Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c5.s2.10

c5.s2.10

The Caitanya movement in Bengal, no doubt, accepted the *Gita-govinda* as a source of inspiration, but it does not appear to have accepted the *Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa* as canonical. Its chief scripture was the *Śrīmad-bhāgavata*, on whose devotional poetry and legend it based its emotionalism. Its glorification of the Rādhā-legend need not of itself connect it with the *Brahmavaivarta*, to which it seldom refers. Nor can any Nimbārka influence be traced directly in it. The influence of the Śrī-sampradāya of Rāmānuja is still less traceable in it; and the Vallabhācārya sect was almost contemporaneous and could not have immediately influenced it. There is, however, a tendency¹ to affiliate the Caitanya sect as a branch of the Mādhva Sampradāya which is said to have been most influential in Bengal before Caitanya. But the evidence adduced in favour of this assumption is hardly satisfactory, and there is nothing to shew that there was any direct Mādhva influence on Caitanyaism in the earlier stages of its development. It has, however, been stated, without much justification, that Caitanya himself was brought up in Mādhva traditions, that his predecessor Advaita, as well as many of his influential relatives and associates, had close connexion with Madhvaism, that Mādhavendra Purī, to whom is ascribed the credit of initiating a Bhakti movement in Bengal before Caitanya, was a Mādhva ascetic, and that Īśvara Purī and Keśava Bhāratī, the Dīkṣā and Saṃnyāsa Gurus respectively of Caitanya, were ascetics of the Mādhva order, to which Caitanya was thus initiated. But these statements lack corroboration in the early records of the sect.