In His eighth year, He was admitted into the school (tola) of Gaṅgādāsa Paṇḍita, in Gaṅgānagara, close by the village of Māyāpur. In two years He became well read in Sanskrit grammar and rhetoric. His readings after that were of the nature of self-study in His own house, where He had found all-important books belonging to His father, who was a paṇḍita himself. It appears that He read the smṛti in His own study, and the nyāya also, in competition with His friends, who were then studying under the celebrated Paṇḍita Raghunātha Śiromaṇi.
Now, after His tenth year, Caitanya became a passable scholar in grammar, rhetoric, the smṛti and nyāya. It was after this that His elder brother Viśvarūpa left His house and accepted the āśrama (status) of a sannyāsī (ascetic). Caitanya, though a very young boy, consoled His parents, saying that He would serve them with a view to please God. Just after that, His father left this world. His mother was exceedingly sorry, and Mahāprabhu, with His usual contented appearance, consoled His widowed mother.
It was at the age of fourteen or fifteen that Mahāprabhu was married to Lakṣmīdevī, the daughter of Vallabhācārya, also of Nadia. He was at this age considered one of the best scholars of Nadia, the renowned seat of nyāya philosophy and Sanskrit learning. Not to speak of the smārta paṇḍitas, the Naiyāyikas were all afraid of confronting Him in literary discussions. Being a married man, He went to Eastern Bengal on the banks of the Padma for acquirement of wealth. There He displayed His learning and obtained a good sum of money.
It was at this time that He preached Vaiṣṇavism at intervals. After teaching Tapana Miśra the principles of Vaiṣṇavism, He ordered him to go to Benares and live there. During His residence in East Bengal, His wife Lakṣmīdevī left this world from the effects of snakebite. On returning home, He found His mother in a mourning state. He consoled her with a lecture on the uncertainty of human affairs. It was at His mother's request that He married Viṣṇupriyā, the daughter of Rāja Paṇḍita Sanātana Miśra. His comrades joined Him on His return from pravāsa, or sojourn.
He was now so renowned that He was considered to be the best paṇḍita in Nadia. Keśava Miśra of Kashmir, who had called himself the Great Digvijayī (world conqueror), came to Nadia with a view to debate the paṇḍitas of that place. Afraid of the so-called conquering paṇḍita, the tola professors of Nadia left their town on the pretense of invitation. Keśava met Mahāprabhu at the Barokona-ghāṭā in Māyāpur, and after a very short discussion with Him he was defeated by the boy, and mortification obliged him to decamp. Nimāi Paṇḍita was now the most important paṇḍita of His times.
It was at the age of sixteen or seventeen that He traveled to Gayā with a host of His students and there took His spiritual initiation from Īśvara Purī, a Vaiṣṇava sannyāsī and a disciple of the renowned Mādhavendra Purī. Upon His return to Nadia, Nimāi Paṇḍita turned religious preacher, and His religious nature became so strongly represented that Advaita Prabhu, Śrīvāsa and others who had before the birth of Caitanya already accepted the Vaiṣṇava faith were astonished at the change in the young man. He was then no more a contending naiyāyika, a wrangling smārta and a criticizing rhetorician. He swooned at the name of Kṛṣṇa and behaved as an inspired man under the influence of His religious sentiment. It has been described by Murāri Gupta, an eyewitness, that He showed His heavenly powers in the house of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita in the presence of hundreds of His followers, who were mostly well-read scholars.
It was at this time that He opened a nocturnal school of kīrtana in the compound of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita with His sincere followers. There He preached, there He sang, there He danced, and there He expressed all sorts of religious feelings. At that time He was joined by Nityānanda Prabhu, who was then a preacher of Vaiṣṇavism and who had completed His travels all over India. In fact, a host of paṇḍita preachers of Vaiṣṇavism, all sincere at heart, came and joined Him from different parts of Bengal. Nadia now became the regular seat of a host of Vaiṣṇava ācāryas whose mission it was to spiritualize mankind with the highest influence of the Vaiṣṇava creed.