Bhaktavijaya

(“Triumph of [God’s] Devotees”) Text
written by Mahipati, an eighteenth-century writer and hagiographer of the
devotional (bhakti) poet-saints. The stories in the Bhaktavijaya focus mainly
on the saints connected with the
Varkari Panth, a religious group
centered around the worship of the god
Vithoba at his temple at Pandharpur.
This focus is understandable since
Mahipati himself was a Varkari. In
keeping with the trend toward unification often promoted by the devotional
movement, he also included tales of
other great devotees (bhakta), most
notably Kabir, Namdev, Jnaneshvar,
and Narsi Mehta. The stories in the
Bhaktavijaya present each of these
saints as a paradigm of devotion and
stress the power of piety to overcome all
obstacles. This theme also marks
Mahipati’s other major work, the
Bhaktililamrta. The Bhaktavijaya has
been translated by Justin E. Abbott and
Narhar R. Godbole as Stories of Indian
Saints, 1988.