Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/389

 times; and with almost the force of an instinct, the nation turned towards that religion. And with the hour came the men. Ramanujacharya and Madhavacharya had already proclaimed the gospel of Vaishnavism in Southern India. Vallabhacharya—that noble epicure of India, whose lofty doctrines have, like those of his western prototype, been woefully abused by his unworthy followers—was shaking the firmament of Western India with his earnestness and eloquence. Ramanand and other sages had carried the faith to Northern India. It would, therefore, have been a strange exception, had Bengal remained unreached by this new spirit. That province was moreover, as we have just attempted to show, in urgent need of relief from the excesses of Saktaism. Benign Providence at last thought fit to vouchsafe a harbinger of peace and light; and on the stage of Bengal appeared the immoratal Saint of Nuddea.

Chaitanya, the apostle of Vaishnavism in Bengal, was born at Navadweepa (Nud-