Sat Sandarbhas

Sat Sandarbhas (Six Sandarbhas, a.k.a. Bhāgavata-sandarbha) is a 16th-century Vaishnava Sanskrit text, authored by Gaudiya Vaishnava theologian Jiva Goswami. The six treatise are Tattva-, Bhagavat-, Paramatma-, Krishna-, Bhakti-, and Priti-sandarbha.[1][2] Jiva's Krama-sandarbha commentary on the Bhagavata Purana is often described as the "seventh" of the six sandarbhas.[1][3]

The Six Sandarbhas are sometimes called the Bhagavata-sandarbha, not to be confused with the second treatise titled Bhagavat-sandarbha. The word "sandarbha" literally means "weaving" or "arranging"; the Bhagavata-sandarbha, his main philosophical work, is a thematic arrangement of the Bhagavata Purana, which presents Chaitanya Vaishnavism in a systematic and comprehensive way. Gupta places this composition as an early work due to references in latter works such as Radha-krsnarcana-dipika, Krama-sandarbha, Dig-darsini, Durgama-sangamini, and Gopalacampu. Brzezinski dates the composition between Jiva's Madhava-mahotsava in 1555 and published praises of Jiva in 1561.[4]

According to Jiva Goswami, Gopala Bhatta Goswami had already done the preliminary work on Sat Sandarbhas, but did not complete it. Jiva took the work of Gopala Bhatta and expanded it into six parts, systematically presenting the philosophy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and providing scriptural evidences. Jiva Goswami also wrote an extensive commentary to the first four sandarbhas called Sarva-samvadini. The Jiva Institute of Dr. Satyanarayana Dasa based in Vrindavan is engaged in what Lucian Wong calls an "ambitious Sandarbha translation project".[5]

  1. ^ a b De, Sushil K. (1942). Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal. p. 254.
  2. ^ Dasa, Satyanarayana (2007). "The Six Sandarbhas of Jiva Goswami". In Bryant, Edwin F. (ed.). Sources of the Krishna tradition. Oxford University press. pp. 373–408.
  3. ^ Rosen, Steven (1990). The Six Goswamis of Vrindavan. FOLK Books. p. 165. ISBN 0961976322.
  4. ^ Gupta, Dr. Ravi M. (2007). Flood, Gavin (ed.). The Caitanya Vaisnava Vedanta of Jiva Gosvami: When knowledge meets devotion. Routledge. p. 11 (Introduction). ISBN 978-0-203-50068-2.
  5. ^ Wong, Lucian (2015). "Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Studies: Mapping the Field". Religions of South Asia. 9 (3): 312.