anarpita tika reconsidered

In my blog of August 24, 2017 I quoted Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī's ṭīkā to Śrī Rupa Gosvāmī's anarpita cari verse to prove that manjarī-bhāva is Śrī Caitanya Mahaprabhu's ultimate gift to the fallen souls of Kali-yuga. Since then I learned from 2 scholars that this text is most probably not written by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī. I will quote them here and add my own reasoning to it here too -

Bhrigumuni Das -

(In Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī's ṭīkā to Śrī Rupa Gosvāmī's anarpita cari verse) “There is all the emphasis on Śaci-mātā, etc. (Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī otherwise never wrote about Gaur-līlā - Advaitadas). The decisive proof against this text being authored by Jīva is quoting the advaita-prakaṭīkṛta-verse of Viśvanātha Cakravartī (who lived a century later of course - Advaitadas) which appears in the maṅgalācaraṇa to his commentary to Prema-bhakti-candrikā.”

For the readers' comfort I quote and translate that text of Viśvanātha Cakravartī here —

advaita prakaṭīkṛto narahari preṣṭhaḥ svarūpa priyo

nityānanda sakhaḥ sanātana gatiḥ śrī rūpa hṛt ketanaḥ

lakṣmī prāṇa patir gadādhara rasollāsī jagannātha-bhūḥ

sāṅgopāṅga sapārṣadaḥ sa dayatāṁ devaḥ śacīnandanaḥ

“My that Lord Śacīnandana, who was manifest by Advaita-ācārya, who is dear to Narahari Sarakāra and Svarūpa Dāmodara, who is Nityānanda's friend, the shelter of Sanātana Gosvāmī, who dwells in the heart of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, who is the Lord of Lakṣmīpriyā's life, who delights in the rasa served by Gadādhara, and who was born from Jagannātha Miśrā, along with His associates, be merciful to me.”

Satya-Nārāyaṇa Dāsji had the following to add - 

“I checked the Advaiti-prakaṭī-kṛta verse in the commentary of Prema-bhakti-candrika. It looks to me that this verse is written by VCT himself. It is the mangalācarana verse in his ṭīkā. He would certainly not cite someone else's verse for his mangalācarana. Moreover, if Jīva Gosvāmī has cited it then it could have been composed by Śrī Rupa or Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī. But that possibility is not there because the verse contains the name of both of them. It is highly improbable that Śrī Rupa or Śrī Sanātana will write a verse containing their own names and describing themselves as associates of Caitanya. At best they could call themselves as humble servants. So it may be that this explanation of Anarpita-cari is not by Jīva Gosvāmī.”

I will add my own reasoning too -

1. If this ṭīkā to the anarpita-cari-verse was written by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī it would surely be quoted by Ananta Dās Bābāji, who was the staunchest preacher of manjari bhāva, since it would suit his mission perfectly. But he never quoted it.

2. The list of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmīpāda’s works in Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya 1.43-44, is too summary to rely on, but Narahari Cakravarti’s Bhakti Ratnākara has a very elaborate list of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī's works, mentioning 25 of them, not including this text at all.

3. It seems strange that the ṭīkā to a single verse would appear as a separate book.

4. All the 6 Gosvāmīs as well as all the major Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava ācāryas that succeeded them were mañjarīs.

5. Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī’s ‘Vilāpa Kusumānjali’, Śrīla Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī’s ‘Rādhā-rasa-sudhānidhi’, Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s ‘Prema Bhakti Candrikā’  and ‘Prārthanā’, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī’s ‘Utkalikā Vallari’ and Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartīpāda’s ‘Sankalpa Kalpadruma’ are clearly showing that manjari bhāva is the prayojana of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya, even without needing support of such a supposed comment by Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī.

The 2017 blog is hereby deleted. 

For the record, the alleged text of Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī ran as follows –

śrī-śrī-rādhā-dāsya-mātra-labhyānanya-labhya-vraja-sumadhura-prema-prakāśanāya tasyāḥ sarva-varīyastva-prakāśanāya ca

"Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to reveal the very sweet prema of Vraja which is only attainable through rādhā-dāsya and through no other means [ananya labhya]. He also came to reveal that this is the greatest thing there is."