BhAgavata pAncharAtra sampradAya bhedaH

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While initially the terms “Pancharatra” & “Bhagavata” referred to the same Vaishnava sect that was born after Vaikhanasa, we find texts & scholars of later times like in Ananda Samhita of Vaikhanasa distinguishing b/w the 2.

विश्वास-टिप्पनी

This is just incorrect. pAncharAtra from SYV is as ancient as vaikhAnasa from KYV. TW

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haja

Both Pancharatra & Bhagavata sects are almost identical in ontology & theology, with Vasudeva being Brahman & belief in 27 tattva system. Table lists the fundamental areas that differentiate them.

Pancharatra Bhagavata
Sect Pancharatra Bhagavata
Yoga Tantric/Devata Bhakti
Moksha Identity with Vasudeva Service of Vasudeva
विश्वास-टिप्पनी

moxa row in the difference table is oversimplified and hence wrong.

Ritual differences

These differences led to creation of worship processes distinct from the Pancharatra samhitas- the most well known cases being Tantrasarasangrah of Madhvacharya & Pushtimarga of Vallabhacharya.

Main texts

The foundational texts of this Bhagavata sect are the Badarayana sutras (in its final form) & Bhagavata Purana (core), both of which existed by at least 450 AD and are classified under bhedabheda vedanta by academic scholars.

mAdhva emergence

Bhagavatas as a separate sect are first attested in 12th century Tulunadu with Kaivalyashrama Swami where they were absorbed by Shankarites from the get go, becoming Bhagavata-smartas who followed a mix of Shankarite & Krishnaite beliefs. In the 13th century Madhva born among this group rebelled against the very concept of Advaita & established dvaita vedanta, converting fellow bhagavata-smartas to his new sampradaya.

Bhagavata-smartas

During same period, Vidyashankara Tirtha popularly known as Vishnuswami created a Nrsimha/Krishna brand of kevaladvaita, & with his disciple Padma Tirtha also called Padmapada absorbed the Bhagavata-smartas of Tulunadu.

The Vishnuswami sect had extremely minute differences from the mainstream Shankarites and both shared the same maths, acharyas & texts.

Padmapada

Padmapada also established the Shankarananda math in Odisha which Shridharaswami, the famous bhashyakara of Bhagavata purana belonged to.

Shridharaswami’s tradition led to development of mainly 3 theological schools during the same time period:

  1. Vallabha- Rejected Shridharaswami
  2. Chaitanya- Accepted his writings for the most part barring few places.
  3. Panchasakhas- 5 Odia poets who followed him as it is.

The Badarayana sutras have vaishnava inclination as it is shown in the early commentaries which include the bhagavata purana too.

nimbArka

Nimbarkacharya created a parallel Bhagavata sect to bhagavata purana. His sampradaya never bothered to use the purana till Keshava Kashmiri who was initially a Pancharatrika joined the sect.

Chart

graph TD; subgraph Advaita Lineage Gaudapada("Gaudapada ~500 CE") --> Govindapada; Govindapada --> Adi-Shankara("Adi-Shankara ~700 CE"); end subgraph Bhagavata Lineage Bhagavatapurana("Bhagavatapurana ~400 CE") -.-> Kaivalyashrama("Kaivalyashrama ~1100 CE"); Kaivalyashrama --> Vijayashankara("Vijayashankara/Vishnuswami"); Vijayashankara --> Padmapada("Padmapada"); Padmapada --> Garbha-Shrikanta; Padmapada --> Bilvamangala; Padmapada --> Shridharaswami("Shridharaswami ~1400 CE"); Garbha-Shrikanta --> Bilvamangala; Shridharaswami -.-> Madhavendra-Puri; Shridharaswami -.-> Panchasakha; end subgraph Chaitanya Lineage Madhavendra-Puri --> Ishvara-Puri; Ishvara-Puri --> Chaitanya("Chaitanya ~1500 CE"); end subgraph Nimbarka Lineage Nimbarka --> Shrinivasa; end %% Connections between subgraphs Adi-Shankara -.-> Kaivalyashrama; Kaivalyashrama -.-> Madhva("Madhva ~1200 CE"); Shridharaswami -.-> Vallabha("Vallabha ~1500 CE"); %% Styling classDef green fill:#d4edda,stroke:#82b36a,stroke-width:2px; classDef red fill:#f8d7da,stroke:#c73e4e,stroke-width:2px; classDef orange fill:#fff3cd,stroke:#d9a300,stroke-width:2px; classDef blue fill:#cce5ff,stroke:#004085,stroke-width:2px; class Bhagavatapurana,Kaivalyashrama,Vijayashankara,Padmapada,Garbha-Shrikanta,Bilvamangala,Shridharaswami,Panchasakha,Madhavendra-Puri,Ishvara-Puri,Chaitanya green; class Nimbarka,Shrinivasa red; class Vallabha orange; class Madhva blue;

The chart traces development of Bhagavata group & its subsects.

Solid Arrow: Immediate disciple
Dotted Arrow: Not immediate disciple
Black: Non-bhagavata Kevaladvaita
Dark Green: Bhagavata-smarta movement. Circles imply that the name refers to not a person but group of people.

Red: Nimbarka sampradaya
Blue: Madhva sampradaya
Orange: Vallabha sampradaya
Light Green: Chaitanya sampradaya

References

  1. “Radha-Krsna’s Vedantic debut” by Vijay Ramnarace
  2. “Ancient Karnataka- History of Tuluva” by BA Saletore
  3. “The Visnusvamin Riddle” by Rai Bahadur Amarnath Ray

Many others for dates

Grateful to @shardula23 & @KalingaKurma for resources & additional information