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GARBE'S INTRODUCTION TO THE BHAGAVADGITA
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This second period of the Bhagavata religion could be, I believe, fixed from 300 B.C. to about the beginning of our (i.e. the Christian) era. In any case the original Bhag. might be assigned to this period (and in making this remark I do not wish to express myself just now regarding its date,) since in (the genuine parts of) the work, Krishna is not still identified with Brahman, but is designated oftentimes as Vishnu; (of the three passages X. 21, XI. 4 and 30, the last two belong to the old poem) and since the passage IV. 6-8 contains a reflection of the Avatara theory.
The third period of the Bhagavata religion for which I would postulate the period from he beginning of our (Christian) era to the commencement of the twelfth century, is specially characterised by the identification of Krishna-Vishnu with Brahman; in spite of the vedantification of Krishnaism, however, the older Sankhya-yoga elements hold on. In the former part of this period the remodelling of the Bhag. has taken place.
Along with this pantheistic conception of God which has been brought about quite consistently with the (spirit of the) time, there was developed an erotic comprehension of Krishna, 34 quite in consonance with the dual metaphysico-sensual nature of the Hindu character; this latter view revels principally in describing Krishna's love-sports with the cowherd-maidens, which are at the same time explained in a mystic sense. The allusions to Krishna's pastoral life are to be traced back to the supposition that Krishua as a human being was born in a pastoral people and had attained fame as their leader.
[p. 38] I might date the fourth period (in the history) of the Bhagavata religion with its systematisation by Râmânuja in the first-third of the twelfth century. The system of Râmânuja that, as is well-known, still counts at the present day numerous followers not only in Southern India, but has also obtained wide currency as an important form of faith among many Brahmin families in Northern India, has been described most lucidly by R. G. Bhandarkar at the place referred to above 35 When however Bhandarkar says at the end of page 74: "It was Râmânuja's endeavour to . seek a Vedantic
and philosophic basis for the religion of Bhakti or Love and Faith ., and thus the Pancharatra system which was independent of the Vedas beforehand, became a system of the Vedanta or an Aupanishada system," the statement is positively incorrect. And for this reason: the fundamental Vedantic ideas were not first pushed by Râmânuja into the religion of Bhakti; on the contrary they had found their way there many centuries before him, a fact disclosed to us by the Bhag., the Bhagavata Purana and other texts. I might (here as well) object to another mistaken view to be occasionally met with, viz., that Vishnu-ism is distinguished into Rama-ism and Krishna-ism according as it has a tendency to contemplation and speculation, or one to an inordinate enjoyment of life, and that therefore the system of Râmânuja, or for matter of that the religion of the Pâ charâtras, is to be regarded as Râma-ite. 36 Indeed, the Krishna-ite sect founded by Vallabhacharya about A.D. 1500 has inordinate enjoyment of life written on its banner, and the lower classes
14 In the latest parts of the Mbh. and in Harivamia; this development, as is well known, reaches its climax in Gtagovinda.
25 Cf. also Sarvadarsanasangraha, ch. IV; Wilson, Essays and Lectures, ed. R. Rost, I. 34-36; Colebrooke, Misc. Essays, ed. Cowell, in the Article on the Pâñcharâtras or Bhagavata I. 437-443; K. M. Banerjee, Dialogues on the Hindu Philosophy, 401 and ff; Hopkins, Religions of India, p. 496 and 1,
36 This view was first propounded by Wilson, Essays and Lectures, I. 38, note and, 40, and Colebrooke, Misc. Essaye, 21, 211, (contra, however, p. 439).
