Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.s3.26

c14.s3.26

Another maṭha was originally located at Kāñcī and was known as the Kāmakōṭi pīṭha, in honour of the Goddess at Kāñcī. This also appears to have been ruled by a regular succession of pontifical heads. Inscriptional records show that this maṭha was at Kāñcī at least in the thirteenth century, for a record of Vijayagaṇḍagōpāla, the Telugu Cōḍa king, registers a grant to the maṭha at the place in A.D. 1293.¹²⁸ From the very beginning of its foundation the maṭha appears to have been presided over by a regular succession of pontiffs. Among them mention may be made of Vyāsācala, Candracūḍa, Sadāśivēndra, Paramaśivēndra, the guru of Sadāśiva Brahman of Nerūr, and Ātmabōdhēndra at whose instance Sadāśiva Brahman composed the Gururatnamālā, and Nāma Bōdhēndra.¹²⁹ According to a list of the ācāryas of this maṭha by T. S. Nārāyaṇa Śāstri, the 55th ācārya in the apostolic line was one Candracūḍēndra, who presided over it between 1506 and 1512, and the next was one Sadāśivēndra who presided over it between 1512 and 1538. According to two copper plates of 1507 (?) Vīra Narasiṃha made two grants of villages to one Mahādēva Sarasvati, the then presiding pontiff of the Kāñcī Kāmakōṭi pīṭha.¹³⁰ In A.D. 1522 Kṛṣṇadēva Rāya made a grant of two villages to Candracūḍa Sarasvati, the disciple of Mahādēva Sarasvati.¹³¹ He is called Śivacetas (having his mind devoted to Śiva), Yatirāja (prince among ascetics) and Dhīmat (philosopher). He is also said to have been a great expounder of the doctrine of māyā. In the light of the date of this inscription and of the two others of Vīra Narasiṃha and the names of the pontiffs, we have to doubt the value of the chronology of Nārāyaṇa Śāstri’s list.¹³²