Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.55

c8.55

The exact date of this portion of the Great Epic is, no doubt, uncertain. But from numismatic evidence it seems probable that the epithet " *Parama Vaishṇava* " came into general use only from about the fifth century A.D.¹ We should also note another important fact, namely, that there is very little inner connection between Vedic and Brāhmaṇic Viṣṇu-worship and the Bhakti religion we call Vaishṇavism. The idea of a God of Grace, the doctrine of Bhakti—these are the fundamental tenets of the religion termed Vaishṇavism. But they are not very conspicuous in Vedic and Brāhmaṇic Viṣṇu-worship. Viṣṇu in the Brāhmaṇic texts is more intimately connected with ' *yajña* ' (sacrifice) than with Bhakti or *Prasāda*. It is in the hymns addressed to Varuṇa, and not in those addressed to Viṣṇu, that we find a feeling which bears some resemblance to the Vaishṇava Bhakti.²