Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c7.16

c7.16

Bhāgavatism, like the religions of Mahāvīra and Buddha, was the expression of a natural reaction from the sacrifice-ridden religion of the Brāhmaṇic period. The earliest teachers of this faith, while refraining from an open denunciation of the *Vidhi Yajña* or the ordinary Vedic sacrifice, propounded a new doctrine which laid emphasis, among other things, on *Ahiṃsā*. *Ahiṃsā* is taught by the guru of Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra in the *Chhāndogya Upanishad*.¹ Viṣṇu, according to several Bhāgavata texts, appeared as four sons of Dharma and *Ahiṃsā*,² and his highest region (*param padam*) could only be reached by those who gave assurance of harmlessness to all creatures.³