History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t8.20

v5.c74.t8.20

Viṣṇu assumes in Prakrit the forms Vinhu, Vinnu, Venhu, Vetha and others. In Canarese Viṣṇu becomes Bitti, Bittiga, Vitta &c. The changes in names do not necessarily follow the rules laid down in Prakrit or Canarese grammars, which rules themselves are often based on meagre data and Mr. A. K. Priyolkar in his learned paper on 'Bhagat Namdeo of the Sikhs' in the Journal of the University of Bombay vol. VII part 2 (1938) points out (p. 24) that in the Ādi Granth of the Sikhs, in the hymns of Namdeo, God is addressed as 'Bīthal' or 'Bīṭhalu' (p. 24), that, in the Gujarati poems of Narsinh Mehta and Mirabai, God is addressed as Vitthala (p 35) and Viṭṭhala is employed by these saints meaning only Viṣṇu and not the deity at Pandharpur. The learned Kāśīnātha Upādhyāya, author of Vitthala-ṛṇ-mantrasāra-bhāṣya, derives the word Viṭṭhala as (*Vit*+*tha*+*la*) ¹⁶³⁶.