A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c20.27

c20.27

Another development of Vaishnavism based on the Bhāgavata was the rise from the close of the thirteenth century of a number of poet-saints whose popular songs stirred the life of Mahārāshtra as those of the nāyanārs and the āḷvārs had stirred the Tamil country centuries before. The earliest of them was Jñāneśvara, popularly called Dnyāndev Dnānōbā—a pupil according to some accounts of Vishnusvāmi, who was a dualist and founder of a sect of his own. Jñāneśvara was the author of an extensive work in Marāthi verse on the Bhagavad-gītā. His tone is Advaitic, though he also lays great stress on yoga; he was also the author of many abhangs or hymns. The movement begun by him continued through a succession of saints to Tukārām, the contemporary of Śivāji.