Part 10 - Viṣṇusvāmin

Viṣṇusvāmin is regarded by tradition as being the earliest founder of the viśuddhādvaita school which was regenerated by Vallabha. Śrīdhara, in his commentary on the Bhāgavata-purāṇa, also refers to Viṣṇusvāmin, and it is possible that he wrote a commentary on the Bhāgavata-purāṇa ; but no such work is available. A brief account of Viṣṇusvāmin’s views is available in the Sakalacaryā-mata-saṃgraha (by an anonymous writer), which merely summarizes Vallabha’s view’s; there is nothing new in it which could be taken up here for discussion. This work, however, does not contain any account of Vallabha’s philosophy, from which it may be assumed that it was probably written before the advent of Vallabha, and that the view of Viṣṇusvāmin contained therein was drawn either from the traditional account of Viṣṇusvāmin or from some of his works not available at the present time. It is unlikely, therefore, that the account of Viṣṇusvāmin in the Sakalacaryā-mata-saṃgraha is in reality a summary statement of Vallabha’s views imposed on the older writer Viṣṇusvāmin. Vallabha himself, however, never refers to Viṣṇusvāmin as the originator of his system; there is a difference of opinion among the followers of Vallabha as to whether Vallabha followed in the footsteps of Viṣṇusvāmin. It is urged that while Vallabha emphasized the pure monistic texts of the Upaniṣads and regarded Brahman as undifferentiated, as one with himself, and as one with his qualities, Viṣṇusvāmin emphasized the duality implied in the Vedāntic texts^[1].

Vallabha also, in his Subodhinī commentary on the Bhāgavata-purāṇa (III. 32. 37) describes the view of Viṣṇusvāmin as propounding a difference between the Brahman and the world through the quality of tamas, and distinguishes his own view as propounding Brahman as absolutely qualityless^[2]. The meagre account of Viṣṇusvāmin given in Sakalacaryā-mata-saṃgraha does not lend us any assistance in discovering whether his view differed from that of Vallabha, and, if it did, in what points. It is also not impossible that the author of Sakalacaryā-mata-saṃgraha had not himself seen any work of Viṣṇusvamin and had transferred the views of Vallabha to Viṣṇusvāmin, who, according to some traditions, was the originator of the Śuddhādvaita system^[3].

According to the Vallabha-dig-vijaya there was a king called Vijaya of the Pāṇḍya kingdom in the south. He had a priest Devasvāmin, whose son was Viṣṇusvāmin. Śukasvāmin, a great religious reformer of North India, was his fellow-student in the Vedānta; it is difficult to identify him in any way. Viṣṇusvāmin went to Dvārakā, to Bmdāvana, then to Puri, and then returned home. At an advanced age he left his household deities to his son, and having renounced the world in the Vaiṣṇava fashion, came to Kāñcī.

He had many pupils there, e.g.,

• Śrīdevadarśaṇa,
• Śrīkaṇṭha,
• Sahasrārci,
• Śatadhṛti,
• Kumārapada,
• Parabhūti,

and others.

Before his death he left the charge of teaching his views to Śrīdevadarśaṇa. He had seven hundred principal followers teaching his views; one of them, Rājaviṣṇusvāmin, became a teacher in the Andhra country. Viṣṇusvāmin’s temples and books were said to have been burnt at this time by the Buddhists.

Vilva-maṅgala, a Tamil saint, succeeded to the pontifical chair at Śrīraṅgam, Vilva-maṅgala left the pontifical chair at Kāñcī to Deva-maṅgala and went to Bṛndāvana. Prabhāviṣṇusvāmin succeeded to the pontifical chair; he had many disciples, e.g.,

• Śrīkaṇṭhagarbha,
• Satyavatī Paṇḍita,
• Somagiri,
• Narahari,
• Śrāntanidhi

and others.

He installed Śrāntanidhi in his pontifical chair before his death. Among the Viṣṇusvāmin teachers was one Govindācārya, whose disciple Vallabhācārya is said to have been. It is difficult to guess the date of Viṣṇusvāmin; it is not unlikely, however, that he lived in the twelfth or the thirteenth century.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Thus Nirbhayarāma, in Adhikaraṇa-saṃgraha (p. 1), says:

tasyāpi durbo-dhatvena vyākhyāna-sāpekṣatayā tasya vyākhyātāro Viṣṇusvāmi-madhva-prabhṛtayo brahmādvaita-vādasya sevya-sevaka-bhāvasya ca virodhaṃ manvānā abheda-bodhaka-śrutiṣu lakṣaṇayā bheda-paratvaṃ śuddhaṃ bhedam aṅgīcakruḥ.

[2]:

te ca sāmprataṃ Viṣṇusvāmyanusāriṇaḥ tattva-vādino Rāmānujaś ca tamo-rajah-sattvair bhinnā asmat-pratipāditāc ca nairguṇvādasya.
      Ibid. p. 1.

[3]:

This tradition is found definitely maintained in the Vallabha-dig-vijaya, written by Jadunāthajī Mahārāja.