vallaBācārya | वल्लBआचार्य | vallaBAcArya
vallaBācārya | वल्लBआचार्य | m. N. of a celebrated Vaiṣṇava teacher (successor of a less celebrated teacher Viṣṇusvāmin; he was born, it is said, in the forest of Campāraṇya in 1479; at an early age he travelling to propagate his doctrines, and at the court of Kṛṣṇadeva, king of Vijaya-nagara, succeeded so well in his controversies with the Śaivas that the Vaiṣṇavas chose him as their chief; he then went to other parts of India, and finally settled down at Benares, where he composed seventeen works, the most important of which were a commentary on the Vedānta and Mīmāṃsā Sūtras and another on the Bhāgavata-Purāṇa, on which last the sect rest their doctrines; he left behind eighty-four disciples, of each of whom some story is told, and these stories are often repeated on festive occasions. He taught a non-ascetical view of religion and deprecated all self-mortification as dishonouring the body which contained a portion of the supreme Spirit. His followers in Bombay and Gujarat, and their leaders, are called Mahā-rājas; they are called the epicureans of India), RTL. 134-137