Vallabhacharya (1479–1531 CE), was an Indian saint and philosopher. He founded the Kr̥ṣṇa-centered Puṣṭimārga sect of Vaishnavism in the Braj (Vraja) region of India, and propounded the philosophy of Śuddhādvaita.
Vallabha studied Hindu philosophy from early age, then traveled throughout the Indian subcontinent for over 20 years. He became one of the important leaders of the devotional Bhakti movement. He won many philosophical scholarly debates against the followers of Advaita Vedānta. He began the institutional worship of Śrī Nāthajī on Govardhana Hill, and became the ācārya of the Viṣṇusvāmi school. He acquired many followers in the Gangetic plain and Gujarat.
Vallabha rejected asceticism and monastic life, suggesting that through loving devotion to the deity Krishna, any householder could achieve salvation. He authored many texts including but not limited to, the Aṇubhāṣya (his commentary on the Brahma Sutras), Ṣoḍaśa Grantha or sixteen tracts and several commentaries on the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.
Personal life
Vallabha may have intended to remain a lifelong celibate brahmacārī, but during his second pilgrimage of India between 1501 and 1503, he had gone to Paṁḍḥarapura to view the god Viṭṭhala or Viṭhobā (a form of Kr̥ṣṇa). There Vallabha was ordered 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.[1][13]
Obeying this, following his caste traditions and practices, Vallabha married Mahālakṣmī (aka Akkājī) sometime between 1502 and 1504, a Vārāṇasī girl of his own caste who began living with him upon maturity c. 1510–1512. Vallabha had two houses, one at Aṛaila on the Yamunā river across Prayāgarāja, and at Caranāṭa 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.
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 Caranāṭa, and is considered the avatar of Viṭṭhala.
Grand victory at Vijayanagara
When Vallabha was living in his ancestral village of Kāṅkaravāḍa, he heard of a philosophical debate (śāstrārtha) being held in at the court of King Kr̥ṣṇadevarāya of Vijayanagara, and that the Vaiṣṇava schools of thought were being beaten by Advaita Vedānta philosophers. Vallabha immediately went to Vijayanagara to join the debate, and entered the Vaiṣṇava camp led by Vyāsatīrtha of the Mādhva school. Vallabha through his erudition and debate skills defeated the Advaita philosophers, and was rewarded by Kr̥ṣṇadevarāya with large amounts of gold (most of which he distributed among Brahmins).
Vallabha was also offered the prestigious title of ācārya from the Mādhva sampradāya and the Viṣṇusvāmī sampradāya. Vallabha chose to become ācārya of the Viṣṇusvāmī school. Very little is known of the Viṣṇusvāmī school, 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 Vallabha. 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. The debate is first mentioned in 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”.
