Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c10.s1.4

c10.s1.4

As the *Hari-bhakti-vilāsa*, the 'Charm of Devotion of Hari', epitomises Vaiṣṇava Ācāra, it naturally includes in its scope a great deal of Smṛti topics; and in this sense it may be regarded as the most important Smṛti work of the Bengal school of Vaiṣṇavism. The name of the work itself may have been suggested by that of the *Sarasvatī-vilāsa* of Gajapati Pratāparudra; but in its content, method and treatment, it differs a great deal from this and other orthodox Smṛti works. It professes to follow the Śruti and the Smṛti, but since the theology of the Bengal school places a somewhat different interpretation upon these terms, it draws very largely upon the Purāṇas, especially upon Purāṇas which are regarded as canonical sources by this school. Little heed is paid to the orthodox Smṛti tradition, for it evolves a Smṛti of its own on the basis of its own sectarian scriptures, although it agrees with the later orthodox Smṛti-Nibandhas in accepting the Purāṇas as an authoritative source. Like the orthodox Smṛti, again, of Bengal, which absorbed very largely Tāntric ideas, rites and formulas since the time of Raghunandana, most of the rituals and ceremonies of this Vaiṣṇava Smṛti appears to have been profoundly influenced by the tenets and practices of Tantra, which must have been widely and deeply spread in Bengal at this time.