The Sriharikathamrutasara is
one of the leading works in Madhwa siddantha and it is an unparalled piece of
literature. Written by Jagannatha Dasa (1727-1809) of Manvi, it is rated among
the most influential books of Vaishanavasa.
While we all know that
Raghavendra Swamy (1595-1671), Vadiraja Theertha (1480-1600) and a host of
others were responsible for goading Jagannatha Dasa in writing the
Sriharikathamrutasara, very few know that Vyasa Raja or Vyasa Theertha also had
a hand in the shaping of the work.
Though the Sriharikathamrutasara
was written in the eighteenth century and Vyasa Raja lived in the sixteenth
century, the Madhwa seer (Vyasa Raja) was able to foretell the writing of this
text and this is how the incident happened.
It was sometime in the
sixteenth century and Krishna Deva Raya was the Emperor of Vijayanagar. Vyasa
Raja was the royal preceptor or Rajaguru and Purandara Dasa (1484-1564) accompanied
him wherever he went.
Vyasa Raja had just completed
writing Chandrika, a commentary on the Srimannyaya Sudha of Jayatheertha or
Teekacharya. Vyasa Raja and Purandara Dasa were proceeding towards the Vijaya Vittala
Temple in Vittalapur township which
was part of the city of Vijayanagar
or Hampi, the capital of the
Vijayanagars.
The road leading to the
Vijaya Vittala temple was surrounded on both sides by shops and business
establishments of a bazar or local market selling horses. Business from Arabia
and Portugal
could be seen haggling for a good price for their horses.
The road to the temple led to
the Purandara Mantapa on one end and the Vijaya Vittala
Temple on the other. (Both
these monuments exists even today and the ruins of the bazaar where horses were
traded can still be seen on either side of the road).
As both Vyasa Raja and Purandara
Dasa were talking about Sri Hari and his mahime, Vyasa Raja realised that his
another illustrious disciple, Kanaka Dasa (1509-1609), was not present. He said
Kanaka Dasa could easily show them Sri Hari in any form. He wanted to call
Kanaka Dasa to the place where they had come.
He saw a shepherd standing
near by and asked him to bring Kanaka Dasa. “Tell him that Vyasa Raja and
Purandara are near the Vijaya
Vittala Temple
and they are both waiting for the arrival of Kanaka”, said Vyasa Raja.
The shepherd agreed to go and
bring Kanaka Dasa. He went away and saw Kanaka Dasa and mentioned to him that
Vyasa Raja and a few others were waiting for him. Kanaka Das then asked the shepherd
what Vyasa Raja was doing. The shepherd said he was shouting incoherently.
He said the words coming out
of Vyasa Raja looked like he was laughing and crying simultaneously. Kanaka Dasa
then realised that Vyasa Raja was giving a discourse and singing about the
glory of Sri Hari and this looked like crying and laughing for the shepherd.
Kanaka Dasa then turned to
the shepherd and said as he had conveyed a message, he had to be rewarded. “What
will you ask from Vyasa Raja”, Kanaka Dasa said.
The shepherd though for a
while and said he would ask for fruits as he was hungry. He said he had seen
the seer with some fruits and, therefore, he would ask for it.
Kanaka Dasa then advised the
shepherd to ask for an equal share of Vyasa Raja’s crying and laughing and not
fruits. The shepherd looked puzzled but agreed.
When the shepherd came back
to where Vyasa Raja and Purandara Dasa were present, he said he wanted to be
rewarded for carrying out an errand. He then asked for an equal share of Vyasa Raja’s crying and laughing.
Vyasa Raja immediately looked
at Kanaka Das and guessed that it was he who had goaded the shepherd to ask for
an equal share of Hari’s compositions and discourse.
He then blessed the shepherd
and said such a blessing would not be possible in this birth. He promised the
shepherd that he would get the wish that he wanted in his next birth.
The shepherd , in his next
birth, was born as Jagannatha Dasa and he composed the Sriharikathamrutasara at
Manvi and Hosaritti. Vyasa
Raja then asked Kanaka Dasa to show them Sri Hari. Kanaka Das then showed them
Sri Hari in the form of a dog. Even as the startled people looked on, Vyasa
Raja worshipped the dog even as Purandara Dasa burst into a song.
Let us now see what happened
to all these people after this incident. The Vijayanagar Emperor, Krishna Deva
Raya died in 1529. Vyasa Raja entered brindavana in Nava Brindavana, an island
near Hampi, in 1539. Purandara Dasa passed away the Purandara Mantapa in 1564.
Kanaka Das left Hampi after it was vandalised by the Musilm states of the Deccan in 1565 and he died in 1609.
Jagannatha Dasa was born in
Manvi in Raichur district in 1727 and he is supposed to have composed the first
ten chapters of Sriharikathamrutasara in Manvi and the rest 22 in Hosaritti which
is a small village on the banks of Varada.
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