kamalākaraḥ pippalāi-nāmnāsīd you mahābalaḥ

Nityānanda Prabhu’s associate Kamalākara Pippalāi was one of the twelve gopālas, formerly known as Mahābala. (Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā 128)

Kamalākara Pippalāi’s behaviour and his love of God were uncommon. Thus his fame spread around the world. (Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.11.24)

The cowherd boy who was known as Mahābala in Vṛndāvana is now known as Kamalākara Pippalāi. Day and night he sang the glories of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and is counted as one of Nityānanda Prabhu’s branches. He lived in Mahesh on the west bank of the Ganges where he served a deity of Lord Jagannātha. (Vaiṣṇavācāra-darpaṇa)

In the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Abhidhāna, Kamalākara Pippalāi’s birth year is given as 1492 AD. According to Śrīpāṭ-paryaṭana, he was born in Akna Mahesh and lived in Jageshwar, but according to other sources he was born in the village known as Khalijhuli in the Sundarban area. His father was a rich landlord who belonged to a brāhmaṇa family of Rāḍha branch. He had a younger brother named Śrīnidhipati Pippalāi.

Though born in Khalijhuli, Kamalākara moved to the village of Mahesh, which is about two and a half miles from the Serampore railway station in Hooghly. The famous Jagannātha deity in Mahesh was consecrated by him. Prior to Kamalākara’s arrival, the area around Mahesh was nothing but jungle, but later it turned into a beautiful village whose fame spread everywhere.

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura has told two stories about Kamalākara Pippalāi in his Anubhāṣya to the Caitanya Caritāmṛta:

(1) When Kamalākara Pippalāi left home, his younger brother Śrīnidhipati Pippalāi searched for him and in due course of time found him in the village of Mahesh. When his brother refused to return despite his remonstrance, Śrīnidhipati Pippalāi came to live in Mahesh with all his family members. His descendants still reside in the Mahesh area, numbering some twenty households.

(2) There was once a highly detached Vaiṣṇava named Dhruvānanda who went on a pilgrimage to Purī. It was his strong desire to offer Lord Jagannātha food that he had cooked with his own hands. Lord Jagannātha appeared to him in a dream one night and ordered him to go to Mahesh on the bank of Ganges, install His deity there and make an offering to him. When Dhruvānanda came to Mahesh, he saw Lord Jagannātha, Balarāma and Śubhadrā floating in the river. He picked them out of the water and had a small hut built where he could shelter and worship Them. As he was worried about a suitable person to take care of the deities after him, Lord Jagannātha once again appeared to him in a dream and said, “My devotee, a great Vaiṣṇava named Kamalākara Pippalāi lives in the village of Khalijuli in the Sundarban. I have ordered him in a dream to come here and take over My service. When he comes, you should turn the responsibility for caring for Me over to him.”

The next morning, Kamalākara Pippalāi who indeed had such a dream, arrived there and Dhruvānanda immediately gave him charge of the worship of Jagannātha, Baladeva and Śubhadrā. Having been empowered in this way to serve the Lord, Kamalākara Pippalāi took the title Adhikārī, and this title has been used as the family name ever since. The Pippalāi name belongs to one of the fifty-five branches of the Rāḍha brāhmaṇas.

A devotee is always anxious to serve the Lord, so the Lord gives him directions for service. He never does this for a non-devotee. Kamalākara was gratified to have received Lord Jagannātha’s order and immediately abandoned his home and family to go to Mahesh. The conditioned souls are normally so attached to the pleasures of their gross and subtle senses that the mere mention of service to Kṛṣṇa and the Vaiṣṇavas fills their hearts with fear. They consider it to be a burden and look for any excuse to avoid such service. Because it does not contribute to the gratification of the senses, they do not consider service to Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas to be a wealth or a source of profit in the way that a Vaiṣṇava does. In the eyes of the world, a Vaiṣṇava may be playing the role of a family man, but he is not of the same order as a worldly householder. Sometimes by the Lord’s wish, a devotee may enter family life, but his mind is constantly absorbed in feelings of separation from the Lord. Thus, as soon as he receives direction from the Lord, he enthusiastically abandons his material connections and becomes fully engaged in the Lord’s service. This renunciation of family life is not painful as it is for one on the jñāna-yoga path but is natural and spontaneous.

The Vijaya-khaṇḍa says that Nityānanda Prabhu gave Panihati over to Kamalākara.

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura has noted a few of the generations that descended from Kamalākara. He had a son named Caturbhuja, who in turn had two sons, Nārāyaṇa and Jagannātha. Nārāyaṇa’s son was named Jagadānanda, whose son was Rājīvalocana. During Kamalākara’s lifetime, service to the Jagannātha deity was at first hampered by a shortage of finances. Later when the glories of Lord Jagannātha of Mahesh were spread, the Nawab of Dhaka, Wali Shah Suja, donated 1185 bighas of land in the Bengali year 1060 (1653 AD). This land is found in the area of Jagannāthpur, about 1.5 krośas west of Mahesh. The village was named Jagannāthpur after the deity.

The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Abhidhāna cites the following verses from Nityānanda-vaṁśa-vistāra:

A pure-hearted brāhmaṇa who regularly worshipped Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas lived in the town of Mahesh. He was Pippalāi’s son-in-law named Sudhāmaya. His wife was Vidyunmālā.

Thus, Vidyunmālā, Kamalākara Pippalāi’s daughter, married Sudhāmaya Cattopādhyāya. They had a daughter named Nārāyaṇī Devī. Vīrabhadra Prabhu later married this Nārāyaṇī Devī. The descendants of the Pippalāi family in Mahesh say that this girl’s name was Rādhārāṇī. On the other hand, Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura has said that Vīrabhadra Prabhu married Śrīmatī, who was the daughter of Yadunātha Ācārya of Jhamatpur village in Hoogly district and his wife Vidyunmālā, as well as their adopted daughter, Nārāyaṇī.

The Vaiṣṇavācāra-darpaṇa, however, gives contradictory information. It says Vidyunmālā married a highly qualified brāhmaṇa named Yadunandana, who thus had a great devotee of Lord Jagannātha, who knew nothing but the desire to serve Lord Jagannātha, as his father-in-law.

Kamalākara Pippalāi was present in Panihati at the Daṇḍa-mahotsava of Raghunātha Dāsa in 1517 AD. He also came to the renowned festival at Khetarī and the festival offered by Gadādhara Dāsa at Katwa. When Jāhnavā Devī came along with her associates from Khardah to attend the Khetarī festival, Kamalākara Pippalāi was also present. His name is mentioned in this connection in Bhakti-ratnākara (10.375).

According to the Vaiṣṇavācāra-darpaṇa, Kamalākara left for Vṛndāvana after giving his daughter away in marriage and lived there until the completion of his pastimes. According to his descendants in Mahesh, Kamalākara Pippalāi made his disappearance at the age of 71 on Caitra śuklā trayodaśī of the year 1563 AD.