[Advaita-l] Advaita Vedanta in Bengal

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 7 Jun 2010, piyali palit wrote:

> Namaste.
>
> I would like to know about practice of advaita vedAnta in Bengal/Banga 
> which is under the jurisdiction of Govardhana Matha according to 
> mathAmnAya. It is also notable that most of the Bengali scholars in 
> advaita vedAnta were more affilliated to kAshI/vArANasI instead of Sri 
> JagannAthadhAma. Kindly enlighten me in this subject.

The mathAmnAya and similar works present a very stylized view of affairs. 
In practice, the jurisdiction of maths tended to depend on support from 
civil rulers.  So the writ of Govardhana matha extended into the domains 
of the Gajapatis of Orissa only.  Bengali Advaitins may have felt greater 
loyalty to the dashanami akhadas to which they were bound by guru-shishya 
parampara and which are mainly headquarted in Kashi.

This is just my impression from studying history.  Perhaps Vidyashankar 
can give a more knowledgeable answer.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>