Paraśarabhatta
By Swami Harshananda
Paraśarabhatta lived in A. D. 1073-1165. One of the unfinished tasks of Yāmunācārya[1] which Rāmānuja[2] had inherited and promised to fulfill, was the perpetuation of the name of Parāśara, the great sage who wrote the Viṣṇupurāṇa. As he was searching for a suitable person to whom he could assign the task, his eyes fell on the young son of his own faithful disciple, Kureśa. He gave him the name ‘Parāśarabhaṭṭa,’ trained in the traditional lore of his Vedānta and commanded him to write a detailed commentary on the well-known hymn, the Viṣṇusahasranāma.[3] Parāśarabhaṭṭa successfully completed his assignment and named his commentary as Bhagavadguṇadarpaṇa.[4]
Since he was extremely intelligent and had acquired great scholarship in the Śrīvaiṣṇava philosophy and traditions, Rāmānuja made him the chief pontiff of the Raṅganātha temple complex at Śrīraṅgam in Tamil Nadu. He had attained mastery in Sanskrit as well as Tamil. Nine more works all in Sanskrit have been attributed to him. Some of them are:
- Gunaratnakośa
- Śrīrañgarājastava
- Tattvaratnākara
- Adhyātmakhandadvayavivarana
- Kriyādīpa.
Vedānta Deśika[5] had been deeply influenced by the writings of Parāśarabhaṭṭa.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore