[Advaita-l] Query regarding the birthplace of Bhaskararaya

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sun, 11 Dec 2011, Malini Nair wrote:

> Namaste,
>
> I read at one place that Bhaskararaya was born in Hyderabad and there is a
> Bhaskar ji Temple somewhere in Narayanpet in Mahboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh
> where his padukas are kept.
>
> If anyone has any details regarding the same, information would be most
> welcome.
>

The following details are from a Sanskrit biography by his disciple Shri 
Umanandanatha called Bhaskaravilasa.

Shri Bhaskararayas family were Marathi Brahmanas, descendents of the great 
saint Eknath but, his father Gambhiraraya was a courtier of Adil Shah the 
sultan of Bijapur who ruled the Deccan at the time and translated the 
Mahabharata into Urdu for him.  What is now Hyderabad was part of his 
domains and Shri Bhaskararaya was born there.  The connection with 
Narayanapet (actually Lokapalli which is nearby) is that this is where he 
went to study shastras under Pt. Narsimhananda.  However his shrividya 
diksha was from Pt. Shivadatta Shukla of Surat, Gujarat.  Later his 
daughter married into a family in Narayanapet and apparently his 
descendents in that line have built a mandir in his name.  Shri 
Bhaskararaya was gifted a village by Maharaja Serfoji of Tanjavur which is 
now known as Bhaskararajapuram (Kumbhakonam district, TN) and the 
Shivalaya there has some relics of him too as well as a monument recently 
erected under the auspices of Kanchi Matha.


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>