sacrifice _in
toto_ and make the basis of salvation emotional--namely devotion to
the deity, and as a counterpart to this the chief characteristic of
the deity is loving condescension or grace. The theological philosophy
of each sect is nearly always, whatever name it may bear, a variety of
the system known as Visishtadvaita, or qualified monism, which is not
unlike the Sankhya-Yoga.[566] For Vishnuites as for Sivaites there
exist God, the soul and matter, but most sects shrink from regarding
them as entirely separate and bridge over the differences with various
theories of emanations and successive manifestations of the deity. But
for practical religion the soul is entangled in matter and, with the
help of God, struggles towards union with him. The precise nature and
intimacy of this union has given rise to as many subtle theories and
phrases as the sacraments in Europe. Vishnuite sects in all parts of
India show a tendency to recognize vernacular works as their
scriptures, but they also attach great importance to the Upanishads,
the Bhagavad-gita, the Narayaniya and the Vedanta Sutras. Each has a
special interpretation of these last which becomes to some extent its
motto.

But these books belong to the relatively older literature. Many
Vishnuite, or rather Krishnaite, works composed from the eighth
century onwards differ from them in tone and give prominence to the
god's amorous adventures with the Gopis and (still later) to the
personality of Radha. This ecstatic and sentimental theology, though
found in all parts of India, is more prevalent in the north than in
the south. Its great text-book is the Bhagavata Purana. The same
spirit is found in Jayadeva's Gita-govinda, apparently composed in
Bengal about 1170 A.D. and reproducing in a polished form the
religious dramas or Yatras in which the life of Krishna is still
represented.

2

The sect[567] founded by Nimbarka or Nimbaditya has some connection
with this poem. Its chief doctrine is known as dvaitadvaitamata, or
dualistic non-duality, which is explained as meaning that, though the
soul and matter are distinct from God, they are yet as intimately
connected with him as waves with water or the coils of a rope with the
rope itself. This doctrine is referred to in the religious drama
called Prabodhacandrodaya, probably composed at the end of the
eleventh century. The Nimavats, as the adherents of the sect are
called, are found near Muttra and in Bengal. It is