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Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c5.s1: 1. The Historical Setting and Vaiṣṇava Heritage

Early History of the Vaiṣṇava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c5.s1

Language
English

1. The Historical Setting and Vaiṣṇava Heritage

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The form of Vaiṣṇavism which is prevalent in Bengal is usually associated with the name of Caitanya, but Caitanya was not, strictly speaking, the originator of Vaiṣṇavism in Bengal, which counted for many centuries an important, if not a numerous, group of adherents in the country. Long before Caitanya, the melodious Padāvalis of Jayadeva in Sanskrit¹ and the songs of Caṇḍidāsa in Bengali² had also popularised the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa cult with their largess of Vaiṣṇava devotional sentiments. Even if Caitanya's religious personality started a new movement or gave a new interpretation to an old faith, his affiliation to the whole trend of Vaiṣṇava tradition of the past cannot be doubted, and its influence on him must have been varied and abundant.

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¹ The contemporary Bengal anthology of Śrīdhara-dāsa (1206 A.D.), entitled *Sadukti-karṇāmṛta*, collects a large number of verses on Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, some of which have been freely reproduced by Rūpa Gosvāmin in his own anthology, *Padyāvali*.

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² Vidyāpati of Mithilā, who wrote considerably and learnedly in Sanskrit, was not professedly a Vaiṣṇava, but a Smārta Pañcopāsaka, who composed verses in Maithili on Śiva and Gaurī, as well as on Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. But Bengal Vaiṣṇavism, since the time of Caitanya, to whom his Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa songs were a never-failing source of devotional inspiration, has claimed Vidyāpati as its own. Perhaps his Maithili songs in their half-Bengali dress had been more popular in Bengal than in their place of origin, and had undoubtedly influenced the trend of popular Vaiṣṇava sentiments in Bengal.

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As a religious attitude, Bengal Vaiṣṇavism appears indeed as a fairly homogenous result, but in reality it is a complex product. Its tradition is not only multiple but also polygenous. Two principal sources, however, can be broadly distinguished. On the one hand, it relates itself to the general history of Vaisnavism in India; on the other, some of its peculiar dogmas and practices were developed by Caitanya and his disciples, giving it its distinctive character. To trace the general course of development of the Vaisnava faith in India, which forms the distant historical background of Caitanyaism, is beyond the limited scope of the present work; but we must distinguish two fundamental elements, which go to form the texture of Bengal Vaisnavism, as derived more or less from Vaisnavism in general. The first and foremost of these is the general doctrine of Bhakti, or emotional service of love and devotion as a means of spiritual realisation; but equally important is the Krsna cult, intimately connected with it, as forming the ground of this devotional attitude.

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The term Bhakti, used in contradistinction to the terms Jnana and Karman, is employed by many a sect of modern Hinduism, but in Bengal Vaisnavism it has its special connotation, which will be considered in its proper place. This special connotation is the result as much of historical development as of individual teaching and experience of particular saints and devotees; but it would take us far astray if we are to trace here, even briefly, the various influences which shaped the idea of Bhakti in the different stages of its growth and brought it to its present connotation. Its origins are lost in far-off antiquity, and its spread over centuries of obscure religious, cultural and literary influences has made the stages of its growth erratic and undefined. Stretching into the early Visnuism and Narayaniya worship of the Mahabharata.¹ it loses itself in a complex body of myth, legend, superstition, belief, sentiment and philosophy; but it emerges in a more or less definite form in the Bhagavatisin and Krsna-Vasudeva worship of the Bhagavad-gita. On this basis it was systematised and erected into a philosopheme in such late Bhakti-works as the Nārada-Śāṇḍilya-sūtras, and it continued as a doctrine till about the end of eighth century A.D., when the theory of spiritual non-dualism and world-illusion promulgated by the great Śaṃkarācārya and his followers appears to have imperilled its dualistic metaphysical foundation. This must have led to a vigorous revival of Vaiṣṇavism in the subsequent centuries; and about the 12th century A.D. we have four Sampradāyas or schools of thought, into which the Vaiṣṇava movement divided itself. These are the well-known Śrī-, Brahma-, Rudra-, and Sanakādi-Sampradāyas, associated respectively with the names of Rāmānuja, Madhva, Viṣṇusvāmin (Vallabhācārya)¹ and Nimbārka. Each of these schools developed its doctrines and religious practices, and wrote an extensive literature. As against the purely monistic teaching of non-duality (Advaita-vāda) of Śaṃkara, these schools expounded respectively what are conveniently known as theories of Qualified Non-duality (Viśiṣṭādvaita-vāda), Duality (Dvaita-vāda), Pure Non-duality (Śuddhādvaita-vāda) and Dualistic Non-duality (Dvaitādvaita-vāda). The details of these metaphysical theories must be sought elsewhere; but it is clear that the essential difference between these schools of thought consists in the attitude which they respectively assume towards the absolute non-dualistic position of Śaṃkara. Śaṃkara’s extreme idealistic monism, postulating the sole reality of an attributeless and unconditioned Brahman, devoid of all associations of personality, and permitting an illusive and provisional reality to the world and the individual, hardly leaves any scope for a dualistic conception of an individual soul’s longing devotion for a personal deity. Though admitting of various degrees, the essential dualism, involved in a religious atitude of Bhakti, in making a distinction between the devotee and the deity and implying an emotional realisation of a personal god in the individual consciousness, had to be reconciled with the absolute, impersonal and non-dualistic interpretation given of the Vedānta-sūtra by Śaṃkara. Each of these schools, therefore, wrote a fresh commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra, in which an attempt was made to establish a theory which would permit the individual exercise of love and piety in a world of reality, some of them maintaining a frankly dualistic position, and others expounding various degrees of qualified dualistic views.

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¹ An account of the development of the concept of Bhakti in Vedic literature, as well as of Early Visnuism and Narayaniya worship in the Great Epic, is given by Mrinal Das-Gupta in the IHQ, 1930-32. On Vasudeva-Krsna and the Bhagavata faith see S. K. De, Aspects of Sanskrit Lit., Calcutta 1959, pp. 91 f.

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¹ The exact relation between the systems of Viṣṇusvāmin and Vallabhācārya is not clear, but the Rudra-sampradāya came to be represented practically by the Vallabhācāris.

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Whatever justification is offered by these schools of its ultimate philosophical position, the subsequent history of Vaiṣṇavism as a religious persuasion follows the lines of worshipping God as a person (Saguṇopāsanā) and through symbols and manifestations (Pratikopāsanā). The faith is monotheistic, whether the object of adoration be Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa, Vāsudeva, Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, or one of the numerous incarnations of them; but this loving adoration of a supreme personal god, to whose grace (Prasāda) the devotee must surrender himself (Prapatti), is often found not unaccompanied by a popular polytheistic reverence for "other gods"—Brahmā, Śiva and a million of godlings—who are classed as subordinate creatures and given well-defined powers and functions. The faith believed in a personal creator, in various theories of personal-impersonal creation (Sṛṣṭi) or emanation (Vyūha), in the energic power (Śakti) and incarnation (Avatāra) of the divinity, in a peculiar eschatology which postulates various degrees or stages of liberation, in sin as antithetical to Bhakti, in the necessity of a spiritual guide (Guru-vāda), in the efficacy of Mantra or recitation of some form of the blessed name (Nāman), in the worship of symbols and manifestations (Rūpa), in the complete surrender to divine grace and compassion, and, above all, in the supremacy of a mystic and emotional form of adoration or communion over intellectual conviction adduced by mere knowledge. Different modes of worship and ritualism were developed by each of these schools; different symbols and manifestations were preferred; distinct sectarian marks were worn; *Acta Sanctorum*, consisting of the legends of mythical and mediaeval saints, were elaborated; but all the sects agreed in exalting Bhakti as the heart of worship, as the sole religious attitude of love and service towards a personal god.

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Theoretically, the doctrines of most of the sects do not single out any particular incarnation of the incarnate supreme deity for special worship; but, as the faith was personal in in ardour and concrete in expression, one or other of the incarnations was in actual practice preferred as the principal object of adoration. In spite of its inclusiveness and catholicity in this respect, the Rāmānuja sect, for instance, mostly prefers Śrī and Viṣṇu, or the Rāma-incarnation; but in Northern India the other three sects, the Madhva, Vallabha and Nimbārka, are almost definite in their adoration of Kṛṣṇa, who was thus popularly installed as the centre of the Vaiṣṇava faith. Keen minds soon sought to utilise abstruse philosophies and appropriate them to the exaltation of the sectarian worship of Kṛṣṇa. The Kṛṣṇa of these sects, however, is very different from the Kṛṣṇa of the *Bhagavad-gītā*, and is yet identified with him. Though invested with an identity with the eternal Brahman, he yet retains his personal character as the youthful hero of wonderful feats and amorous exploits at Vṛndāvana. The Kṛṣṇa-legend was exalted with a wealth of devotional fancies, and all its mystical and emotional possibilities were worked out in detail.

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In spite of much learned writing, the mediaeval expansion of the faith was essentially popular in character and appeal. After the epics and the philosophies came the popular Purāṇas, which set forth the Kṛṣṇa-legend against the exuberant and luscious background of myth, theology and mystical eroticism. They poetised and emotionalised the amorphous story, and thus came to occupy an important place in Vaiṣṇava sectarian literature. Sometimes they were even composed with an obvious sectarian purpose. Elaborate theologies arose out of them, and the earthly moment of the eternal divine sport of Kṛṣṇa was interpreted in terms of symbol and allegory. The Kṛṣṇa-Gopī legend naturally came to play an important part. Even if Draupadī in the Mahābhārata invokes Kṛṣṇa as "dear to the Gopīs" (gopī-jana-priya) in a passage which is now proved to be an interpolation, the Great Epic hardly takes into account the Gopī-legend, which assumes importance in the later cult. It develops, however, in the supplementary Hari-vaṃśa and in the Viṣṇu-purāṇa, and is embellished further in the Padma and the Brahmavaivarta Purāṇas; but it comes to full bloom in the Śrīmad-bhāgavata, whose chief purpose seems to be the glorification of Bhakti and Kṛṣṇa-līlā, and which therefore came to be regarded as one of the supreme scriptures of mediaeval Vaiṣṇavism.

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The Śrīmad-bhāgavata is indeed the one great Purāṇa which appears to have exercised an enormous influence on the development of Bhakti ideas in mediaeval times. No satisfactory theory of its date and origin has yet been advanced,¹ but there can be no doubt that its emergence marks a turning point in the history of the Vaiṣṇava faith, and that a whole series of sects, who take it as their leading scripture, appears in a sense to have been born out of this remarkable work. Contrasted with the Hari-vaṃśa and the Viṣṇu purāṇa, the Bhāgavata scarcely deals with the whole life of Kṛṣṇa but concentrates all its strength upon his boyhood and youth. With the youthful Kṛṣṇa at the centre, it weaves its peculiar theory and practice of intensely personal and passionate Bhakti, which is somewhat different from the speculative Bhakti of the Bhagavad-gītā. Although Rādhā is not mentioned, the Gopīs figure prominently in the romantic legend, and their dalliance with Kṛṣṇa is described in highly emotional and sensuous poetry. The utter self-abandonment of the Gopīs, the romantic love of the mistress for her lover, becomes the accepted symbol of the soul's longing for God; and the vivid realisation of the eternal sports of Kṛṣṇa in an imaginative Vṛndāvana is supposed to lead to a passionate love and devotion for the deity. The *Bhāgavata* thus introduces a type of erotic mysticism as the leading religious idea, and the importance of the work lies precisely in this. It asserts the rights of the emotional and the aesthetic in human nature, and appeals to the exceedingly familiar and authentic intensity of feelings and sentiments. It transfigures the mighty sex-impulse into a passionate religious emotion. The *Bhāgavata* is thus one of the most remarkable mediaeval documents of mystical and passionate religious devotion, its eroticism and poetry bringing back warmth and colour into religious life. The essential truth of its glorification of Vṛndāvan-līlā lies in this appeal for a more emotional religion and in its protest against the hard intellectuality of doctrines and dogmas.

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¹ Farquhar's suggestion (An Outline of the Religious Literature of India, Oxford 1920, p. 232) that the Bhāgavata originated in the Drāviḍa country and could not have been composed later than 900 A.D. deserves consideration.

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But Rādhā, Kṛṣṇa's eternal consort in the Vṛndāvana-līlā, appears to enter into the Vaiṣṇava emotionale at a much later date. We may leave aside the neo-Vaiṣṇava *Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad*, as well as the apocryphal *Nārada-pañcarātra* (i. 12) and its original, the *Kapila-pañcarātra*, mentioned therein (ii. 6); for the admitted uncertainty of the dates of these works precludes any definite chronological conclusion. But we find that Rādhā is distinctly mentioned in connexion with Kṛṣṇa as early as the Prakrit *Sapta-śataka* of Hāla. Such stray references, however, do not prove much; and the name as well as the cult of Rādhā appears to be unknown in early Vaiṣṇava literature. She is unnamed in the earlier Purāṇas, although the *Śrīmad-bhāgavata* refers to a favourite Gopī with whom Kṛṣṇa wanders and sports alone. She is extolled in the *Padma-purāṇa*, but it is in the Uttara-khaṇḍa of the *Brahma-vaivarta* that Rādhā reappears against the vivid background of rich and sensuous imagery. Of the mediaeval sects the Vallabhācāris and Nimbārkas appear to recognise Rādhā as an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa's energic power (Śakti) and his spouse in the divine sport. In some sects joint worship is accorded to Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa, while in others¹ she is the object of independent worship and is sometimes exalted even over Kṛṣṇa, who figures under the title of Rādhā’s Beloved (Rādhā-vallabha). As the highest fruition of devotion is the admission to the eternal sports of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, the dangerous tendency towards erotic mysticism markedly develops as a creed, and the highly erotic possibilities of such a belief are sometimes carried to a lamentable extreme.

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¹ E.g. the Rādhāvallabhis who resemble the Vallabhācāris but are counted as a sub-sect of the Nimbārkas.

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