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Vaishnavism (Sanskrit: वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, romanized: Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism.[1] It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the sole supreme being leading all other Hindu deities, that is, Mahavishnu.[2][3] Its followers are called Vaishnavites or Vaishnavas (IAST: Vaiṣṇava), and it includes sub-sects like Krishnaism and Ramaism, which consider Krishna and Rama as the supreme beings respectively.[4][5] According to a 2010 estimate by Johnson and Grim, Vaishnavism is the largest Hindu sect, constituting about 641 million or 67.6% of Hindus.[6][7]
The ancient emergence of Vaishnavism is unclear, and broadly hypothesized as a fusion of various regional non-Vedic religions with worship of Vishnu. It is considered a merger of several popular non-Vedic theistic traditions, particularly the Bhagavata cults of Vāsudeva-Krishna[8][9] and Gopala-Krishna,[8][10] as well as Narayana,[11] developed in the 7th to 4th century BCE.[8][12] It was integrated with the Vedic God Vishnu in the early centuries CE, and finalized as Vaishnavism,[8][13][14] when it developed the avatar doctrine, wherein the various non-Vedic deities are revered as distinct incarnations of the supreme God Vishnu. Narayana, Hari, Rama, Krishna, Kalki, Perumal, Shrinathji, Vithoba, Venkateswara, Guruvayurappan, Ranganatha, Jagannath, Badrinath and Muktinath are among the names of popular avatars all seen as different aspects of the same supreme being.[15][16][17]
The Vaishnavite tradition is known for the loving devotion to an avatar of Vishnu (often Krishna), and as such was key to the spread of the Bhakti movement in Indian subcontinent in the 2nd millennium CE.[18][19] It has four Vedanta-schools of numerous denominations (sampradaya): the medieval-era Vishishtadvaita school of Ramanuja, the Dvaita school of Madhvacharya, the Dvaitadvaita school of Nimbarkacharya, and the Shuddhadvaita of Vallabhacharya.[20][21] There are also several other Vishnu-traditions. Ramananda (14th century) created a Rama-oriented movement, now the largest monastic group in Asia.[22][23]
Key texts in Vaishnavism include the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Pancharatra (Agama) texts, Naalayira Divya Prabhandham, and the Bhagavata Purana.[6][24][25][26]
- ^ Dandekar 1987.
- ^ Pratapaditya Pal (1986). Indian Sculpture: Circa 500 BCE–700 CE. University of California Press. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-0-520-05991-7.
- ^ Stephan Schuhmacher (1994). The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala. p. 397. ISBN 978-0-87773-980-7.
- ^ Hardy 1987.
- ^ Flood 1996, p. 117.
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
johnson400was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Chapter 1 Global Religious Populations" (PDF). January 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2013.
- ^ a b c d Dandekar 1987, p. 9499.
- ^ "Vaishnava". philtar.ucsm.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
- ^ Flood 1996, p. 120.
- ^ Flood 1996, p. 119,120-121.
- ^ Eliade, Mircea; Adams, Charles J. (1987). The Encyclopedia of religion. Macmillan. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-02-909880-6.
- ^ Gonda 1993, p. 163.
- ^ Klostermaier 2007, pp. 206–217, 251–252.
- ^ Matchett 2001, pp. 3–9.
- ^ Anna King 2005, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Mukherjee 1981; Eschmann, Kulke & Tripathi 1978; Hardy 1987, pp. 387–392; Patnaik 2005; Miśra 2005, chapter 9. Jagannāthism; Patra 2011.
- ^ Hawley 2015, pp. 10–12, 33–34.
- ^ Lochtefeld 2002b, pp. 731–733.
- ^ Beck 2005a, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Fowler 2002, pp. 288–304, 340–350.
- ^ Raj & Harman 2007, pp. 165–166.
- ^ Lochtefeld 2002b, pp. 553–554.
- ^ Flood 1996, pp. 121–122.
- ^ Schrader 1973, pp. 2–21.
- ^ Klostermaier 2007, pp. 46–52, 76–77.