Two Centuries of Decline
After the vigorous expansion of the 17th century, the fortunes of the sect seem to have gone under a cloud that lasted for nearly two hundred years.
The historical works produced as a part of the great literary output of the sect were largely confined to the 17th century. The last of these works, the Bhaktiratnākara, was written within the first few decades of the 18th century.
After it we have nothing of importance. The sect seems to have burnt itself out and to have sunk gradually into a lethargic state, with neither leaders nor spirit worthy of its tradition.
It was a period of a great Śakta revival over Bengal, followed by decadence generally in Hindu society.
For Vaishnavism these two centuries were the dark ages:
Even members of prominent Gosvāmī families renounced their sectarian faith and wandered off into corrupt cults, which spread their rank growth everywhere.
No longer appealing to the better elements in the community, its increment was restricted to the lowest sections of the social order, the ignorant, the vicious and the morally outcast.
Bereft of the spiritual fervour and religious vitality that had given reality to its social appeal, it lost most of its distinctiveness as a reforming influence.
The usages of Hindu society re-established themselves within the sect, until the Gosvāmīs and the householders were as much subject to caste rules as the orthodox society itself.
Those Gosvāmīs of lower castes who had Brahman disciples, of whom there were considerable numbers in the early days, decreased in number and influence until today scarcely any such can be found.
Even among the vairāgīs of the sect caste distinctions re-established themselves to a certain extent.
"Thus," says the historian of Bengali literature, "do we find Hindu society to be almost proof against any attempt to break down the Brāhmanic caste system.
Hindu society has often been seen to yield for a time to the inspired efforts of a great genius to level all ranks,
but, as often, it has been found to re-assert itself when the new order, after its brief hey-day of glory, gradually succumbs to the power of older institutions.”