Ten yards east of Advaita-bhavana is Gadādhara-aṅgana. This was the residence of Śrī Gadādhara Paṇḍita, whose father was Śrī Mādhava Miśra. Gadādhara Paṇḍita was Mahāprabhu’s fellow student and dear friend, and in their childhood, Mahāprabhu used to harass him by debating with him about logic (nyāya). After Mahāprabu took sannyāsa, Gadādhara went with Him to Śrī Jagannātha Purī and stayed with Him there.
It was with the sole intention of remaining with Mahāprabhu in Purī that he accepted kṣetra-sannyāsa, the vow to remain in a holy place of pilgrimage and never leave. Śrī Gadādhara was a great scholar and a rasika, melodic speaker of the Bhāgavatam. Upon hearing the narrations of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the lips of Gadādhara, Śrīman Mahāprabhu would become overwhelmed with transcendental emotions. In Jagannātha Purī he lived at Śrī Gopīnātha Ṭoṭā where he served Śrī Gopīnātha, and Mahāprabhu would come there to hear him narrating the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
At the close of His manifest pastimes, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu entered the temple of Śrī Gopīnātha and merged into the deity. Sometime later Gadādhara Paṇḍita also entered his unmanifest pastimes. It is said that when Śrī Gopīnātha saw how difficult it was for Gadādhara Paṇḍita to decorate Him with garlands and ornaments, He assumed a sitting position that He has remained in since. All other deities of Śrī Kṛṣṇa are standing; it is only here that He is sitting.
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