Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c8.s2.140

c8.s2.140

extensive and well digested; but it is of a limited and miscellaneous kind. The sources are chiefly the Purāṇas and other authoritative Vaiṣṇava scriptures. There is indeed much analytical acuteness; and the scholasticism, which created the Navya Nyāya at about the same period of time, is very much in evidence, in its zest for formal definitions, nice and hair-splitting distinctions, elaborate classifications, and industrious collection of suitable poetical illustrations. But even if analytical, the attitude is hardly critical; and in spite of its anxiety to do justice to facts of actual experience, its extreme formalism cannot be doubted. Even if there is psychologising, there is too much of dissection and elusive chasing of protean complexes; and the essentials are sometimes apt to be smothered by the overwhelming mass of wearisome details. The concern is, no doubt, with the peculiar psychology of Vaiṣṇava emotions, but not a single philosophical work is cited; and as Jñāna in the orthodox sense is rigidly excluded, philosophical discussions are naturally out of court. The Bhagavad-gītā is cited only twice; and there is hardly any reference to other schools of Vaiṣṇava thought. Of the Pañcarātra, only late and apocryphal works like the Nārada-pañcarātra is quoted but not very frequently. The Rāmāyaṇa is cited only once, the Mahābhārata four times and the Harivaṃśa only five times. Of the classical Sanskrit poets, Māgha is quoted twice; Bhartṛhari's Vairāgya-śataka once; and our author's taste for poetical literature is curiously circumscribed to such works as the Śrīkṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta of Līlāśuka, the Mukunda-mālā of Kulaśekhara and the Gita-govinda of Jayadeva. His own religious dramas and poems furnish many illustrative quotations. Rūpa Gosvāmin shows an undoubted mastery of the principles and technicalities of Sanskrit Poetics, but his chief sources appear to be Bharata (quoted twice), the Daśa-rūpaka (quoted once), the Rasa-sudhākara (quoted once, Rasārṇava-sudhākara of Siṃgabhūpāla) and probably Viśvanātha's Sāhitya-darpaṇa, which is anonymously quoted with approval¹ in one place. With the Purāṇas and Upa-purāṇas he displays an extensive acquaintance, but here again the largest number of quotations comes from the *Śrīmad-bhāgavata* (especially the Daśama), the *Padma* and the *Skanda*, all of which are canonically accepted in Bengal Vaiṣṇavism. There are nearly four hundred poetical quotations in the work, which by themselves constitute an almost encyclopaedic anthology of Vaiṣṇava Bhakti-rasa. We give here a classified index of the works and authors cited in the *Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu*, which will give an idea of the author's erudition and his literary taste and interests.²