Mahipati

(1715–1790) Writer and hagiographer of
the devotional (bhakti) poet-saints, particularly those saints connected with the
Varkari Panth, to which Mahipati himself belonged. The Varkari Panth is a religious community centered around the
worship of the Hindu god Vithoba,
whose temple at Pandharpur is in
the modern state of Maharashtra.
According to tradition, Mahipati was a
civil servant in his home town. One day
he was summoned to his job without
being able to finish his daily worship.
Mahipati did the business at hand, but
then resigned his position, vowing never
to use his pen except in the service of
the saints. Mahipati freely admitted that
much of his material on the saints was
drawn from earlier works, particularly
the Bhaktamal written by the poetsaint Nabhadas. As with Nabhadas, he
presents each of his subjects as a paradigm of devotion; the stories reinforce
and validate the power of devotion to
overcome all obstacles. His major
works are the Bhaktavijaya and the
Bhaktililamrta; the former has been
translated by Justin E. Abbott and
Narhar R. Godbole as Stories of Indian
409
Mahipati
Saints, 1982; parts of the latter by Justin
E. Abbott as The Life of Eknath, 1981,
and The Life of Tukaram, 1980.