Ten miles southwest of the Canpadanga railway station on the narrow-gauge railway line from Howrah, in Calcutta, to Amta, a village in the Hugali district, is a small town named Khanakula-krsnanagara, where the temple of Abhirama Thakura is situated. During the rainy season, when this area is inundated with water, people must go there by another line, which is now called the southeastern railway. On this line there is a station named Kolaghata, from which one has to go by steamer to Ranicaka. Seven and a half miles north of Ranicaka is Khanakula. The temple of Abhirama Thakura is situated in Krsnanagara, which is near the kula (bank) of the Khana (Dvarakesvara River); therefore this place is celebrated as Khanakula-krsnanagara. Outside of the temple is a bakula tree. This place is known as Siddha-bakula-kunja. It is said that when Abhirama Thakura came there, he sat down under this tree. In Khanakula-krsnanagara there is a big fair held every year in the month of Caitra (March-April) on the Krsna-saptami, the seventh day of the dark moon. Many hundreds and thousands of people gather for this festival. The temple of Abhirama Thakura has a very old history. The Deity in the temple is known as Gopinatha. There are many sevaita families living near the temple. It is said that Abhirama Thakura had a whip and that whoever he touched with it would immediately become an elevated devotee of Krsna. Among his many disciples, Sriman Srinivasa Acarya was the most famous and the most dear, but it is doubtful that he was his initiated disciple.

The history of the Jagannatha temple in Mahesa is as follows. One devotee of the name Dhruvananda went to see Lord Jagannatha, Balarama and Subhadra at Jagannatha Puri, wanting to offer food to Jagannathaji that he had cooked with his own hands. This being his desire, one night Jagannathaji appeared to him in a dream and asked him to go to Mahesa on the bank of the Ganges and there start worship of Him in a temple. Thus Dhruvananda went to Mahesa, where he saw the three deities--Jagannatha, Balarama and Subhadra--floating in the Ganges. He picked up all those deities and installed them in a small cottage, and with great satisfaction he executed the worship of Lord Jagannatha. When he became old, he was very anxious to hand over the worship to the charge of someone reliable, and in a dream he got permission from Jagannatha Prabhu to hand it over to a person whom he would meet the next morning. The next morning he met Kamalakara Pippalai, who was formerly an inhabitant of the village Khalijuli in the Sundaravana Forest area of Bengal and was a pure Vaisnava, a great devotee of Lord Jagannatha; thus he immediately gave him charge of the worship. In this way, Kamalakara Pippalai became the worshiper of Lord Jagannatha, and since then his family members have been designated as Adhikari, which means "one who is empowered to worship the Lord." These Adhikaris belong to a respectable brahmana family. Five types of upper-class brahmanas are recognized by the surname Pippalai.

The village Ambika-kalana, which is situated just across the river Ganges from Santipura, is two miles east of the Kalana-korta railway station, on the eastern railway. In Ambika-kalana there is a temple constructed by the Zamindar of Burdwan. In front of the temple there is a big tamarind tree, and it is said that Gauridasa Pandita and Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu met underneath this tree. The place where the temple is situated is known as Ambika, and because it is in the area of Kalana, the village is known as Ambika-kalana. It is said that a copy of the Bhagavad-gita written by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu still exists in this temple.

Paramesvari Thakura belonged, it is said, to a vaidya family. A descendant of his brother's is at present a worshiper in the temple. Some of their family members still reside in the district of Hugali, near the post office of Canditala. The descendants of Paramesvari Thakura took many disciples from brahmana families, but as these descendants gradually took to the profession of physicians, persons from brahmana families ceased becoming their disciples. The family titles of Paramesvari's descendants are Adhikari and Gupta. Unfortunately, his family members do not worship the Deity directly; they have engaged paid brahmanas to worship the Deity. In the temple, Baladeva and Sri Sri Radha-Gopinatha are together on the throne. It is supposed that the Deity of Baladeva was installed later because according to transcendental mellow, Baladeva, Krsna and Radha cannot stay on the same throne. On the full moon day of Vaisakha (April-May), the disappearance festival of Paramesvari Thakura is observed in this temple.

In the family of Kanu Thakura there is a Radha-Krsna Deity known as Pranavallabha. It is said that his family worshiped this Deity long before the appearance of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When there was a Maharashtrian invasion of Bengal, the family of Kanu Thakura was scattered, and after the invasion one Harikrsna Gosvami of that family came back to their original home, Bodhakhana, and re-established the Pranavallabha Deity. The descendants of the family still engage in the service of Pranavallabha. Kanu Thakura was present during the Khetari utsava, when Jahnava-devi and Virabhadra Gosvami were also present. One of Kanu Thakura's family members, Madhavacarya, married the daughter of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, who was named Gangadevi. Both Purusottama Thakura and Kanu Thakura had many disciples from brahmana families. Most of the disciplic descendants of Kanu Thakura now reside in the village named Gadabeta, by the river Silavati, in the Midnapore district.

Calcutta was developed under British rule by the influential mercantile community, and especially by the suvarna-vanik community who came down from Saptagrama to establish their businesses and homes all over Calcutta. They were known as the Saptagrami mercantile community of Calcutta, and most of them belonged to the Mullik and Sil families. More than half of Calcutta belonged to this community, as did Srila Uddharana Thakura. Our paternal family also came from this district and belonged to the same community. The Mulliks of Calcutta are divided into two families, namely, the Sil family and De family. All the Mulliks of the De family originally belong to the same family and gotra. We also formerly belonged to the branch of the De family whose members, intimately connected with the Muslim rulers, received the title Mullik.

In the Caitanya-bhagavata, Antya-khanda, Chapter Five, it is said that Uddharana Datta was an extremely elevated and liberal Vaisnava. He was born with the right to worship Nityananda Prabhu. It is also stated that Nityananda Prabhu, after staying for some time in Khadadaha, came to Saptagrama and stayed in the house of Uddharana Datta. The suvarna-vanik community to which Uddharana Datta belonged was actually a Vaisnava community. Its members were bankers and gold merchants (suvarna means "gold," and vanik means "merchant"). Long ago there was a misunderstanding between Balla Sena and the suvarna-vanik community because of the great banker Gauri Sena. Balla Sena was taking loans from Gauri Sena and spending money extravagantly, and therefore Gauri Sena stopped supplying money. Balla Sena took revenge by instigating a social conspiracy to make the suvarna-vaniks outcastes, and since then they have been ostracized from the higher castes, namely, the brahmanas, ksatriyas and vaisyas. But by the grace of Srila Nityananda Prabhu, the suvarna-vanik community was again elevated. It is said in the Caitanya-bhagavata, yateka vanik-kula uddharana haite pavitra ha-ila dvidha nahika ihate: there is no doubt that all the community members of the suvarna-vanik society were again purified by Sri Nityananda Prabhu.

In Saptagrama there is still a temple with a six-armed Deity of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu that was personally worshiped by Srila Uddharana Datta Thakura. On the right side of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is a Deity of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, and on the left side is Gadadhara Prabhu. There are also a Radha-Govinda murti and a salagrama-sila, and below the throne is a picture of Sri Uddharana Datta Thakura. In front of the temple there is now a big hall, and in front of the hall is a Madhavi-lata plant. The temple is in a very shady, cool and nicely situated location. When we returned from America in 1967, the executive committee members of this temple invited us to visit it, and thus we had the opportunity to visit this temple with some American students. Formerly, in our childhood, we visited this temple with our parents because all the members of the suvarna-vanik community enthusiastically take interest in this temple of Uddharana Datta Thakura. In the Bengali year 1283 (A.D. 1876) one babaji of the name Nitai dasa arranged for a donation of twelve bighas of land for this temple. The management of the temple later deteriorated, but then in 1306 (A.D. 1899), through the cooperation of the famous Balarama Mullik of Hugali, who was a subjudge, and many rich suvarna-vanik community members, the management of the temple improved greatly. Not more than fifty years ago, one of the family members of Uddharana Datta Thakura named Jagamohana Datta established a wooden murti(statue) of Uddharana Datta Thakura in the temple, but that murti is no longer there; at present, a picture of Uddharana Datta Thakura is worshiped. It is understood, however, that the wooden murti of Uddharana Thakura was taken away by Sri Madana-mohana Datta and is now being worshiped with a salagrama-sila by Srinatha Datta.

Uddharana Datta Thakura was the manager of the estate of a big Zamindar in Naihati, about one and a half miles north of Katwa. The relics of this royal family are still visible near the Dainhata station. Since Uddharana Datta Thakura was the manager of the estate, it was also known as Uddharana-pura. Uddharana Datta Thakura installed Nitai-Gaura Deities that were later brought to the house of the Zamindar, which was known as Vanaoyaribada. Srila Uddharana Datta Thakura remained a householder throughout his life. His father's name was Srikara Datta, his mother's name was Bhadravati, and his son's name was Srinivasa Datta.

Govinda Kaviraja was the brother of Ramacandra Kaviraja and youngest son of Ciranjiva of Srikhanda. Although at first a sakta, or worshiper of Goddess Durga, he was later initiated by Srinivasa Acarya Prabhu. Govinda Kaviraja also resided first in Srikhanda and then in Kumara-nagara, but later he moved to the village known as Teliya Budhari, on the southern bank of the river Padma. Since Govinda Kaviraja, the author of two books, Sangita-madhava and Gitamrta, was a great Vaisnava kavi, or poet, Srila Jiva Gosvami gave him the title Kaviraja. He is described in the Bhakti-ratnakara (Ninth Wave).

Kamsari Sena was formerly Ratnavali in Vraja, as described in the Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika, verses 194 and 200.

Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports to Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Eleventh Chapter, in the matter of the expansions of Lord Nityananda.

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