A Scientometric Review and Analysis of Global Research on Vaishnavism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrijm.2025.v10.n6.021Keywords:
ISKCON, Neo-Vaishnavism, PRISMA, Sankardeva, VaishnavismAbstract
This study looks at global research on Vaishnavism, focusing on its religious, cultural, and social aspects. Using Scopus-indexed articles and the PRISMA framework, 70 studies were reviewed to find key topics, leading authors, major journals, and countries contributing to the field. Most of the research comes from India (41.42%), followed by the United States (24.28%), showing the tradition’s Indian roots and its global academic importance. A keyword analysis revealed themes like Neo-Vaishnavism in Assam, devotional practices, and the worldwide spread of Vaishnavism through movements like ISKCON. Important findings include Vaishnavism’s connection to regional identities, its role in challenging social hierarchies, and its global influence on religious practices. The study is limited to Scopus-indexed articles, potentially overlooking regional studies and emerging works with fewer citations. Despite the challenge, this review lays the groundwork for future research, encouraging studies on less-explored regions, modern practices, and comparisons with other traditions to better understand Vaishnavism’s evolving role worldwide.
References
Banerjee, Smita. “The Caged Woman: Female Guilt, Desire and Transgression in Bandini (1963).” “Bad” Women of Bombay Films, edited by Saswati Sengupta et al., Springer International Publishing, 2019, pp. 187–201. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26788-9_11.
Bhatia, Varuni. Unforgetting Chaitanya. Oxford University Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190686246.001.0001.
Bhatia, Varuni. “The Psychic Chaitanya: Global Occult and Vaishnavism in Fin de Siècle Bengal.” The Journal of Hindu Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, May 2020, pp. 10–29. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhs/hiaa004.
Bhattacharya, France. “Rabindranath, Bhakti, and the Bhakti Poets.” The Cambridge Companion to Rabindranath Tagore, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, 1st ed., Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 379–90. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108779753.024.
Bora, Simashree. “Gendered Devotion in Neo-Vaishnavism: Women, Monks and Sattras of Majuli, Assam.” Indian Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 25, no. 3, Oct. 2018, pp. 331–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971521518785665.
Brown, Sara Black. “From Meditation to Bliss: Achieving the Heights of Progressive Spiritual Energy through Kirtan Singing in American Gaudiya Vaishnava Hinduism.” Religions, vol. 12, no. 8, Aug. 2021, p. 600. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12080600.
Dey, Santanu. “Piety in Print: The Vaishnava Periodicals of Colonial Bengal.” The Journal of Hindu Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, May 2020, pp. 30–53. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhs/hiaa003.
Dutta Gupta, Aabrita. “Crossings with Jatra: Bengali Folk-Theatre Elements in a Transcultural Representation of Lady Macbeth.” Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, vol. 23, no. 38, June 2021, pp. 91–108. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.23.06.
Fahy, John. “Learning to Love Krishna: A Living Theology of Moral Emotions.” Ethnos, vol. 84, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 142–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2017.1383500.
Gupta, Ravi M. The Chaitanya Vaishnava Vedanta of Jiva Gosvami. 0 ed., Routledge, 2007. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203500682.
Hawley, John Stratton. “Can There Be a Vaishnava Kabir?” Studies in History, vol. 32, no. 2, Aug. 2016, pp. 147–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/0257643016645718.
Kundu, Pritha. “Belief Narratives and the Folk Tradition in Gaudiya Vaishnavism.” Engaging with a Nation, by Siddhartha Biswas, 1st ed., Routledge India, 2024, pp. 79–87. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003504504-8.
Kis, Katalin, and Aleah N. Ranjjitsingh. Violent and Vulnerable Performances: Challenging the Gender Boundaries of Masculinities and Femininities. BRILL, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848881679.
Manguin, Pierre-Yves. “The Transmission of Vaiṣṇavism Across the Bay of Bengal: Trade Networks and State Formation in Early Historic Southeast Asia.” Early Global Interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World, Volume II, edited by Angela Schottenhammer, Springer International Publishing, 2019, pp. 51–68. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97801-7_3.
Monga, Charu, and Amarendra Kumar Das. “Reconstruction of Vanishing Indigenous Cultural Threads of Naamghar in Assam.” Design for Tomorrow—Volume 1, edited by Amaresh Chakrabarti et al., vol. 221, Springer Singapore, 2021, pp. 793–806. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0041-8_65.
Mohapatra, Guruprasad, and Swati Samantaray. “From Inner Peace to World Peace: Jagannath Consciousness in the Literature of Odisha.” Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 9, no. 4, Dec. 2017. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v9n4.16.
Mohapatra, Ratnakar, and Abesha Shirko, Lambebo. “Indian Sculptural Art of Trivikrama Images from the Vaisnavite Temples of Prachi Valley of Odisha, Eastern India.” International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology, vol. 29, no. 3, 2020, pp. 1864–73.
Rajkumari, Munmi, and Debarshi Prasad Nath. “The Role of Goddess Kesaikhaiti in Shaping and Constructing the Identity of the Deoris.” Asian Ethnicity, vol. 25, no. 2, Apr. 2024, pp. 215–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2023.2245764.
Rajandran, Kumaran. “From Matter to Spirit: Metaphors of Enlightenment in Bhagavad-Gītā.” GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, May 2017, pp. 163–76. https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2017-1702-10.
Robison, Claire C. “Movement and Place-Making: Multiple Crossings in the Lives of Mumbai’s ISKCON Members.” Religions, Mumbai Style, edited by Michael Stausberg, 1st ed., Oxford University PressOxford, 2023, pp. 239–55. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192889379.003.0011.
Roy, Kaushik. “Hinduism.” Religion, War, and Ethics, by Nicole M. Hartwell, edited by Gregory M. Reichberg and Henrik Syse, 1st ed., Cambridge University Press, 2014, pp. 471–543. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511979651.009.
Saikia, Baburam. “An Introduction to the Sattra Culture of Assam: Belief, Change in Tradition and Current Entanglement.” Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics, vol. 12, no. 2, Dec. 2018, pp. 21–47. https://doi.org/10.2478/jef-2018-0009.
Sharma, Pranalee, and Asha Singh. “Changing Notions of ‘Ideal’ Monkhood: A Case Study from a Satra of Majuli.” Space and Culture India, vol. 4, no. 2, Nov. 2016, pp. 29–38. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v4i2.199.
Sarkar, Tanika. “Holy Infancy: Love and Power in a ‘Low Caste’ Sect in Bengal.” South Asian History and Culture, vol. 2, no. 3, July 2011, pp. 337–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2011.577567.
Sarbadhikary, Sukanya. “The Body–Mind Challenge: Theology and Phenomenology in Bengal-Vaishnavisms.” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 52, no. 6, Nov. 2018, pp. 2080–108. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X17000269.
Sarbadhikary, Sukanya. “The Breathing Body, Whistling Flute, and Sonic Divine: Oneness and Distinction in Bengal Vaishnavism’s Devotional Aesthetics.” Religions, vol. 12, no. 9, Sept. 2021, p. 743. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090743
Salter, Brian. “The International Society for Krishna Consciousness: Religion and Politics in West Bengal.” Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, vol. 26, no. 1, 2013, pp. 76–98, https://doi.org/10.1558/jasr.26i1.76.
Sardella, Ferdinando. “Bengali Vaishnavism in Court: The Gaudiya Math’s Crisis of Succession.” The Journal of Hindu Studies, vol. 13, no. 1, May 2020, pp. 54–70. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhs/hiaa002.
Singh, Upinder. “Cults and Shrines in Early Historical Mathura (c. 200 Bc-Ad 200).” World Archaeology, vol. 36, no. 3, Sept. 2004, pp. 378–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/0043824042000282803.
Sharma, Pranalee, and Asha Singh. “Changing Notions of ‘Ideal’ Monkhood: A Case Study from a Satra of Majuli.” Space and Culture, India, vol. 4, no. 2, Nov. 2016, pp. 29–38. https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v4i2.199.
Somasundaram, Ottilingam, and Tejus Murthy. “Alvars of South India: A Psychiatric Scanner.” Indian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 59, no. 3, 2017, p. 375. https://doi.org/10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_383_16.
Schweig, Graham M. “Humility and Passion: A Caitanyite Vaishnava Ethics of Devotion.” Journal of Religious Ethics, vol. 30, no. 3, Jan. 2002, pp. 421–44. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9795.00116.
Schweig, Graham M. Dance Of Divine Love: The Rasa Lila of Krishna from the Bhagavata Purana, India’s Classic Sacred Love Story: Introduced, Translated, and Illuminated. 2005.
Thomas, Tiju. “Hindu Sampradayas That Integrate Advaita and Dvaita and Catholicism: Creating a Framework for Interreligious Dialogue.” Journal of Ecumenical Studies, vol. 56, no. 4, 2021, pp. 596–631. https://doi.org/10.1353/ecu.2021.0034.
Wastawa, I. Wayan, et al. “Communication Theology in Relief Sculptures at Maduwe Karang Temple.” Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, May 2023, p. 364. https://doi.org/10.36941/ajis-2023-0084.
Zambon, Oliver, and Thomas Aechtner. “Vaishnavism, Antievolutionism, And Ambiguities: Revisiting ISKCON’s Darwin‐Skepticism.” Zygon®, vol. 53, no. 1, Mar. 2018, pp. 67–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12395.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).