श्री चैतन्य चरितामृत
Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami finished this book at Vrindavana in 1615: some 24,000 lines of Bengali verse on the life and teachings of Mahaprabhu, which became his standard biography almost from the moment it was composed. The original is Bengali, so every reading of it in another language is a reading in translation. The one on this site is the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust's Hindi edition, translation and purports by Srila Prabhupada.
The reader is entirely in Hindi, in the Devanagari shown above — there is no English version of this reader, and no English text inside it.
“I am old and worn out, and deaf and blind; my hand trembles, my mind is not steady.”
Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami, writing about himself inside the book. In the Vaishnava tradition this is vinaya — the humility an author offers before a sacred subject — not a description of the book. He completed it at Vrindavana in 1615; the date is recorded in the book's own closing verse, at Antya-lila 20.157.
Sixty-two chapters in all — seventeen, twenty-five and twenty
Who Mahaprabhu is, before what he did. The opening chapters set out the theology — the Panca-tattva, the reason for his appearance — and the later ones follow his birth and early years at Navadvipa. This is the section that explains the terms the rest of the book assumes you know.
The longest and the most instructional part of the book: the years of travel, the turning of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, the conversation with Ramananda Raya, and the extended teachings given to Srila Sanatana Goswami and Srila Rupa Goswami. Chapter 3 (Mahaprabhu at the house of Sri Advaita Acharya) and chapter 25 (how the residents of Varanasi became Vaishnavas) are not online yet.
The last years at Puri, in a narrower circle and a deeper mood: the passing of Srila Haridasa Thakura, the years in which Mahaprabhu's absorption takes on the mood of Srimati Radharani, and the eight verses of the Shikshashtak with which the book closes.
Stated plainly, including the parts that are missing
The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust's Hindi edition, translation and purports by Srila Prabhupada. Every chapter carries the verses with his translation and his commentary beneath them, exactly as the printed Hindi volumes set them out.
Adi-lila: all 17 chapters. Madhya-lila: 23 of 25 — chapter 3, Mahaprabhu's stay at the house of Sri Advaita Acharya, and chapter 25, how the residents of Varanasi became Vaishnavas, are not online. Antya-lila: all 20. With the भूमिका, that is 61 entries out of a book of 62 chapters.
Then this reader will not serve you, and it is better to know that here than after a click. Nothing on this site is in English apart from the page you are on. English translations of the book exist in print; this site is not one of them, and pointing you to a Hindi reader you cannot use would waste your evening.
Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami wrote in old age, and said so in the book itself: "I am old and worn out, and deaf and blind; my hand trembles, my mind is not steady." That is vinaya — the humility a Vaishnava author offers before a sacred subject, crediting the work to the mercy of the Vaishnavas rather than to himself — not a description of the book's quality.
It was not the first. Chaitanya Bhagavata by Vrindavana Dasa Thakura came earlier. But the scholar Tony K. Stewart, writing in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, records that this book emerged as Mahaprabhu's standard biography almost from the moment of its composition, and that is the position it has held since.
The source is scanned pages of the printed Hindi edition, put through OCR. What you see is the recognised text, reflowed to fit your screen and searchable — not a photograph of a page. Recognition is not perfect: an occasional odd character is a scanning artifact, not the edition disagreeing with the printed book.
Two searches: one over chapter titles when you know roughly where you are going, one over the full text when you remember a phrase and nothing else. A bookmarks panel keeps the places you want to return to, and a settings control adjusts how the text is displayed.
No charge, no advertising, no account. The whole book sits at a single address with a contents panel for navigation, so there are no per-chapter links to collect or share — and because there is no account, no reading history is attached to anybody.
Two chapters of Madhya-lila are missing. Both fall in Madhya — chapter 3 near its opening, chapter 25 at its close — so the run from Madhya 4 through 24 is unbroken, and Adi-lila and Antya-lila are whole.
Who wrote it, when, in what language, and what is on this reader
Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita is the standard account of the life and teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, written by Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami and finished at Vrindavana in 1615. It runs to 62 chapters in three parts — Adi-lila 17, Madhya-lila 25, Antya-lila 20 — and to roughly 24,000 lines in the Bengali original, mostly in payara couplet, with more than a thousand verses quoted from around 75 Sanskrit sources.
This reader is entirely in Hindi, in Devanagari script. There is no English version of it: the page describing the book is in English, the book itself is not. The text is the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust's Hindi edition, with translation and purports by Srila Prabhupada. English translations of the work exist in print, but they are not what this site hosts.
No. 60 of the 62 chapters are online, plus the भूमिका (introduction), which comes to 61 entries. Adi-lila is complete at 17 chapters and Antya-lila at 20; Madhya-lila has 23 of its 25 chapters, missing chapter 3 (Mahaprabhu's stay at the house of Sri Advaita Acharya) and chapter 25 (how the residents of Varanasi became Vaishnavas).
Yes — one Bengali work with several English spellings. Chaitanya Charitamrita and Chaitanya Charitamrit are the common transliterations, and the form with diacritics is the one used in academic writing. All of them name the same book by Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami, and this site serves it in Hindi.
Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami wrote it in Bengali, completing it at Vrindavana in 1537 Sakabda — AD 1615 — on the fifth day of the waning moon in the month of Jyaistha, according to the book's own closing verse at Antya-lila 20.157. He wrote it in old age, describing himself in the text as old and worn out, deaf and blind, with a trembling hand and an unsteady mind.
No. Chaitanya Bhagavata by Vrindavana Dasa Thakura was written earlier. Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita is the later work, and the scholar Tony K. Stewart records that it emerged as Mahaprabhu's standard biography almost from the moment of its composition.
It is free, with no advertising and no sign-up. There is no account to create, which also means no reading history is stored against anybody. The whole book sits at one address and a contents panel is how you move between the lilas and chapters, so there are no separate per-chapter links.
From scanned pages of the printed Bhaktivedanta Book Trust Hindi edition, put through OCR. The reader shows the recognised text reflowed for the screen and searchable, rather than an image of the page — so the text can be searched and resized, and an occasional misrecognised character is an artifact of scanning rather than a difference from the printed book.