Rupa Goswami

Rupa-Goswami (1489–1564) was an devotional teacher (guru), poet, and philosopher of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. With his brother Sanatana Goswami, he is considered the most senior of the six Goswamis of Vrindavan associated with Caitanya Mahaprabhu, a hidden avatar (incarnation) of Krishna in Kali Yuga.

Rupa's lineage can be traced to Jessore,present Bangladesh. Rupa Goswami's nephew, Jiva Goswami has explained in his Laghu Tosani that Rupa's ancestors were of the Bharadvaja gotra (Rajshahi) from Kedarnath and used to live in Jessore. Rupa Goswami spent his childhood in Jessore and later he sought a job with the Sultan Alauddin Hossain Shah at Gaur. He became a caretaker of the finance side of the Sultan. Sanatan joined his brother in the Sultans forces. At the advent of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu on the scene both of them fled from Hussain Shah's patronage and joined Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Mukun son, Kumaradeva, moved to Jessore. His sons were Rupa, Sanatana, and Vallabha (Anupama). The former names of Rupa and Sanatana are not known. They were Telugu speaking Brahmins from Telang Desh from the Bhatt clan. Some say that their original names were Santosha Bhatta and Amara Bhatta respectively. On the demise of Kumaradeva, the three sons moved to Sakurma, near to the capital of Gaudadesa (Bengal) where they continued their studies.They lived for the rest of their lives with their new monastic names and forsake their birth names.

The three brothers studied the Nyaya-sastras (treatise on justice) from the famous logician Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya and his brother Madhusudana Vidyavacaspati. They also studied Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian.

Due to their noble characters and academic proficiency, Rupa and his elder brother Sanatana were later forced into government service by the sultan of Bengal, Alauddin Husain Shah(1493–1519 CE) which led to their excommunication from Hindu society by the orthodox caste brahmanas of Gauda. Rupa became the Sultan's chief secretary (Dabir Khas), while Sanatana became the state revenue minister (Sakara Mallik).

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