The text undertaken for study viz. Navaratnam of Sri Harirama Vyasa was presumably written with the foremost aim of catering to the needs of sect-members for aquainting them with the absics and fundamentals of their sect, e.g. its cardinal doctrines and practices, principles with polemics, observance of fasts. alms-giving. pilgrimages, rituals and marks of sectarian identity etc. Manual in nature, one may not hope it to be exhaustive or elaborative and as such, many significant aspects remain obscure and unintelligible to the reader.
Writing on a sectarian manual with objectivity and critical approach is like the observance of asidhara vrata or the vow of treading on the sword-edge. One has to make use of his critical acumen in order to dive into the origin and genesis of a particular idea/concept and its formation or crystallization into a sectarian doctrine and dogma without offending the sensibility of an adherent. This objective, I hope, has been realized upto a large extent with two-pronged approach adopted by me in dealing with the topics of doctrinal faith in their historical perspective. Thus, while from sectarian standpoint, it has been my endeavour to be as elucidative and elaborative as possible for delineating the naunces of Krsna-bhakti, in historical perspective I have had to be forthright in holding that Krsna's or for that matter even Visnu's devotion in Vedic contexts is incongruous in terms of evolutionary mythology. If ever one has to look for a raisond'étre for sticking to such a view, the answer comes from Madhva. This approach is all the more pronounced where the problem is polemical; here I have been left with no option but to put the side of purva-paksa or the opponent in disputation, for unless one is not conversant with the topic in totality, there is little one can comprehend or appreciate. India's ancient tradition of wisdom is so rich, varied and diversified that any lineage of faith professing a certain way of being in communion with God, is but a tip of the ice-berg and these different branches of Indic religions homogenously known as sanatana-dharma, are so interwoven with one another that to look at any one of them in isolation, is to do injustice to the spirit of a faith.
I hope the world of academics in general and those devoted to the study of Indology and Vaisnavism in particular, will appreciate the venture of mine and also point out the shortcomings and errors with valuable suggestions.
The present work fulfills a long-left desideratum of offering reasonably satisfactory answers to the questions eluding the world of scholarship ever since the philosophy of Vaisnavism in general and Acintyabhedabheda in particular caught the imagination of Western scholars’ thanks, primarily, to the efforts of ISKCON zealots. It provides a vital clue to the process of alleigiance of Gaudiya school of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (1486-1533 A.D.) with the Madhva school of Sri Madhvacarya (1238-1317 A.D.), founder of Dvaita school of Vedanta, hailing from South India. In order to comprehend the fundamentals of this baffling proposition, it must be made clear at the outset that journey of Madhva's doctrine from South India to the North and its interaction with the Gaudiya devotional movement in the region of Vraja, is conspicuous in no uncertain terms. In the realm of doctrinal voyages, there are isntances where the intermingling of divergent ideas have resulted in a unique fusion and at times metamorphosised the dominant groups. The journey of Semitic Christianity to the pagan Greece and Rome, the adaptation of Islam in Sufistic Iran and metamorphosis of Indian Buddhism as Zen Buddhism in China and Japan are some of the epoch-making events of mankind's ever-expanding horizon of knowledge and faith. Though, not as phenomenal as the events mentioned above in terms of spatial traverse, the interaction between Madhva and Gaudiya schools makes an interesting study as for as their apparent variances are concerned and precisely these are the features that tend to obscure out understanding of their process of interaction.
Traditionally, the school of Caitanya traces its lineage to Brahma Sampradaya, a line of disciplic succession sanctified in the school of Madhva. It is not uncommon in ancient lore of India to find a sect, cult or branch of knowledge tracing its inception in hoary past with a mysthical deity at its helm². On a superficial level, these alleigiances often appear to be nothing more than ceremonial but it may not suffice to put at rest the querries of an inquisitive mind.
The querry regarding the alleigiance of Gaudiya with Madhva school mainly stems from the strictly dualistic stand adopted by Madhva in relation to a jiva and Isvara on the one hand' and the Gaudiya concept of Acintyabhedabheda laying stress on simultaneous inconceivable difference and non-difference between Supreme Lord and living entity on the other. It is of common knowledge among the students of Vedanta philosophy that after the appearance of Madhva on the philosophical scene, the Bhakti movement found the impetus in dealing effectively with the polemic onslaughts of the Advaita of Sri Sankaracarya, preceded only by a mild resistance of Sri Ramanujacarya (1050-1137 AD). It was Madhva who for the first time took serious exception to some of the very basic features of Sankara's monism viz. mayavada, non-difference between the soul and the Brahman and the flasehood of the world etc. upon which rests the entire citadel of Advaita. Madhva was successively followed by a galaxy of disciples who were scholars of repute and enriched the treasure of Vedantic canon. In course of time, this movement gained currency in wider part of sub-continent and the outcome was its interaction with the devotional movement of North India represented by the Gaudiya school of Bengal. The term Panca-Gauda, in its broader aspect stood for five groups of Brahmanical civilization of North India viz. Sarasvata, Kanyakubja, Madhya-Gauda, Maithila and Utkala and as such its geographical connotation is self-evident. However, thanks to the incessant invasion of the areas comprising Punjab and the Gangetic plain by the Kusanas, Hunas and other non-Aryan races during the centuries following Christ, a large scale migration of priestly families to Bengal may not be rules out.¹
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