Ladileya was the name of Narayan Bhatta's family deity. This deity can now be found in Ucca (sp?) village in the Braj area. (Malika Das, 2004-03-22)

Added by: Jagat
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Keywords: Narayana, Bhatta, Ladileya

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The disciple of Krishnadas Brahmachari, disciple of Gadadhar Pandit Goswami. Narayan Bhatta was born in Madurai in Tamil Nadu. His father was a Tailanga brahmin named Bhairava, a member of the Madhva sampradaya. He arrived in Braj in 1602 Sam. (1546 CE). He made many contributions to the Gaudiya sampradaya in Braja, principally that of designating and cataloguing the various pilgrimage sites in Braj. His book, Vraja-bhakti-vilasa, is perhaps the earliest authoritative source for the Vraja-parikrama. Haridas Das says that he inaugurated this custom as well as the Rasa-lila performances in the vernacular in Braja. The latter attribution may be less likely than the former, but it would nevertheless be no exaggeration to say that he played an important role in this aspect of Braj culture.

Other books by Narayana Bhatta include: Bhakti-rasa-tarangini, Vraja-dipika, Vrajotsava-candrika, Vraja-mahodadhi, Brihad-vraja-gunotsava, Bhakta-bhushana-sandarbha, Vraja-sadhana-candrika, Vraja-prakasa, Bhakti-viveka, Rasikahladini (Rasa-lila commentary, which is available on this site), Sadhana-dipika, Premankura-nataka, Ladili-lala-yugala-paddhati, and Ladileyastakam.

His biography has been written in the Puranic style by his descendant Janaki-prasada Bhatta, Narayana-bhatta-caritamrita (published by Baba Krishna Das). Further biographical information is found in Swami Radhakrishna's Rasa-sarvasva. Both these books credit Narayan Bhatta with creatijng the Rasa performance institution. He is mentioned in Nabhaji's Bhaktamala (Chappaya 88).

According to Narayana-bhatta-caritamrita, he was an incarnation of Narada, who descended specifically with the mission of establishing the Rasa.