Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c3.4

c3.4

First, it has not been my intention to write an exhaustive treatise on Early Vaiṣṇavism. I have been chiefly concerned to indicate the lines on which the future studies in the subject ought to proceed in order to form a clear idea of the development of the different aspects of the Vaiṣṇava religion and philosophy around the historical nucleus as supplied by the life and teaching of Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa whose personality in its varied conception has been at the back of the religious aspirations of multitudinous sections of the Hindu community. In other words, I have endeavoured to show that the huge fabric of the Vaiṣṇava religion of love and devotion was not based upon a mythical fancy of the poets, but has a truth in the personal history of Vāsudeva Kṛiṣhṇa which has been overshadowed by the stupendous growth of legends.