History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t8.12

v5.c74.t8.12

In a work called 'Viṭṭhalabhūṣaṇa'¹⁶³¹ by one Gopālācārya about eleven verses are quoted from Hemādri on Tīrtha which are quoted below¹⁶³². Briefly they state an excellent tīrtha exists on the southern bank of the river Bhaimī and there is also a rare but fine image there; it is called Pauṇḍarīka-kṣetra and the greatest of gods viz. Pāṇḍuraṅga worshipped by the whole kṣetra resides there. It is three times holier than Puṣkara, six and ten times holier than Kedāra and Vārāṇasī respectively. Puṇḍarīka practised severe austerities at the end of Dvāparayuga in the 28th Kalpa and always devotedly attended upon his parents. God Kṛṣṇa who was making a herd of cows graze on Govardhana hill became pleased with him for his devotion to his parents, Kṛṣṇa who wields a stick for driving cows, who has bracelets rendered bright by (the colour) of the umbrella¹⁶³³ (shade), who is adorned with a head-gear (*mukuṭa*) and a *śikya* (a loop) scintillating with the lustre of many jewels, who was very charming and had armlets studded with jewels, who does not (appear to) wear any *dhotī*, but has his loins covered with nickers, who is set off by a girdle of three strings tied on his waist and who stands with arms akimbo and appears possessed of three lines on his belly. Though a ms. of the Tīrtha portion of Hemādri's work has not yet been recovered, there is no reason to doubt that the verses were taken by Gopālācārya from Hemādri's work, particularly when almost all those verses are quoted by the T. S. (about 1500 A. D.) from the Skandapurāṇa and Kūrmapurāṇa. As Hemādri composed his work about 1260 to 1270 A. D. and as the verses quoted by him are cited from the Skandapurāṇa, it follows that several centuries before 1260 A. D. Pandharpur was known as a tīrtha, that the devotee and saint Puṇḍarīka (Marāṭhī 'Puṇḍlīk') also was so known then and that the image of Viṭhobā was essentially the same in appearance as it is now. That Pandharpur had risen in sanctity and importance in the 15th century follows from the fact that both the great Vaiṣṇava saints, Caitanya and Vallabha, visited it Vide Prof. S. K. De's 'Vaiṣṇava faith and movement in Bengal' p. 71 for Caitanya's visit and '*Śrī Vallabhāchārya*' by Manilal C. Parekh (pp. 56–59) for Vallabhācārya's visit.