The study of gaudia-vaishnava hagiography by Edward C. Dimock and Tony K. Stewart

The studies of Edward C. Dimock and Tony K. Stewart take special place in modern historiography of Gaudiya Vaishnav-ism. Their works, including ones which are devoted to the study of hagiography of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, are now among the most significant historiographical researches of this phenomenon. Professor Edward C. Dimock, the former chairman of the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) and founder of the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, has published several works about Gaudia Vaishnavism from the 1950s. In the book «The Place of the Hidden Moon» author explores a variety of texts of this vaishnava-school by reconstructing the history of it and the views of the community of Bengali devotees. Social diversity and even philosophical heterodoxy of the schools are specified in his study. The some ideas about Vaishnava community are briefly described also in E. Dimock's article «Doctrine and Practice among the Vaisnavas of Bengal». Noting a huge impact of the school on Bengali and Indian cultures, he adds that even, for example, the works of Rabindranath Tagore and many another Symbolists must often be interpreted in the context of the Vaishnava philosophy. The academic translation of the key Vaishnava's hagiography, «Caitanya-caritamrta» by Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, became the greatest contribution of E. Dimock in Indian studies. T. Stewart, another prominent Indologist, become the editor of this edition. Tony K. Stewart is professor of the Department of Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University and Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Humanities. In 2010, T. Stewart issued his fundamental work «The Final Word: The Caitanya Caritamrta and the Grammar of Religious Tradition», which was the most comprehensive academic study of «Caitanya-caritamrta». In his work, the author examines the main aspects of this religious tradition, including its history, theological position, the wide complex of texts, applying the apparatus for the grammatical constructions. Exploring the descriptions of birth and death of Chaitanya in articles «When Rahu Devours the Moon: The Myth of the Birth of Krsna Caitanya» and «When Biographical Narratives Disagree: The Death of Krsna Caitanya», T. Stewart makes comparative analysis of several hagiographic narratives. He determines the existence of common patterns which describe the general structure of narratives, despite the theological heterodoxy. The researches by E. Dimock and T. Stewart show that Vaishnava hagiographical sources with their religious nature are important as sources of the historical information, especially about the life of the Vaishnava community. And thereafter these biographical texts are the matter for historical reconstruction.

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