Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c13.23

v2.c13.23

Vallabha’s Vedāntic theory is the same as that of an earlier author of the name of Viṣṇusvāmin. This Viṣṇusvāmin is said to have been the son of the councillor of a Draviḍa chief dependent upon the emperor of Delhi ³. Nābhājī in his Bhaktamālā makes Jñāndeva, Nāmdeva, Trilocana, and lastly Vallabha his successors ⁴. The first was Jñāndeva, who is represented as a follower of his system (Sampradāya). He was one of three sons born to a man, who became a householder after he had assumed the order of an ascetic. He was, therefore, excommunicated and was not allowed to learn the Vedas. But he himself by his miraculous power made a male buffalo repeat the Vedas. This story is the same as that related of the Jñāndeva of Mahārāṣṭra, the author of a vernacular commentary on the Bhagavadgītā. But the Marāṭhas do not know of Viṣṇusvāmin as his Guru, or teacher, or of Jñāndeva being his successor or follower. If, however, the tradition reported by Nābhājī is correct, Viṣṇusvāmin must have lived about the middle of the thirteenth century. The date of the commentary above alluded to is Śaka 1212, corresponding to 1290 A. D.