and Krishna. His poetry is one of the best in India's devotional literature. In his poems, he celebrates soul's love for God,... with a matchless purity of feeling and diction.
  • Swarup, Ram (2000). Meditations: Yogas, gods, religions. p. 196