Bhattoji Diksita On Sphota

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

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JOHANNES BRONKHORST
students were taught the philosophical tenets of Hinduism, and princes and nobles, in all parts of India, vied with each other in the support they rendered to the priests and pandits of Benares, and to the numerous Sanskrit colleges established in it. Enormous sums were annually given for this purpose, so that learned pandits and their disciples were alike nourished and cared for. Such munificence to teachers and pupils naturally attracted to Benares aspiring young Brahmans, from every province of India, who, receiving a thorough education in certain branches of philosophy, during their long and severe course of study, returned, eventually, to their native villages and towns, and became great local authorities on all religious topics, and the defenders and expounders of the national creed." Sherring further indicates that, "especially since the mutiny, the amount of ... support has greatly diminished" (p. 347). 102 Further examples are discussed in Chaudhuri, 1954; see also Chaudhuri, 1954a. 103 NCC vol. 7 p. 137 s.v. Jagannātha Panditarāja. 104 So Hueckstedt, 2002: 50–51, which draws upon Tripāthī, 1977: (ā), (u); similarly Pathak, 1995: 13. See further Upadhyāya, 1994: 60. Belvalkar (1915: 38) describes this patron as "a (petty) king of Patrapunja, a small place in the Duab formed by the Ganges and the Yamunā." 105 Gode, 1954: 209 ff.; 1955. See also note 112, below. 106 Schwartzberg, 1978: 2006. Ikkeri was situated near Shimoga in the present state of Karnataka, at the higher end of a path crossing the Western Ghat (Deloche, 1968: 55, 92). A map from 1737 made for Jesuits which clearly indicates the "Prince d'Ikkeri" is reproduced opposite p. 1 in Murr, 1987: vol. II. It is not without interest to note that Bhattoji's patron Venkatappa Nāyaka I, according to the information provided by Pietro della Valle in 1623, gave in to the same temptation as his enemy Panditarāja Jagannatha, viz. that of becoming "fond of a Moorish Woman", as a result of which his chief wife no longer engaged with him in the "Matrimonial Act" (Grey, 1892: II: 207-209). We further learn from Della Valle that Venkatappa was a Lingavant (Lingayat), a vegetarian, and stingy (p. 246), a worshipper of Aghoreśvara (p. 272), and having "neither State, Court, nor appearance, befitting a true King" (p. 216). The rulers of Ikkeri were no doubt perfect examples of what Nicholas Dirks calls little kings, to be distinguished from a great king; cp. Frenz, 2000: 45 ff. 107 Smith, 1902: 423. 108 Cp. Richards, 1993: 19 ff.; Spear, 1973: 31-34: "Akbar's stroke was to raise himself from the position of a leader of a minority Indo-foreign group (the Muslims) to the accepted ruler of all Hindustan. The previous sultans of Delhi had, it is true, employed Hindus largely in their administration and used Hindu contingents in their wars, but they were always subordinate with no say in policy, the troops mercenaries to be hired and fired. ... Akbar's method was to make a deal with the Hindus and to do this through their militant representatives, the Rajputs. ... The Rajputs were not only concentrated in Rajasthan, the area of their continued independence, but scattered all over north India as chiefs and groups of sturdy cultivators. They were the spearhead of Hinduism as the Brahmins were the mind. ... [B]y a series of understandings Akbar brought the Rajput chiefs into the service of the empire. In effect the Rajputs were to be given high office and imperial honours in return for allegiance and loyal service. The method was the employment of Rajput chiefs as military commanders, provincial governors, and members of Akbar's confidential circle or 'privy council'. ... Thus in effect the Rajputs became partners in the empire and through them the whole Hindu community came to accept the Mughal government as in some sense their own." Cp. also Dalmia, 1997: 67: "The revenuepaying patterns estimated by the information given in the Ain-e-Akbari for the districts of Jaunpur, Ghazipur-Ballia and Banaras, according to Bernhard (sic) Cohn [(1969: 347)], were roughly 50 percent Rajputs, 30 percent Bhūmihar, 11 percent