The Padyavali: An Anthology of Vaisnava Verses in Sanskrit

The Padyavali of Rupa Gosvamin is in many respects a unique work of mediaeval Bengal. Apart from its value as one of the well known anthologies of Sanskrit literature, its connexion with the Vaisnava movement of Bengal gives it an added interest and importance. Its author, a scholar and devotee, was a well known disciple of Caitanya, the founder of Bengal Vaisnavism; and as an authoritative teacher and exponent of its doctrines he became the centre of its arduous and prolonged theological and literary activity, and occupied the most commanding position in the later development of the sect as one of its six acknowledged law-givers. Though not concerned directly with dogmas and doctrines, his Padyavali, as an illustrative collection of devotional verses, has been cited with great respect among his other authoritative works. One of the most important features of the Caitanya movement was its extraordinary literary energy. The power and vitality of its inspiration are evidenced by the vast literature is created for itself both in the learned classical tongue as well as in the living language of the province. The abundance, variety and spontaneity of this literature are amazing. On the one hand, it poured itself lavishly in song and story in the vernacular, creating a new literary epoch by its fruitful contributions of great diversity and beauty; on the other, it enriched the field of Sanskrit scholarship and Sanskrit devotional literature by its more solid and laborious productions in theology, philosophy and ritualism, as well as by its luscious poetical outbursts in prose and verse.