[435] E.g. Râmânuja, NammâṛVâr, Basava.
[436] Apparently meaning "possessor of cows," and originally a title of the youthful Kṛishṇa. It is also interpreted as meaning Lord of the Vedas or Lord of his own senses.
[437] E.g. the beginning of the Chând. Up. about the syllable Om. See too the last section of the Aitareya Âran. The Yoga Upanishads analyse and explain Om and some Vishnuite Upanishads (Nṛisiṃha and Râmatâ-panîya) enlarge on the subject of letters and diagrams.
[438] The same idea pervades the old literature in a slightly different form. The parts of the sacrifice are constantly identified with parts of the universe or of the human body.
[439] The cakras are mentioned in Act V of Mâlatî and Mâdhava written early in the eighth century. The doctrine of the nâḍîs occurs in the older Upanishads (e.g. Chând. and Maitrâyaṇa) in a rudimentary form.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE EVOLUTION OF HINDUISM. BHÂGAVATAS AND PÂŚUPATAS
1
India is a literary country and naturally so great a change as the transformation of the old religion into theistic sects preaching salvation by devotion to a particular deity found expression in a long and copious literature. This literature supplements and supersedes the Vedic treatises but without impairing their theoretical authority, and, since it cannot compare with them in antiquity and has not the same historic interest, it has received little attention from Indianists until the present century. But in spite of its defects it is of the highest importance for an understanding of medieval and contemporary Hinduism. Much of it is avowedly based on the principle that in this degenerate age the Veda is difficult to understand,[440] and that therefore God in His mercy has revealed other texts containing a clear compendium of doctrine. Thus the great Vishnuite doctor Râmânuja states authoritatively "The incontrovertible fact then is as follows: The Lord who is known from the Vedânta texts ... recognising that the Vedas are difficult to fathom by all beings other than himself ... with a view to enable his devotees to grasp the true meaning of the Vedas, himself composed the Pâncarâtra-Sâstra."[441]