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784
Presidential Address
from time to time by nearly all the other schools of philosophy viz Sakhya, Yoga, Vedanta, Mimāṇisā and Nyaya and is not wanting even in the history of Jainism and Buddhism. In Brāhmaṇism its principal varieties are the cults of Vishņu, Śiva, and Śakti of which the first was cultivated early in the North and later in the South, the second and the third mostly in Kashmir and Bengal respectively. The last two, moreover, were saturated with Samkhya, Yoga and Vedāntic Sāmkhya, and possessed both an elevated and a degraded form. The cult of Vishnu has passed through many stages of evolution corresponding mainly to the forms and incarnations of Vishnu. But neither the question of the horizontal influence of the Daršanas, nor the story of the evolution of Vaishnava cults need engage us. For, our task in regard to the Bhakti school should be to trace 'the evolution of the idea of Bhakti itself. The earliest type of Bhakti is of course the selfish () bhakti, expressed in such prayers as शं नो भव द्विपदे शं ". (R. Samhita.) Alongside of this, however, there lie in the RkSamhita passages such as that in which the bhakta says to his Lord परा हि मे विमन्यवः पतन्ति वस्य इष्टये वयो न वसतीरुप. " My thoughts fly to thee, Oh Lord, as birds to their nests." In the Bhagavadgītā bhakti is preached in all its spiritual fullness, and later, in the Sutras of Sandilya and Nārada, it is found defined, analysed and illustrated in its various forms by examples taken from the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahabharata and the Puranas. In the teachings of Rāmānujācārya there is an attempt to establish its connection with jnäna and karma
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