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BY: SUN STAFF
The Lord's Anger at Jagai and Madhai Oct 31, 2019 — CANADA (SUN) — A serial presentation of the holy places mentioned in the Jaiva Dharma of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur - Part 79.
The name 'Koladvipa' comes from kola -- to give shelter. Kola also refers to the Boar incarnation. One of Navadvipa's nine islands, Koladvipa is on the west side of the Ganges, as described by Srila Narahari Cakravarti in Bhakti-ratnakara:
navadvipa nama sravane sakala duhkha ksaya The main towns that fall within the bounds of Koladvipa are Navadvipa, Teghatipara, Yamuna Prasada, Samudraghara, Champahati and Gadkhali char. Serving the lotus feet (pada-sevanam) under the shelter of Laksmi is easily perfected here.
According to the Shripata-paryatana, during the time when Lord Chaitanya's associate Vamshivadanananda resided in Koladvipa, the two villages known as Kuliya and Pahariapura were side by side. As the town grew, it became known as Kuliya Pahariapura. Kuliya had four neighborhoods known as Bneciyaria, Bedariaparia, Cinedanga and Teghari (in the southwest).
By the early 18th Century, old Navadvipa city had been virtually destroyed, and a new Nadia town had grown up on the west side of the Ganga, in the Kulia daha (marsh) area known today as Koladvipa.
Among the residents of Koladvipa there were apparently some rascals, as described in a collection of nectar on the Appearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. We find this passage in Sri Chaitanya: His Life & Associates by Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha, about Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's tour of Gauda Mandala:
"On January 29, 1925, Saraswati Thakur took a large group of devotees on a tour of Gauda Mandala to visit the various sites made holy by Mahaprabhu and his associates. Overcome with the mood of devotional fervor inspired by them, he lectured on bhakti in all these places.
In the same year, during the Nabadwip Parikrama, deities of Radha Govinda were carried on the back of an elephant through the streets of Koladvipa. The envious leaders of those in the guru business incited a number of ruffians to throw bricks at the deities and the devotees who were accompanying them, including Saraswati Thakur, at Poria Ma Tola. One witness of the event was quoted in the next day's (Phalguna 24, 1331) Ananda Bazar Patrika as saying, "Today I witnessed the same pastime that was enacted about four hundred years ago when Nabadwip's constables, two thugs named Jagai and Madhai, tried to do injury to Nityananda Avadhuta."
The transcendental nature of Koladvipa is described in a passage about its forests, as found in this glorification by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati in Sri Navadvipa-sataka (A Hundred Verses Glorifying Navadvipa):
"All glories, all glories to Koladvipa's forests, which stand by the Ganges' shore, which are worshipped by the leaders of the demigods and which are filled with the wonderful opulences of many birds, beasts, trees, vines, groves, lakes, ponds, open land, hills and flowing streams! (9)
To demigod-worshippers, to those rapt in the imperishable impersonal Brahman, and even to animal-like persons intent only on enjoying their senses, by its own inconceivable powers the forest of Koladvipa gives the rare and secret nectar of love for Sri Sri Radhika Madhava. (41)"
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Bhaktivedanta Book Trust