DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0158
CHAPTER VI.
Vaishnavism. Minor Sects and Reforming
Theistic Movements.
We cannot quit the subject of Vaishnavism without giving
some account of its more important minor sects, as well as
of certain reforming theistic movements which may be said
to have grown out of it. We may begin with the
Sect founded by Nimbarka or Nimbaditya.
This is perhaps one of the oldest of the known minor sects.
Its founder Nimbarka or Nimbaditya, whose followers are
sometimes called Nfmanandls, sometimes Ntmavats, is held
to have been identical with the astronomer Bhaskaracarya,
who flourished about the twelfth century. The poet Jaya-
deva, who is also supposed to have lived in the twelfth cen-
tury, may have been his disciple. If so, it is certain that the
disciple did more than his master to promote the doctrine of
devotion to Krishna. In Jaya-deva's mystical poem, called
the Gita-govinda (compared by some to our Song of Solo-
mon), are described the loves of Krishna and the GopTs
(wives and daughters of the Cowherds), and especially of
Krishna and Radha, as typical of the longing of the human
soul for union with the divine.
Others again believe Nimbarka to have been an actual
incarnation of the Sun-god, and maintain that he derived his
name of 'Nimb-tree-Sun' from having one day stopped the
course of the sun's disk, dislodged it from the heavens, and
Vaishnavism. Minor Sects and Reforming
Theistic Movements.
We cannot quit the subject of Vaishnavism without giving
some account of its more important minor sects, as well as
of certain reforming theistic movements which may be said
to have grown out of it. We may begin with the
Sect founded by Nimbarka or Nimbaditya.
This is perhaps one of the oldest of the known minor sects.
Its founder Nimbarka or Nimbaditya, whose followers are
sometimes called Nfmanandls, sometimes Ntmavats, is held
to have been identical with the astronomer Bhaskaracarya,
who flourished about the twelfth century. The poet Jaya-
deva, who is also supposed to have lived in the twelfth cen-
tury, may have been his disciple. If so, it is certain that the
disciple did more than his master to promote the doctrine of
devotion to Krishna. In Jaya-deva's mystical poem, called
the Gita-govinda (compared by some to our Song of Solo-
mon), are described the loves of Krishna and the GopTs
(wives and daughters of the Cowherds), and especially of
Krishna and Radha, as typical of the longing of the human
soul for union with the divine.
Others again believe Nimbarka to have been an actual
incarnation of the Sun-god, and maintain that he derived his
name of 'Nimb-tree-Sun' from having one day stopped the
course of the sun's disk, dislodged it from the heavens, and