SRI LOCANA DASA THAKURA

Sri Locana dasa Thakura took birth in a family of Rarhiya physicians who
resided in the village of Kogram, within the Mahakumar (Katna) district of
Barddhaman. His guru was Sri Narahari Sarkar Thakura.

"I am the servant of Thakura Sri Narahari, who is the master of my life. The
desire of all my desires, I place at his lotus feet; which is that this vile
creature (myself) might describe something about the wonderful qualities of Sri
Gaurasundara. In this expectation, he is my only refuge. [Caitanya-mangala,
Satvakhanda].

His father's name was Sri Kamalakara dasa and his mother's name, Sri Sadananda.
He was the only son of his parents. He was raised in his maternal grandfather's
home and his education was completed there. He was married at a very young
age. From his youth he was very attached to Sri Gaurasundara and consequently
very disinterested in material life, though he was surrounded by family,
friends and society. In his youth he spent the major part of his time at his
guru's Sripat, Srikhanda, where he learned how to do kirtana.

He composed Caitanya-mangala from the diary of Sri Murari Gupta. "Murari Gupta,
who resides at Nadia, composed many beautiful verses about the life of Sri
Gauranga. These include the youthful pastimes of Nimai, which Murari Gupta
personally took part in, and His later pastimes in Nilacala, after He accepted
sannyasa, which were narrated by Sri Damodara Pandita. Having heard these
verses of Murari Gupta, composed in sanskrit, I have become very attracted and
so I have composed them in the village folk poetry meter of Bengali."

In east Bengal there are many village poets who sing in various meters known as
Laksmir Pancali, Sanir Pancali and Manasa Bhasan. Locana dasa Thakura has
composed Sri Caitanya-mangala in the meter of these folk poems. Pancali
contains five various kinds of meters.

Sri Vrindavana dasa Thakura's composition on the pastimes of Sri Gaurasundara
was originally entitled Caitanya-mangala, but later on the name was changed to
Caitanya-bhagavat. Those pastimes which were not described in full by Sri
Vrindavana dasa Thakura, Locana dasa has described in his Caitanya-mangala. In
the invocation of this work he has first offered his obeisances to Vrindavana
dasa Thakura, "whose Caitanya-bhagavata has enamored the entire world."

