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12. VAISHNAVISM
The Bhagavat Gita is considered to be the main text of the Vaishnavites where Krishna gives advice to Arjuna how to survive in the face of immanent death. We will be discussing this scripture in detail in a later chapter. Essentially, it proposes to fight decay and death without regard to personal gain or loss in all possible ways. The counsel is "Get it done".
Six of the eighteen Puranas are traditionally considered as Vaishnava text. Of these the Vishnu Purana is one of the oldest (c. fifth century CE) and most important and the Bhagavata Purana (c. ninth century CE) is an authoritative scripture of Vaishnavism. Seventeen of the Upanishads are regarded as Vaishnava, and there are large numbers of prayers and hymns of great literary and religious appeal that are addressed to Vishnu in his different forms.
http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/hindu/devot/vaish.html gives an excellent summary of how Vaishnavism grew into the modern form though it misses out the important Christian presence, which gave the basic monotheistic and personal faith as ways of salvation. The presence of Christianity is usually forgotten because the name was never used in India. Dr. Devakala and Dr. Devanayagam suggest that indeed Saivism and Vaishnavism were simply two denominations of Indian Universal Way. It was soon swallowed up by Gnostic infiltration all over India except in the Malabar Coast. Then it was their constant contact with the rest of the world that saved them. What is important to note in the History as given in the Encyclopedia is that it is an outgrowth of various cults and hero worship forms in the Pre-Christian period. With the coming of Thomas into India, the emphasis shifted to Supreme Person of God and Bhakthi towards Him. This caused a spurge out of the Polytheistic Nature worship into the freedom of personal relation with a Supreme God. This eventually led to the Six-fold religion known as Hinduism.
http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/hindu/devot/vaish.html
History "Vishnu is a solar deity in the Vedas, but the origin of Vaishnavism is not Vedic. It comes more from the pre-Vedic, non-Aryan Bhakthi, devotional cult. As Vedism declined, this cult emerged strongly, and was centered on Vasudeva, the deified Vrsni hero. There is evidence that worship of Vasudeva and not Vishnu came at the beginning of Vaishnavism. This earliest phase was established from the sixth to the fifth centuries BCE at the time of Panini, who in his Astadhyayi explained the word vasudevaka as a bhakta, devotee, of Vasudeva.
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