Vallabha

Birthplace of Vallabhacharya, Prakatya Baithak, Champaran

Vallabha's family were Velanāṭa or Vellanāḍu Telugu Brāhmaṇas who belonged to the Bhārgava gotra and Taittirīya śākhā of the Yajurveda. Their ancestral village was Kāṅkaravāḍa on the southern bank of the Godavari river.[9]

According to devotional accounts, Kr̥ṣṇa commanded his ancestor Yagnanarayana Bhatta that he would take birth in their family after completion of 100 Soma yajña-s. By the time of Yagnanarayana's descendant Lakṣmaṇa Bhaṭṭa and his wife Illammāgāru who migrated to the holy town of Vārāṇasī, the family had completed 100 Somayajñas.[1][10][11][12]

The period surrounding Vallabhacharya's birth was a tumultuous one in Vārāṇasī. Bahlūl Lodi, sultan of Delhi, was battling with Husain Shāh, sultan of Jaunpur, and there was fear that Vārāṇasī would be attacked. Lakṣmaṇa Bhaṭṭa had to urgently move out of Vārāṇasī with his pregnant wife. According to the Śrīvallabhadigvijaya and other hagiographies, due to terror and physical strain of the flight suffered by the mother, there was a two month premature birth in the forests of Campāraṇya in the middle of the night. As the child did not show signs of life, the distressed parents placed Vallabha under a śami tree wrapped in a piece of cloth. That night Kr̥ṣṇa appeared in their dreams to tell them he had taken birth as the child whom they had left under a tree mistaken to not be alive. In the morning the parents rushed to the spot and were amazed to find their son alive and protected by a circle of divine fire. The blessed mother extended her arms into the fire unscathed; she received from the fire the divine baby, and a voice announced in Sanskrit that the baby was the incarnation of the mouth of the supreme being. According to other hagiographies such as Śrī Nāthajī Prākaṭya kī Vārtā, Vallabha appeared in the Agnikuṇḍ in Mathura. Most hagiographies date Vallabha's birth to 1535 Vikrama Era, or 1478-1479 CE.[1][12]

Soon after Vallabha's birth his family moved back to Vārāṇasī. His education commenced at the age of eight, and by the age of eleven had mastered Vedas, Vedāntas, six Śāstras, and some Purāṇas, with the Bhāgavata being is favorite.[12][13]

Nearing the end of his life, Lakṣmaṇa Bhaṭṭa decided to take his wife and 10 year old son along on a pilgrimage with him to holy sites of southern India. They first stopped at the Vaiṣṇava shrine of Jagannātha in Purī in 1489. The local ruler was sponsoring a great philosophical debate where four questions were posed to scholars: "What is the foremost scripture? Who is the foremost deity? Which is the most effective mantra? What is the easiest and best action?", to which Vallabha responded with the Bhagavad Gītā, Kr̥ṣṇa, any of Kr̥ṣṇa's names, and sevā (service) to Kr̥ṣṇa, whereupon Jagannātha wrote a śloka in support of his response and condemning the supporters of Advaita Vedanta or Māyāvādis.[14]

In 1490, they reached the temple of Veṅkaṭeśvara at Tirupati, where Lakṣmaṇa Bhaṭṭa died, and Illammāgārū began to live with her brother in Vijayanagara.[15]

Vallabhacharya discovers Shrinathji, at Mount Govardhan.

In 1493, Vallabha had a dream where Kr̥ṣṇa ordered him to go to Govardhan Hill and establish proper service (seva) to his divine image (svarupa) which had appeared there years ago. When he arrived in Gokul in 1494, Vallabha had a vision where Kr̥ṣṇa appeared before him and bestowed upon him the Brahmasambandha mantra, which was to be used to clean the flaws of a human soul. The next morning Vallabha administered the mantra to his companion Dāmodaradāsa Harsānī, who became the first member of the Vallabha Sampradāya.[12][16]

When Vallabha came to Govardhan Hill, he went to the house of Saḍḍūpāṇḍe. Saḍḍūpāṇḍe had received a vision from Kr̥ṣṇa years earlier that told him a stone that had appeared on Govardhan Hill was his own svarupa and that he should give offerings to it. The image was known as Devadamana, and Vallabha announced that it was actually the svarupa of Śrī Govardhananāthajī (shortened to Śrī Nāthjī). Vallabha built a small shrine on the hill for Śrī Nāthjī, and initiated an ascetic named Rāmdās Cauhān to perform the regular worship.[12][16]

In 1499 a wealthy merchant from Ambālā named Pūrṇamalla Khatrī had a dream where Kr̥ṣṇa told him to build a temple for Śrī Nāthjī. However when the temple was only half built Pūrṇamalla had exhausted his finances and the temple would only be completed in 1520.[12][16]

Vallabha may have intended to remain a lifelong celibate brahmacārī, but during his second pilgramage of India between 1501-1503, he had gone to Paṁḍḥarapura to view the god Viṭṭhala or Viṭhobā (called Viṭṭhalanātha in sectarian literature). There he was given an order by Viṭṭhala to marry. Some sectarian sources assert this was because Viṭṭhala wanted to take birth as his son, and others say it was to create a line of descendants to preserve and promote Vallabha's version of bhakti-mārga.[12][17]

Obeying this, following his caste traditions and practices, Vallabha married Mahālakṣmī sometime between 1502 and 1504, a Vārāṇasī girl of his own caste who began living with him upon maturity c. 1510-1512.[18][19][20] Vallabha had two houses, one at Aṛaila on the Yamunā River across Prayagraj, and at Caraṇāṭa near Vārāṇasī. According to Saha, the location of his home provided a central location which allowed him to access to preach and convert throughout northern and central India.[21][22]

His first son, Gopīnātha, was born in 1512 at Aṛaila and according to sectarian tradition was the avatāra of Balarāma, elder brother of Kr̥ṣṇa. His second son, Viṭṭhalanātha, was born in 1516 at Caraṇāṭa, and is considered the avatāra of Viṭṭhala.[12][20]

When Vallabha was living in his ancestral village of Kāṅkaravāḍa, he heard of a philosophical debate or śāstrārtha being held in at the court of King Kr̥ṣṇadevarāya of Vijayanagara, and that the Vaiṣṇava schools of thought were being beaten by Advaita Vedanta philosophers. Vallabha immediately went to Vijayanagara to join the debate, and entered the Vaiṣṇava camp led by Ācārya Vyāsatīrtha of the Mādhva school. Vallabha through his erudition and debate skills triumphantly defeated the Advaita philosophers, and was rewarded by Kr̥ṣṇadevarāya with large amounts of gold (most of which he distributed among brahmins).[23]

He was also offered the prestigious title of ācārya from the Mādhva Sampradāya and the Viṣṇusvāmī Sampradāya. Vallabha chose to become ācārya of the Viṣṇusvāmi school. Very little is known of the Viṣṇusvāmī school's, and by Vallabha's time its followers were few. The majority view is that Vallabha chose to become ācārya of that school in order to make his own doctrines more prestigious, and that there is likely no real connection between the ideas of Viṣṇusvāmī and Vallabhācārya.[23]

According to sectarian literature, this debate occurred shortly after Lakṣmaṇa Bhaṭṭa's death in 1490; however, Kr̥ṣṇadevarāya only became king of Vijayanagara in 1509, which is when scholars believed the debate likely occurred historically.[23] The debate is first mentioned in a mid-eighteenth-century text called the Caurāsī Baiṭhak Caritra and is not mentioned in independent historical sources. According to Saha, this story is meant to portray "the image of a victorious Vallabha winning the subcontinent for Kr̥ṣṇa".[24]

Vallabha made three pilgramages throughout India which are documented in later sectarian sources. These pilgramages are stated to have taken place between 1479 and 1530, although Saha doubts the accuracy of the dates. At pilgrimage sites such as Dvarka, Kannauj, Puri, Mathura, Gokul, and Govardhan, Vallabha had theological debates and attracted followers and devotees. He made extensive conversion campaigns in the Gangetic Plain and Gujarat, where he attracted converts from various castes including Bhumihars, Rajputs, Gurjars, Ahirs, Kurmis, and Vaniyas, Bhatias, Kanbis, and Patidars respectively.[25]

Only scholarly theory for why Vallabha's theology was attractive to these groups was that of social mobility. For agrarian castes, particularly in Gujarat, the emphasis on purity gave higher status. For mercantile castes, purity as well as the emphasis on restraint and frugality in daily life elevated their status, while wealth could then be funnelled toward religiously meritorious sevā to Kr̥ṣṇa.[26]

Another reason was that Vallabha promoted a houshoulder life-affirming, socially conservative view that appealed to castes that depended on social and political stability for their livliehoods, notably in the context of splintering Muslim sultanates in India.[26]

In 1530 Vallabha took a vow of renunciation and withdrew to Hanuman Ghat on the Gaṅgā river in Vāṇārasī. After a month he summoned his sons Gopinātha and Viṭṭhalanātha, and designated the 18-19 year old Gopīnātha as his successor. According to sectarian accounts, he walked in the Gaṅgā and vanished in a flash of light.[27]

Vallabha formulated the philosophy of Śuddhādvaita, in response to Śaṅkara's Ādvaita Vedānta, which he called Maryādā Mārga or Path of Limitations. Vallabha asserted that religious disciplines that focused on Vedic sacrifices, temple rituals, puja, meditation, and yoga held limited value. Additionally Vallabha rejected the concept of Māyā, stating that the world was a manifestation of the Supreme Absolute and could neither be tainted nor change.[28] The school rejects the ascetic lifestyle and cherishes householder lifestyle, wherein followers see themselves as participants and companions of Krishna, and view their daily lives as an ongoing raslila.[29]

According to Vallabha, Brahman consists of existence, consciousness, and bliss, and when manifested completely, as Kr̥ṣṇa himself. The purpose of this tradition is to perform sevā (selfless service) out of love for Kr̥ṣṇa. According to Vallabhacharya, through single minded religiosity, a devotee would achieve awareness that there is nothing in the world that is not Kr̥ṣṇa.[28]

Postage Stamp

On 14 April 1977, the Indian postal department, Government of India issued in his honor, a commemorative stamp bearing the image of Vallabhacharya.[30][31]