Sripada Srivallabha (శ్రీపాద శ్రీవల్లభ) is an Indian guru of the Dattatreya Sampradaya (Lineage) who is regarded as an incarnation of Dattatreya.
He was born in early 14th century in Pithapuram, formerly known as Pithikapuram in Andhra.
He lived for 30 years and disappeared as a human but still exists in ‘Tejorup’ (Pure energy form).
He is believed to have reincarnated as Nrusimha Saraswati (1378−1459 CE) in Karanja, Maharashtra.
His biography was written by 16th century kannada-marathi poet Saraswati Gangadhar.
This book ‘Guru Charitra‘, is written as a conversation between Siddha (who is a disciple of Sri Narasimha Saraswati) and Naamdharak who is listening to him.
Guru Charitra is assumed to be written in a village in Karnataka known as Kadaganchi or Kudugunchi.
It is possible that Sanskrit version of the Gurucharitra was written by Narasimha Saraswati’s disciple, Siddha, and Gangadhar Saraswati had translated that into Marathi.
Gangadhar mentions that his ancestor named Sayandev was one of the four close disciples of Nrusimha Saraswati.
Gangadhar also mentions four generations that passes away between him and his ancestor Sayandev.
This matches with information that Guru Charitra must have been written in late 16th century, although Vasudevanand Saraswati, alias Tembe Swami, (1854-1914 CE) wrote a Sanskrit version of Sri GuruCharitra later.
This Marathi version of Guru Charitra, written during late 16th century mentions the first incarnation of Dattatreya as Sripada Srivallabha between chapters 5 and 10.
These chapters mention a rich brahmin trader named Vallabhesh, born in Kasyapa gotra.
He vowed to Sripada SriVallabha that he would visit Kuruvapuram, the place where Sripada lived most of his life and feed 4000 Brahmins if he earns more profits in his business.
Later when Vallabhesh earned profits in business, he started towards Kuruvapuram but was attacked by dacoits, who robbed and killed him.
Before collapsing, he shouted ‘Sripada Srivallabha….”
Sripada Srivallabha appeared with a Trishul in his hand and stabbed those dacoits to death.
One of those dacoits fell on his feet and begged for mercy.
Sripada gave him Bhasma (holy ash) and made him use it to bring back the dead Vallabhesh and disappeared.
This incident happened at a village called Manthangoud, which is on the way to Kuruvapuram.
Dacoit narrated this incident to Vallabhesh and they both reach Kuruvapuram to donate food.
This incident was narrated through lineage of Vallabhesh and 9 generations later, his descendant, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, born on 1st April 1889 in Kadakurthi village of Nizamabad district of Telangana, went onto start Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Vijayadasami day, which is 27th September 1925 in Nagpur.
This is written in Dr. Hedgewar Charitra by N. H. Palkar and english translation, “Man of the Millenia” by Dr.Anil Nene.
His family later migrated to Nagpur to escape presecutions of Hyderabad Nawab.
Background and Formation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
After completing his medicine study in Calcutta, Dr. KB Hedgewar returned to Nagpur.
He joined national movement and was jailed.
For Hedgewar, India was an ancient civilisation, and the freedom struggle was an attempt to re-establish a land for the Hindus after almost 800 years of foreign rule, primarily by the Mughals and then by the British.
An army of muslims invaded and ruled over hindus, while a bunch of british ruled India because hindus have degenerated and lacked knowledge of their roots.
He was arrested after being released in 1922, he became disgusted with what he believed was the appeasement of Muslims by the Congress during the Khilafat movement. He believed that this would result in Muslim communalism and though intended to win them over to the freedom struggle, could in the long run sow the seeds of separation.
Dr.Hedgewar came to the conclusion that all the problems he felt the Hindu community in India faced—subjugation and oppression by ‘foreigners’ in the present and past, provincialism, and untouchability – were a result of an inherent flaw in the Hindu character rather than problems themselves.
He felt that the remedy was a cultural organisation that would unite Hindus on a common platform and instill among them discipline and national character. In this endeavour, he was blessed by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who was then under house imprisonment in Ratnagiri. The senior Hindu Mahasabha leaders of Nagpur, Dr B. S. Moonje and Dr. L. V. Paranjpe actively supported Hedgewar in starting such an organisation.
RSS today, is the world’s largest socio-political organisation going by membership count.
