ABSTRACT
This chapter problematises the prevalent notion that late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Vaiṣṇava anti-Sahajiyā polemics can be taken as a definitive index of colonial wrought rupture within Bengali Vaisnavism. It proceeds by, first, drawing attention to oblique, yet unmistakably polemical, forms of response to Sahajiyā currents in popular pre-colonial Gaudīya literature that are indicative of a movement towards a brāhmaṇically aligned Vaiṣṇava normativity; and, second, highlighting how this movement towards normativity was further fostered in colonial times in Bengal by leading representatives of traditional Bengali Vaiṣṇava gosvāmī communities, who were often extensively involved in bhadralok Vaiṣṇava domains.
