Download Krama-dīpika

The text used for this edition is taken from (ed) Sudhakar Malaviya. Varanasi : Krishnadas Academy, 1989.

The Sanskrit commentary is by Govinda Bhattacharya. It is very useful for anyone looking to understand the code language used in describing mantras, etc. (Jagat 2002)

(ed) Sudhakar Malaviya. Varanasi : Krishnadas Academy, 1989.

Added by: Jagat
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Text version: 1.00 (legend)
Keywords: Krama, Dipika, Kesava, Kasmiri, tantra, pancharatra, Keshava, Govinda, Bhattacharya.

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Additional notes from the editors' research and selected discussion forum contributions.

The Krama Dipika is a key to Gaudiya Vaishnava history that has yet to be explored.

Though Keshava Kashmiri's dates are in need of further investigation, Malaviya places him at the beginning of the 14th century--which I suspect may be a little early.

The Chaitanya Charitamrita discusses the visit of a Keshava Kashmiri in Nabadwip, the famous Digvijayi humiliated by Nimai Pandit in debate. Some commentators identify this personality with the author of Krama Dipika, while others recognize the impossibility of any such identification. It is possible that Krishnadas Kaviraja was trying to add prestige to his own sect by adding this important acharya of the Nimbarka line to Chaitanya's conquests, but we may never know for sure.

The Krama Dipika is certainly earlier than Sanatan Goswami, who uses several portions of it, including an extensive meditation on Krishna, in his Hari-bhakti-vilasa. The importance given to the Gopala mantra of 18-syllables is based to a great extent on the Krama Dipika version. The section on diksha is specifically said to follow Krama Dipika.

In view of this, it appears that there is an unacknowledged debt in the Gaudiya Vaishnava line to the Nimbarka sampradaya, at least in matters of mantra and ritual, which needs to be clarified. To this, we must ask in what traditions prior to the Gaudiya were other Pancharatra texts like the Sammohana Tantra, Gautamiya Tantra, Narada Pancharatra, etc., being used, as well as other relevant texts in the same vein, such as Gopala Tapani Upanishad.

Since there is a deep connection between mantra, initiation and disciplic succession, these questions may be of special historical significance.