According to Gerard Colas (p 253, Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, G. Flood, ed.), Keshava Kashmiri Bhatta was born in 1479. For Caitanyaite Vaishnava history, this date serves to make historically possible that, as Krishnadas Kaviraja relates in his Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi 16), Keshava Kashmiri met “Nimai Pandit” (Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, 1486-1533) in a contest of Sanskrit learning.

I find this interesting because a few years ago I met a lady scholar (not remembering the name) in Vrindavan who had written her doctoral thesis on Keshava Kashmiri. When I asked her if his dates were known, she said no, but that she had surmised his time as having been some one hundred years prior to Caitanya. If true, it would mean Krishnadas’ account would have to be seen as legend rather than history, so Colas’ date is reassuring, though not in itself proving an actual meeting of the two pandits.

Colas further notes that Keshava Kashmiri is the 29th acarya in the Nimbarka sampradaya, and that he “is the first whose historical association with the Braj area is certain. His direction is marked by the revival of the Nimbarka tradition and the propagation of its teachings all over India. He composed doctrinal texts, devotional hymns, and an elaborate ritual treatise the Kramadipika, which influenced Caitanyaite authors [it is quoted in Haribhaktivilasa–KKD].” It would be interesting whether, among his devotional hymns, there is a hymn to Ganga (as according to Krishnadas, Kashmiri’s Ganga-stotra was the subject of discussion between him and Caitanya Mahaprabhu). I find it also interesting that, considering Keshava Kashmiri’s apparent prominence, Krishnadas makes no mention of his sampradayic affiliation with the Nimbarkis. Was he disenclined to acknowledge the Nimbarkis’ presence in Vrindavan when he was writing the CC (early 16th c.)?