A History of the Mahrattas v1.c5.s4.9.3

v1.c5.s4.9.3

The *Bhāgavat* cult rests upon a passage in the *Harivāmsa*, which reflects the worship of the two gods, Siva and Vishnu, as equal or as one. An inscription of A.D. 528-9 proves that the *Bhāgavat* community was in existence at that date, while at a later date (c. 800-900) the *Skanda Upanishād* was written to prove the identity of Vishnu and Siva. There seems good ground for holding that the *Bhāgavat* sect, with its doctrine of the identity of the two gods, was numerous in southern India from A.D. 550 to 900, and that the great *Bhāgavata Purān*, with its doctrine of *Bhakti*, was the literary creation of the sect. In all probability Jnānēshvar was under the influence of the *Bhāgavat* Vishnuswāmi, who was his senior by only thirty or at most forty years.¹ In conclusion let it suffice to point out that Professor Patvardhan gives clear reasons for holding that the *abhangas* or trochaic odes usually attributed to Jnānēshvar were probably written by another poet of the same name, *after* the cult of Vithoba had been firmly established and Pandharpur had become one of the popular *tīrths*, or places of pilgrimage, in Mahārāshtra.² Nivrittināth, Sopāndēv and Muktabāī also composed verses which are of little importance compared with the deservedly popular works of their famous brother.