Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c7.2

c7.2

Whatever be the right kind of test in determining the importance of a religious system—the amount of the following, or the intrinsic worth of the system—Vaishnavism must be regarded as one of the most important religions of India. It was the religion of Heliodoros, of the Gupta Emperors, of Rāmānuja, of Kavīra, of Chaitanya and of Tukārāma. It still counts as its votaries many among the teeming millions of India. It is the religion which produced the *Bhagavadgītā*, the songs of the Tamil *Aḻvārs*, the splendid *Padāvalīs* of mediæval Bengal, and the *Rāmacharitamānasa* of Tulasī Dās. If Sir George Grierson is right India owes the preservation of the ideas of *Bhakti* and *Prasāda* (loving faith and divine grace) to the Vaishnavas. Any endeavour which is meant to throw light on the story of the rise and expansion of this important religion cannot but be of great use in reconstructing the history of our country. In his introduction to the *Sūtras* of Āpastamba¹ Dr. Bühler observes, "the earlier history of the Purāṇas, which as yet is a mystery, will only be cleared up when a real history of the orthodox Hindu sects, especially of the Sivites and Vishṇuites has been written." The writer of the following pages has tried to present the materials for a connected history of Vaishnavism from the Vedic times to the age of the early Tamil *Āchāryas* who laid the foundation of the Śrī Vaishṇava school of which the greatest exponent was Rāmānuja, the earliest of the celebrated mediæval Bhakti Reformers of India.