Gaudiya Vaishnavism takes its name from Gauda, an old name for Bengal, and traces its origin to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who lived from 1486 to 1534 CE. Chaitanya taught passionate devotion to Krishna, expressed above all through sankirtan, the congregational chanting of Krishna's names in public processions accompanied by singing and dance. Contemporaries and later hagiographers describe Chaitanya as entering states of intense devotional ecstasy during these performances, a mode of worship that broke sharply with the more restrained ritual and philosophical traditions dominant in Bengal at the time.
After Chaitanya's death, six of his followers, remembered as the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan, settled in the town associated with Krishna's childhood and undertook the systematic theological and scriptural work the movement's founder had not left behind. They wrote extensive commentaries grounding Gaudiya devotion in Sanskrit philosophical language, identified and developed pilgrimage sites around Vrindavan, and organized the movement's understanding of Krishna's relationship with Radha as its central devotional and theological image.
Gaudiya Vaishnavism remained centered on Bengal and the Vrindavan pilgrimage region for centuries, sustained by temple worship, festival calendars built around Krishna's life, and a body of devotional poetry and philosophy. In the twentieth century, its characteristic practice of public chanting became familiar worldwide through organized missionary activity, carrying a movement rooted in sixteenth century Bengal into a genuinely global devotional community.