pi.n.da to the _manes_ of his ancestors.

It was on his return from Gaya, when he was about 23 years of age, that
he began seriously to start his new creed. "It was now," writes Babu
Jagadishnath, "that he openly condemned the Hindu ritualistic system of
ceremonies as being a body without a soul, disowned the institution of
caste as being abhorrent to a loving god all whose creatures were one
in his eyes, preached the efficacy of adoration and love and extolled
the excellence and sanctity of _the_ name, and the uttering and
singing of _the_ name of god as infinitely superior to barren
system without faith." Chaitanya, however, as the Babu points out, was
not the originator of this theory, but appears to have borrowed it from
his neighbour Adwaita Acharjya, whose custom it was, after performing
his daily ritual, to go to the banks of the Ganges and call aloud for
the coming of the god who should substitute love and faith for mere
rites and ceremonies. This custom is still adhered to by Vaish.navas.
The Charitamrita veils the priority of Adwaita adroitly by stating that
it was he who by his austerities hastened the coming of K.rish.na in
the avatar of Chaitanya.


I praise that revered teacher Adwaita of wonderful actions,
By whose favour even the ignorant may perceive the (divinity)
personified.
--Ch. I. vi.


Thus in Sanskrit verses at the head of that chapter which sings the
virtues of Adwaita: by in the Bengali portion of the same chapter it is
asserted that Adwaita was himself an incarnation of a part of the