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Pancharatra (IAST: Pāñcarātra) was a religious movement in Hinduism that originated in late 3rd-century BCE around the ideas of Narayana and the various avatars of Vishnu as their central deities.[1][2] The movement later merged with the ancient Bhagavata tradition and contributed to the development of Vaishnavism.[2][3] The Pancharatra movement created numerous literary treatises in Sanskrit called the Pancharatra Samhitas, and these have been influential Agamic texts within the theistic Vaishnava movements.[3][4]
Literally meaning five nights (pañca: five, rātra: nights),[5] the term Pancharatra has been variously interpreted.[6][7] The term has been attributed to a sage Narayana who performed a sacrifice for five nights and became a transcendent being and one with all beings.[2][5][8] The Pancharatra Agamas constitute some of the most important texts of many Vaishnava philosophies including the Madhva Sampradaya or Brahma Sampradaya of Madhvacharya and the Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya of Ramanuja.[8] The Pancharatra Agamas are composed of more than 200 texts;[6] likely composed between 600 CE to 850 CE.[6]
The Shandilya Sutras (~100 CE)[9] is the earliest known text that systematized the devotional Bhakti pancharatra doctrine and 2nd-century CE inscriptions in South India suggest Pancharatra doctrines were known there by then.[2] The 8th-century Adi Shankara criticized elements of the Pancharatra doctrine along with other theistic approaches stating Pancaratra doctrine was against monistic spiritual pursuits and non-Vedic.[2][10] The 11th-century Ramanuja, the influential Vaishnavism scholar, developed a qualified monism doctrine which bridged ideas of Pancharatra movement and those of monistic ideas in the Vedas.[11] The Pancharatra theology is a source of the primary and secondary avatar-related doctrines in traditions of Hinduism.[12]
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