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Pancharatra (IAST: Pāñcarātra) was a religious movement in Hinduism that originated in late 3rd-century BCE around the ideas of Narayana and the various avatar and forms of Vishnu as their central deities.[1][2] The movement later merged with the ancient Bhagavata tradition and contributed to the development of Vaishnavism.[2][3] The Pancharatra movement created numerous literary treatises in Sanskrit called the Pancharatra Samhitas, and these have been influential Agamic texts within the theistic Vaishnava movements.[3][4]
Literally meaning five nights (pañca: five, rātra: nights),[5] the term Pancharatra has been variously interpreted.[6][7] The term has been attributed to a sage Narayana who performed a sacrifice for five nights and became a transcendent being and one with all beings.[2][5][8] The Pancharatra Agamas constitute some of the most important texts of many Vaishnava philosophies including the Madhva Sampradaya or Brahma Sampradaya of Madhvacharya and the Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya of Ramanuja.[8] The Pancharatra Agamas are composed of more than 200 texts;[6] likely composed between 600 CE to 850 CE.[6]
The Shandilya Sutras (~100 CE)[9] is the earliest known text that systematized the devotional Bhakti pancharatra doctrine and 2nd-century CE inscriptions in South India suggest Pancharatra doctrines were known there by then.[2] The 8th-century Adi Shankara criticized elements of the Pancharatra doctrine along with other theistic approaches stating Pancaratra doctrine was against monistic spiritual pursuits and non-Vedic.[2][10] The 11th-century Ramanuja, the influential Vaishnavism scholar, developed a qualified monism doctrine which bridged ideas of Pancharatra movement and those of monistic ideas in the Vedas.[11] The Pancharatra theology is a source of the primary and secondary avatar-related doctrines in traditions of Hinduism.[12]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
JonesRyan2006p321was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b c d e Pancharatra: religious movement Archived 2016-08-10 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopaedia Britannica
- ^ a b Jan Gonda (1977). Medieval Religious Literature in Sanskrit. Harrassowitz. pp. 39–41. ISBN 978-3-447-01743-5.
- ^ Oriental Institute, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (1940). Gaekwad Oriental Series, Issue 86, p.7.
- ^ a b Jones, Constance and Ryan, James D. (2007). Encyclopedia of Hinduism, p.321-322. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 0816075646
- ^ a b c Datta, Amaresh (1987). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: A-Devo, p.95. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 8126018038
- ^ van Buitenen, J. A. B. (1962). "The Name "Pañcarātra"". History of Religions. 1 (2). University of Chicago Press: 291–299. doi:10.1086/462449. S2CID 224807810.
- ^ a b Sharma, C. D. (1991). Critical Survey Of Indian Philosophy, p.336. Motilal Banarsidass Publications. ISBN 8120803655
- ^ Constance Jones; James D. Ryan (2006). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Infobase Publishing. p. xxviii. ISBN 978-0-8160-7564-5. Archived from the original on 2022-10-20. Retrieved 2017-07-15.
- ^ Suthren Hirst (2008). Nile Green; Mary Searle-Chatterjee (eds.). Religion, Language, and Power. Routledge. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-1-135-89287-6.
- ^ Ariel Glucklich (2008). The Strides of Vishnu: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press. pp. 178–180, 66–70. ISBN 978-0-19-971825-2.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Lochtefeld2002p493was invoked but never defined (see the help page).