Narottama Dasa Thakura was born into a family that ruled the Gopalpur pargana from its seat at Kheturi, a town on the Padma River in what is now Rajshahi district, Bangladesh. His father, Raja Krishnananda Datta, and his uncle Purushottama Datta were known across the region for their wealth; his mother was Narayani Devi. Traditional biographies describe the newborn prince as bearing the physical signs of a mahapurusha — long arms reaching to the knees, a deep navel, eyes shaped like lotus petals, and a complexion of molten gold — and say the family's astrologers, examining the birth chart, predicted the boy would grow up to be either a great king or a mendicant preacher. His anna-prasanna, the ceremony marking a child's first taking of grain, was itself an occasion for the king to distribute charity, and townspeople are said to have gathered simply to see the boy.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Father | Raja Krishnananda Datta |
| Mother | Narayani Devi |
| Uncle | Purushottama Datta |
| Cousin (later patron) | Santosh Datta |
| Home | Kheturi, on the Padma River |
A Prodigy Who Lost Interest in Scripture #
As a boy, Narottama was said to be a shruti-dhara, able to retain anything he heard only once. He mastered Sanskrit grammar, poetry, and the scriptures in a remarkably short time and was reckoned expert in rhetoric and prosody besides, yet as he grew he found less and less use for learning that did not lead directly to the service of Krishna. It was around this time, hearing wandering devotees speak of the mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, that something shifted in him. He began repeating their names in japa through the day and night, and biographies describe a vivid dream in which Gaurasundara Himself appeared before him with His eternal associates. Other retellings put less weight on any single vision and instead describe a longing that simply accumulated, year after year, from the pilgrims and devotees who passed through his father's territory on their way to and from the holy places of Bengal. Both versions agree on the result: Narottama could no longer picture himself as heir to a kingdom, and stopped joining the other children of the household in their games, staying instead absorbed in thoughts of Vrindavana.
Watched, and Then Gone #
Narottama's parents noticed his indifference to the pleasures and duties expected of a prince and, fearing exactly what eventually happened, set a guard to keep him close to home. His opportunity came when King Krishnananda and Purushottama Datta were summoned away to meet with the ruling authority of Bengal. On the full-moon night of the month of Kartika, Narottama left the palace behind and set out toward Mathura and Vrindavana as an unaccompanied pilgrim. He crossed Bengal quickly and found the road to Mathura crowded with fellow pilgrims, some of whom recognized him, from his bearing, as a king's son and treated him with special affection along the way. He lived on whatever milk, fruit, or roots he could find, and biographies say his hunger and thirst were forgotten in his eagerness to reach Vrindavana. As he walked he sang his own prayers for the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu — ara kabe nitai chand, karuna karibe, "when will the moon of Nitai show mercy on me" — a verse still sung by Gaudiya Vaishnavas today as an expression of exactly the longing that carried its author out of a kingdom and onto the road.