Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c7.s1.22

c7.s1.22

These were the six Gosvāmins to whom belongs the credit of working out and defining the whole system of tenets peculiar to Bengal Vaiṣṇavism. The works of the Navadvīpa and Vṛndāvana circles of followers respectively were produced at about the same time, but the 'Six Gosvāmins' as such are never, for obvious reason, spoken of by Murāri, Karṇapūra, Vṛndāvana, Jayānanda and Locana, although individually Sanātana and Rūpa are mentioned, as well as Gopāla Bhaṭṭa and Raghunātha-dāsa.¹ By the middle of the 17th century, however, the learned Bengali biography of Caitanya by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, as well as the zeal of Śrinivāsa Ācārya and Narottama-dāsa, made the views of the Six Gosvāmins accepted as authoritative in Bengal, so much so that they came almost to eclipse every other point of view. It was the inspiration and teaching of the six pious and scholarly Gosvāmins which came to determine finally the doctrinal trend of Bengal Vaiṣṇavism which, however modified and supplemented in later times, dominated throughout its subsequent history. To them was due the building up of modern Vṛndāvana as the chief intellectual and religious centre of the sect, where its philosophy, its theology, its ritualism and its Rasa-śāstra were created. They reclaimed the sacred sites, identified them, and gave to each a distinctive name; they made their wealthy disciples and admirers build the great temples, groves, and bathing places, and thus laid the foundations of its modern glory and sanctity. It was indeed their eminence and influence which gave a marked primacy to the Bengal school over other rival schools in the holy city associated with the name of Kṛṣṇa.²