Ferdinando Sardella, Modern Hindu Personalism: The History, Life and Thought of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

As an historian of religions I first became interested in the academic study of Gaudiya Vaishnavism more than 20 years ago. In the early 1990s, when I began graduate school, there was precious little scholarly discussion of the great Caitanyaite tradition beyond the temporal boundaries of its period of Indian origin in 16th century Bengal/Vrindavan and its perceived global consummation at the coming of ISKCON to the Americas and Europe in the mid 20th century. Although scholars and devotees alike back then demonstrated a deep fascination with ISCKON’s founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (1896-1977)—who effectively made “Krishna” a household name in Europe and America in the 1960s—minimal attention was paid to the colonial roots of the global Hare Krishna movement. A few articles and book chapters appeared here and there throughout the 1980s and 1990s but it was clear even then that academics and devotees alike thirsted for rigorous scholarly treatments of A. C. Bhaktivedanta’s immediate predecessors—Bhaktivinoda Thakura (1838-1914) and Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati (1874-1937).