| Temples & Legends Of
Maharastra |
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| Temples & Legends Of
India |
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PANDHARPUR - VITTHAL |
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| Turning to other
historical records one finds an inscription of the Hoyasala King Someshvar that records
the grant of the village of Hiriya Garanj in the present Mysore state. This inscription is
dated 1236 A.D. and clearly indicates the keen interest evinced by the Hoyasala monarch in
the deity and its well being. This was not very surprising as there is ground to believe,
according to some scholars, that it was a great Hoyasala prince who was himself
responsible for the establishment of the Vithoba at Pandharpur. King Vishnuvardhan alias
Bittidev (IM-1137 A.D.) of the Hoyasala dynasty was so much influenced by the teachings of
Ramanuja that he accepted the Vaishnava sect discarding his original Jaina faith. His
brother Vir-Ballal launched several expeditions in the northerly direction and, carried
the northern limits of the Hoyasala empire to the shores of the Bhima. It is not unlikely
that this Vishnuvardhan met Pundarik or Pundalik at Pandharpur and there erected a temple
of Vishnu on his request. It was a traditional custom to name the temple after the builder
and in accordance with this tradition Vishnu- vardhan named the deity Vitthal, a
derivative of Bittidev the alias of Vishnu- vardhan. This is of course the historical side
of the picture, but mythology has a different version regarding Vitthal's presence on the
Bhima. |
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