Sri Chaitanya and the Chaitanya Movement

Vaishnavism has remained an ancient religion of our country. It preaches devotion to Vishnu Narayana or Krishna or any of his divine incarnation. The Vedas, the Bhagvata Gita and the Bhagvata Purana are the foundations of this religion. since time immemorial, scholars and religious personalities have been inspired by the Vaishnava thinking. In this regard, we have a galaxy of Vaishnava Acharyas. The Acharyas were followed by Srikrishna Chaitanya who flourished in the sixteenth century India. He was not only a preacher and thinker. He was also a "Pravartaka" who supplemented the visions contained in the Vedas by those embodied in the Srimad Bhagvata. The philosophical ideas of Sri Chaitanya became the nucleus of a new socio-religious movement subsequently named after him. In the background, the author has discussed the religious thoughts centering round the Srimad Bhagvata Gita and the Bhagvata Purana which were the starting point, so to say, for Sri Chaitanya. Since Sri Chaitanya was the progenitor of a new movement, the life and mission of Sri Chaitanya have been examined at the first instance. Thereafter, the history of the Krishna-Bhakti movement (movement based on devotion to Lord Krishna) and its extensive growth in medieval Bengal, Orissa and Assam have been examined. This is followed by a survey of the religious ideology of the movement, crystallizing into what has come to be known as the Gaudiya Vaishnava School. The message of the movement found a wide acceptance among the people creating a deep impact on society. We have surveyed all this at the proper context. Lastly, we have also taken into account the literary activities inspired by the message of the movement. In order to ensure a smooth reading, appendices have been added at the end. An exhaustive source material in medieval and contemporary Bengali, Sanskrit, Oriya, Assamese, Hindi and English have been added.