About Bhakti Atlas

Bhakti Atlas is an independent online publication about the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition: its history and teachers, its places of pilgrimage, its texts and its devotional music.

What we cover

The site is organised in five sections. People covers figures from the sixteenth-century Gosvamis of Vrindavan to the founders of twentieth-century missions. Places deals with Jagannath Puri, Navadvipa and the Vraja region around Vrindavan. Texts introduces works such as the Bhagavad-gita, the Bhagavata Purana, the Brahma-samhita and Rupa Gosvami's treatise on devotion. Music looks at bhajan and kirtan, their poets and singers. Modern era follows more recent events, including institutional splits and disputes over religious freedom.

How articles are written

Articles are written by the editors of Bhakti Atlas and are not signed individually. They draw on academic studies, standard reference works such as Encyclopaedia Britannica, published translations and reputable press reporting. Wikipedia is used to find our way, not as a final authority. Each article lists its main sources at the end.

We write in an encyclopaedic register. The tradition's own understanding of events is reported as such ("according to the Chaitanya-charitamrita…"), alongside what historians can establish. We do not tell readers what to believe, we do not recruit for any group, and we do not speak for any teacher, temple or organisation.

What we do not publish

• No reproduced books, translations, lectures, PDFs, audio recordings or photographs belonging to others. Quotations are short and attributed.
• No statements attributed to living people unless they come from a published, identifiable source.
• No testimonials, endorsements or advertising.

Illustrations are historical works in the public domain or photographs released under free licences, each credited on the credits page.

Corrections

Errors are corrected as soon as they are confirmed, and significant corrections are noted at the foot of the article concerned. Requests can be sent to the editors as described on the legal notice page.

About this domain

The domain bvml.org was previously used by a different project, an online library of devotional literature, which is no longer published here. Bhakti Atlas is a new, independent publication with its own editors. It is not affiliated with that earlier project, does not continue it, and does not host any of its material.

Because many older links still point to addresses on this domain, some of those addresses now lead to new articles on the same subject, written from scratch for this site. If you followed such a link expecting a particular text or recording, the article will tell you what it was about and where published editions can be found.