Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c7.s5.1

c7.s5.1

Of the two brothers, Sanātana and Rūpa, and their nephew Jiva, whose literary productions far outweigh those of other Gosvāmins in range, depth, quality and magnitude, there exists a more detailed and reliable record. Jiva himself at the close of his abridgment (*Laghu-toṣaṇī*) of Sanātana’s commentary on the *Bhāgavata*¹ gives us the genealogy of the family, as well as a list of the principal works of Sanātana and Rūpa. This list, which can be generally corroborated from other sources, is quoted with approval in the *Bhakti-ratnākara*, which together with Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja’s biography and the *Prema-vilāsa*, supplies additional information about these three venerable Gosvāmins of Vṛndāvana. From these accounts we learn that they were originally Karṇāṭa Brahmans,² who had migrated at about the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century and settled in Bengal. It is somewhat curious that the work of the four Gosvāmins, whose ancestors are said to have belonged to Karṇāṭa or the South, far excelled in extent and importance the work of the two who belonged strictly to Bengal. The previous history of the