History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c30.27

v1.c30.27

Suddenly, from the beginning of the 16th century a decline set in the power and prestige of Orissa with a corresponding decline in the military spirit of the people. This decline is intimately connected with the long residence of the Bengali Vaishnava saint Chaitanya in the country. If we accept only one-tenth of what the Sanskrit and Bengali biographies of the saint state about his influence over Pratāparudra and the people of the country, even then, we must admit that Chaitanya was one of the principal causes of the political decline of the empire and the people of Orissa. Not only that; the acceptance of Vaishnavism or rather Neo-Vaishnavism was the real cause of the Musalman conquest of Orissa twenty-eight years after the death of Pratāparudra. Considered as a religion, Indian Bhakti-mārga is sublime, but its effect on the political status of the country or the nation which accepts it, is terrible.