आगमे विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

Collective name for four groups (sampraday) of militant (Naga) ascetics who
are all devotees (bhakta) of the god
Vishnu. They all trace their spiritual lineage to a different Vaishnava religious
community, each of which is connected
with a major Vaishnava figure. By far the
most populous and powerful of these
groups is the Shri sampraday of the
Ramanandi ascetics, which traces its
descent through the poet-saint
Ramananda to the southern Indian
philosopher Ramanuja, whom they
claim as Ramananda’s guru. The Sanaka
sampraday of the Nimbarki ascetics
traces its spiritual lineage to the philosopher Nimbarka. The Rudra sampraday
of the Vishnuswami ascetics traces its
lineage through the philosopher
Vallabhacharya to an earlier figure,
Vishnuswami. Finally, the Brahma sampraday of the Gaudiya Vaishnava
ascetics traces its spiritual line through
the Bengali saint Chaitanya to the
southern Indian philosopher Madhva.
Each of these sampradays is differentiated
not only by its founder but also by its
patron deity or deities. The Ramanandis
worship the god Rama, whereas the
others worship the god Krishna and, to
different extents, his consort, Radha.
Scholars doubt that these groups
were ever actually connected to the people whom they claim as their founders.
The distinctions among the sampradays
appear to be largely academic. Given
that the overwhelming majority of these
ascetics are Ramanandis, the others
seem important only for representing
the other great Vaishnava religious figures. The distinctions between groups
are only significant during the bathing
(snana) festival known as the Kumbha
Mela, at which they determine the order
of certain groups in the bathing processions. For more information see Peter
van der Veer, Gods on Earth, 1988.