Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c11.2

c11.2

The history of the *Bhāgavata* religion from the first to the third century A.D. is, at present, in a state of utmost confusion and darkness. There are some Buddhist works of the period, *e.g.*, the *Buddha-charita*, and the *Mahāyāna Śraddhotpāda* (Awakening of Faith) attributed to Aśvaghosha, which, in our opinion, show some acquaintance with Bhāgavatism, but they do not to any great extent illumine the darkness. The difficulty of finding any Brāhmaṇical works, which may with certainty be referred to this period, excludes them from the domain of the historian.