A History of the Mahrattas v1.c5.s4.9.2

v1.c5.s4.9.2

While concerned primarily with the expounding of the ‘ Song Celestial ’ for the benefit of the ordinary Marāthā of his age, the author of the Jnānēshvarī takes as his underlying theme the value of service and love of God, or, briefly, of Bhakti or devotion, and must on this account be considered the direct forerunner of the Bhakti school of Marāthī poetry. Dr. Farquhar describes him as ‘ the coryphæus of the whole Bhakti movement of the Marāthā country,’ and as ‘ a true Bhakta, honouring Siva as well as Vishnu, and following Sankara in philosophy.’ Remembering that Jnānēshvar was a faithful devotee of Siva and had deeply imbibed the Vedānta philosophy of Shankarāchārya, Professor Patvardhan reasonably suggests that his emotional advocacy of the purely Vaishnava doctrine of Bhakti may have been due to the inspiration of the celebrated Vaishnava philosopher and teacher, Rāmānuja (c. A.D. 1100–1150), who is regarded as the leading opponent of the views of Shankarāchārya. The influence of the latter is clearly discernible in another work of Jnānēshvar, the Amritānubhava, a treatise on self-knowledge, which for this reason is believed by Professor Patvardhan to have been produced earlier than the *Jnānēshvarī*. Dr. Farquhar, however, accepts the suggestion of Dr. Laddu of the Sanskrit College, Benares, that Jnānēshvar was a *Bhāgavat* and that the whole *Bhakti* movement of Mahārāshtra sprang from this *Bhāgavat* origin.