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History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s97: 112. Kāśīnātha-Upādhyāya

History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s97

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112. Kāśīnātha-Upādhyāya

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Kāśīnātha Upādhyāya or Bābā Pādhye composed an extensive work called Dharmasindhusāra or Dharmābdhisāra, which is popularly known as Dharmasindhu. It is now the leading work in matters of religious observances in the Deccan and has been referred to even in judicial decisions.¹¹⁵⁹ It has been published several times. In the following the Nirṇayasāgara edition of 1926 with Marathi translation has been used. He says that he consulted former *nibandhas* and, following the order of the subject matters in the Nirṇayasindhu, composed the work which sets forth only the established conclusions after eliminating the original smṛti texts.¹¹⁶⁰ At the end he says that the work is not meant for learned men conversant with *mīmāṁsā* and Dharmaśāstra, but for men whose intellect is not sharp and yet who want to know the established conclusions on matters of dharma. The work is divided into three *paricchedas*, the third being the longest and split into two parts. The first deals with *kāla* in general, viz. the kinds of year, month, the saṁkrāntis, intercalary months and kṣayamāsa, what *tithis* are proper for what rites, conclusions about *tithis* from the first to the 15th and about amāvāsyā, eclipses; the second deals with the festivals, fasts and observances of particular months from Caitra to Phālguna; the third in the first part speaks in detail about the saṁskāras from garbhādhāna to marriage, sāpiṇḍya, gotras and pravaras, duties of brahmacārin, the daily duties from rising to going to bed, the five daily mahāyajñas, consecration of sacred fires, idols and dedication of tanks and works of public utility, kalivarjya; the latter part of the third *pariccheda* dilates upon the details of śrāddha, impurity on birth and death, the rites after death, the duties of widows, saṁnyāsa.

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¹¹⁵⁹ I. L. R. 49 Bom. 739 at p. 756.

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¹¹⁶⁰ नत्वार्यान् वितनोमि माधवमुखान् धर्माब्धिसारं मितम् ॥ 3rd Intro verse; तस्यानन्ताभिधानस्योपाध्यायस्य सुतः कृती । काशीनाथाभिधो धर्मसिन्धुसारं समातनोत् ॥ last verse; दृष्ट्वा पूर्वनिबन्धन् निर्णयासिन्धुक्रमेण सिद्धार्थान् । प्रायेण मूलवचनान्युज्झित्वा लिखामि बालबोधाय ॥ 4th Intro. verse.

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Kāśīnātha was a very learned man and a great devotee of God Viṭhobā at Pandharpur in the Sholapur District. He wrote several other works, such as the Prāyaścittenduśekhara (Bühler 3. 110), an exposition of the Vedastuti in the Bhāgavatapurāṇa (X. 87)

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and a work called Viṭṭhala-ṛṅmantrasārabhāṣya.¹¹⁶¹ In the latter he takes several Ṛk verses (such as Ṛgveda I. 95. 1-11 and I. 164. 31) and explains them as applying to God Viṭṭhala.

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¹¹⁶¹ Vide D. C. ms. No. 100 of 1869-70 dated *śake* 1731. In this विठ्ठल is derived as 'वित् वेदनं ज्ञानं तेन ठाः शून्याः तान् लाति स्वीकरोति.'

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We know a good deal about the family of Kāśīnātha Pādhye from his own works and from the biography of the great Marathi poet Moropant published by Mr. L. R. Pangarkar (ed. of 1908, chap. 16 pp. 107-119). His family hailed from Golavali, a village in the Ratnagiri District. They were Karhādā Brāhmaṇas and had the Joshi and Upadhye *vṛtti* of seventy-two villages in the Saṅgameśvara *taluka* of the Ratnagiri District. At the end of the Dharmasindhu he says that his grandfather was Kaśyupādhyāya who had two sons Yajñeśvara and Ananta. Ananta was a very pious man and a great devotee and left his native land Koṅkaṇa, and resided at Pandharpur on the banks of the Bhīmā. The Dharmasindhu does not give the reason for Ananta's migration from Koṅkaṇa. But it is said that the Pādhyes had a dispute with another family about the *upadhye vṛtti*, took it for decision to the Peshwa's Court at Poona and were defeated, on which they cursed the Peshwa, vowed not to stay in the territories under the Peshwa's rule and migrated to Pandharpur. The Dharmasindhu was composed¹¹⁶² in Śake 1712 i. e. 1790-1 A. D. Kāśīnātha was related to the great Marathi poet Moropant, as his daughter Āvaḍī was married to Rāmakṛṣṇa, the second son of the poet. He had great veneration for Moropant and refers to the Mantrabhāgavata of the latter.¹¹⁶³

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¹¹⁶² 'अयनांशाः ज्योतिःशास्त्रे प्रसिद्धाः । ते चेदानीं द्वादशाधिकसप्तदशशतसंख्याके शालिवाहनशके एकविंशतिरयनांशा इति &c.' धर्मसिन्धु p. 3.

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¹¹⁶³ एकेनैव प्रकारेणैकत्रैव पद्ये क्रमेण वर्णोद्वारे व्यवधानेपि चमत्कारातिक्षयोऽनुभवसिद्धो नापलपितुं शक्यः । अत एव श्रीमन्मयूरेश्वरपण्डितकवीश्वरेण मन्त्रमयभागवते मन्त्रमयरामायणे च द्वादशाक्षरमन्त्रवर्णाः श्रीरामजयरामेत्यादित्रयोदशाक्षरवर्णांश्च क्रमेणोपनिबध्य वर्णान्तरसंमिश्रणेन कथार्थं बोधयन्तो मन्त्रानुपूर्वीमपि बोधयन्तीति चमत्कारविशेषात्तादृशकाव्यरचनोपपद्यते । विठ्ठलऋङ्मन्त्रभाष्य folio 56a of D. C. ms. No. 100 of 1869-70.

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Kāśīnātha became a saṁnyāsin and died in śake 1727 i. e. 1805-6 A. D.¹¹⁶⁴

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¹¹⁶⁴ The pedigree is :—

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