Vaishnava
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a primary religious sect of the Hindus, who VALDÉS adore Vishnu in preference to, if not to the exclusion of, the other persons of the Hindu triad. To carry individual preference to this extent is not considered orthodox, and many of those who do so have united themselves into monastic bodies, which, drawing their devotees from various castes, virtually merge them in a new one-that of the Sec tarian brotherhood. Horace Hayman Wilson divided the Vaishnavas into the following sections: (1) Rámánujas, Sri Sampradáyís, or Sri Vaishnavas; (2) Rámánandis, Rámánandis, or Rámâvats; Rámâvats; (3) Kabir Panthís; (4) Khákís; (5) Malúk Dásís; (6) Dádú Panthís; (7) Ráya Dásís; (8) Senáís; (9) Vallabháchárís, or Rudra Sampradáyís; (10) Mírá Báís; (11) Madhwáchárís or Brahma Sampradáyís; (12) Nímávats, or Sanakádi Samprayadáyis; (13) the Vaishnavas of Bengal. (14) Radhá Vallabhís; (15) the Sakł Bhavas; (16) Charan Dásis; (17) Harischandís; (18) Sadhna Panthis (19) Mádhavis; and (20) Sannyásís Vairágís, and Nágas. VALAIS (välā') (German, Wallis), a frontier canton of Switzerland; bounded on the N. by the cantons of Vaud and Bern, and on the S. by Italy; area, 2,027 square miles; pop. about 130,000. It forms one long and deep valley, included between two of the loftiest mountain chains of Europe-the Pennine and the Bernese Alps-and is drained by the Upper Rhône, which, rising at its N. E. extremity, falls at the W. boundary of ty falls the canton into the Lake of Geneva. The greater part of the surface consists of barren mountain slopes in their higher elevations covered with the greatest of the Swiss glaciers. The forests and pasture-lands supply the inhabitants with their chief occupations. The heat at the bottom of the valley, where there is a strip of corn land, is intense in summer, and Indian corn and the vine are grown with great success. The Grimsel and Gemmi passes connect the E. part of the valley with German Switzerland; and the Great St. Bernard and SIMPLON (q. v.) passes connect it with Italy. Sion and Martigny are the chief towns.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 it called Vaishnavas "a primary religious sect" and warned that exclusive devotion to Vishnu "is not considered orthodox" — a judgement borrowed from Brahmanical critics that no scholar would repeat today. Vaishnavism is now normally described as the largest of the Hindu traditions, claiming the allegiance of a majority of Hindus worldwide, and is treated as a denomination in its own right rather than a deviation from something more orthodox. Item 13 on the list, "the Vaishnavas of Bengal" — the Gaudiya followers of Chaitanya — became the most globally visible branch when A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York in 1966, planting temples across Europe and the Americas. Horace Hayman Wilson's twenty-part taxonomy, already nearly a century old in 1921, is still cited, but chiefly as evidence of how early colonial scholarship tried to sort living devotion into fixed sects.
Written for this edition, 2026.