Mahipati

Mahipati

Mahipati (b. 1715 in Tharabad,Tahsil-Rahuri, Dist- Ahmednagar, Maharashtra state India d. 1790) was an author who wrote in Marāthi biographies of the prominent Hindu saints who had lived between the 13th and the 17th centuries in Mahārāshtra, India.

He was a "Brahmin" by birth, and worked for some time as a scribe/record keeper for the local government of the Village Taaharabad in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra.

There is a legend about Mahipati which runs thus:

One day, outside his working hours, his superior sent a messenger to his house to ask him to come to the superior's office immediately for some urgent official business. When the messenger arrived at his house, Mahipati was engaged in the worship of God, and asked the messenger to take back a message that he would be coming to the superior's office as soon as he was done with his worship. The messenger insisted, however, that Mahipati should come with him right away. Very reluctantly, Mahipati cut short his worship, accompanied the messenger to the superior's office, finished the urgent business, and let the superior know that he no longer wanted to stay in the secular job and that he preferred to use his pen thenceforth exclusively for writing religious material. Soon after that, Mahipati received one night in his dream both a mantra and a command from the departed spirit of Sant Tukaram to write the life stories of past prominent religious figures in Maharashtra. Accordingly, Mahipati put together his noteworthy biographical book Bhaktavijaya in Marathi. He also wrote another book titled BhaktaLeelāmrut.Dnyāneshwar, Nāmdev, Janābai, Eknāth, and Tukaram are revered especially in the wārakari (वारकरी) sect in Maharashtra. Whatever information about the lives of the above saints of Maharashtra comes mostly from the works Bhakti-Wijay and Bhakti-Leelāmrut written by Mahipati. Mahipati was born 65 years after the death of Tukaram, (Tukaram having died 50 years, 300 years, and 353 years after the deaths of Ekanath, Namdev, and Dnyaneshwar, respectively.) Thus, Mahipati undoubtedly based his life sketches of all above "sants" primarily on hearsays.

An English translation of Mahipati's BhaktaVijay was published under the provisions of the will of the late Dr Justin E. Abbott.

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