THE REGIONAL KINGDOMS OF EARLY MEDIEVAL INDIAwith god (Krishna) is symbolised in this way. At the same time, god is
visibly attracted to the soul—hence his being praised as Radhakrishna, the
god who is identified by his love.
Nimbarka and Vallabha, two South Indian Brahmins, settled down at
Mathura (near Brindaban) which is associated with Krishna’s life on earth.
Here they pursued their metaphysical speculations concerning this
relationship between Radha and Krishna. To them, Radha became a
universal principle which enables god (Krishna) to communicate with this
world. Not much is known about Nimbarka’s life. Vallabha lived from
1479 to 1531. He was the founder of the Vallabhacharya sect, which
became known for its erotic Radhakrishna cult.
Vallabha’s contemporary was Chaitanya (1485–1533), who is still
revered today as the greatest saint of the Vaishnavites. Born in
Navadvipa, Bengal, he was the son of a Brahmin and was worshipped
even in his lifetime as an incarnation of Krishna. He spent the last two
decades of his life at Puri in Orissa, devoting himself to the ecstatic
worship of Jagannath, the highest form of Krishna. Often in a state of
trance for hours, he would also swoon or rave in emulation of Radha
distressed by Krishna’s absence. After his death he is said to have merged
with the statue of Jagannath.
Neither a teacher nor a philosopher, Chaitanya left it to his followers to
record his sayings. At his behest Mathura was chosen by his disciples as the
centre of the Krishna cult. This was a very important decision because, in
this way, Northern India emerged from several centuries’ eclipse by the
rapid development of Hinduism in South and Central India. The region
now began to regain religious importance. During the reign of the Great
Mughal, Aurangzeb, the Rana of Mewar secretly removed the statue of
Krishna from Mathura in order to install it more safely near his capital,
Udaipur, where the temple of Nathdvara is still one of the greatest and
richest centres of pilgrimage in India, even today. The head of this temple is
regarded as the highest priest among the Vaishnavites.
Shaivism also gave rise to many popular sects. They all agreed that the
‘Great God’ (Mahadeva) was the very foundation of the universe, but they
gave different answers to the great question about the relation of god to
the individual soul and to inanimate matter. They also had very different
rites with which they distinguished themselves from each other, as well as
from the Vaishnavites. In North India the most prominent school of
thought was Kashmir Shaivism, founded by Vasugupta, a renowned
teacher, in the early ninth century. Vasugupta advocated a kind of monism
which, in contrast to that of Shankara did not regard the real world as
illusion; rather, it was an emanation of the divine spirit. Shiva becomes
compared to a painter who creates the image of the world within himself
and needs neither canvas nor colours. Because this school of thought aims
at the recognition of Shiva in this image created by him, it is referred to as