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Vol. XX, 1996
PUSTIMĀRGI POETRY IN GUJARATI...
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Mahāprabhu, and of his descendents Vitthalanātha - Gosaini, Gokulanātha (the fourth son of Vitthala and the last great ācārya), and of the seven main seats (gaddi); they may describe the līlā of Krishna in the Braj country (rāsalīlā), of his pastoral life at the Gokula; or they may be in praise of the virtues of the viraha iinposed on the Gopis separated froin Krishna, in praise of lumility and of good conduct in general, or in praise of the perfect Vaisnava. Some very long dholas list the 84 and 252 Vaisnnava saints, resuning in one line the story of the saints; some are in praise of the consecrated poets of the sect, the eight seals (astachāpa). The dholas are sung mainly by women, though men are not formally excluded, at home and especially during domestic worship when they are alone. They may also be sung by groups of worshippers who gather at the haveli between the divinity's darshana period when the sanctuary is curtained off. And they are sung and taught through the satsarga, regular gatherings of the Vallabhan faithful. The inembers of these pious associations – a custom quite alive nowadays - meet at regular intervals during the week under the direction of a guru. An important part of each meeting is the repetition of the dholas towards the end. The guru chooses the texts and the singer who will start and lead the performance. The practice of the satsamga which has survived into modern times seems to ensure the perennity of the oral transinission of the dholas, a vivid tradition underthreatened for the time being by modernity. The Vallabhākhyāna or Navākhyāna by Gopāļadāsa (before 1577) This text presents another aspect of the Vallabhan literature in Gujarati. The author Gopāļadāsa according to legend met in his childhood Vitthala in the house of his father-in-law Bhāīlā Kothārī, near Ahmedabad, in the village of Asārvā. There Vitthalanātha is said to have given to him his berel leaf to chew, in order to purify him and to provide him with a vision of the rāsalilā which later Gopāladāsa described in his as yet unpublished Bhakti-piyusa; Gopāļadāsa became the bhakta of Vitthalanātha and is said to have composed the Vallabhākhyāna in praise of the family of Vallabha. This is what is told in the twenty-eighth vārtā of the 252 saints. Later legends add that he was mute and that thanks to Vitthala's betel leaf, le recovered speech. They also add that he was a reincarnation of the famous Vaisnava poet Narasi Mehtä (fifteenth century), whose Vishnuism had not yet attained ultimate perfection according to the Vallabhans. Teliwala (in his introduction to the edition of the Vidvanmandanam) established the date of the meeting with Vitthala as being 1543, and states that
