Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c7.s4.48

c7.s4.48

¹ The deficiency is sought to be remedied in a work called Sat-kriyā-sāra-dīpikā, which is undoubtedly a much later fabrication passed off in Gopāla Bhaṭṭa's name. It was published in Bengali characters in the Bengali Vaiṣṇava journal, Sajjana-toṣaṇī, vol. xv-xvii, by Kedar Nath Datta, and reprinted by the Gauḍīya Mādhva Maṭha, Calcutta 1935. MSS of the work are, however, noticed in Haraprasad Sastri, Notices, 2nd Series, i, p. 397, no. 395; ii, pp. 209-10, no. 235. We shall deal with this work in ch. vi. below. The reprint contains another work, entitled Saṁskāra-dīpikā, meant as a supplement, on the duties of Saṁnyāsa, also ascribed to Gopāla Bhaṭṭa; but the authority for this attribution is not known, and no MS of this work has yet been noticed. The Sat-kriyā-sāra-dīpikā contains no account of the author or his family, but the opening passages name Gopāla Bhaṭṭa as the author and pay homage to Caitanya. The fourteen Saṁskāras dealt with in this work begin with Vivāha, Garbhādhāna etc., and end with Samāvartana, following the order of treatment of Bhavadeva's Karmānuṣṭhāna-paddhati; but it omits the important ceremony of Antyeṣṭi or Śrāddha as a ceremony forbidden to a true Vaiṣṇava. The Bhagavad-dharma being, in the author's opinion, superior to every other Dharma, the Smārta rules are excluded from application to a Vaiṣṇava (but Tāntric ceremonies and rules are preferred!); and yet the author acknowledges as his source the works of such Smārta writers as Bhavadeva Bhaṭṭa, Aniruddha Bhaṭṭa, Govindānanda, Bhīma Bhaṭṭa, Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa, besides the older works of Manu, Hārīta etc. There are a few other minor works on Vaiṣṇava ritualism, but they are neither well known nor authoritative. Haraprasad Sastri notices (Notices, 2nd Series, iii, pp. 223-25, no. 343) a Sāra-saṁgraha-dīpikā by Rāmaprasāda Devaśarman, which among other miscellaneous Bhakti topics, deals generally with Dīkṣā and appears to have a section on Śrāddha, which is omitted by Gopāla Bhaṭṭa. In the Calcutta Sanskrit College (Descriptive Catalogue, x, Calcutta 1907, pp. 65, 123, 141, 145, 154, nos. 52, 102, 114, 116, 130) there are anonymous Vaiṣṇava ritualistic works, entitled Rādhikā-pūjā-vidhi (folios 3), Śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pūjā-paddhati-nibandha (7 fol.), Saṁkṣepa-bhakti-sādhana-paddhati (17 fol.), Vaiṣṇavāhnika-paddhati (5 fol.), Gaurāṅga-bhakta-vaiṣṇava-pūjā-paddhati (5 fol.), all of which appear to be late works belonging to the Bengal school. A Laghu