Saint Narahari Tirtha statue discovered in Simhachalam Temple

Visakhapatnam: In a remarkable discovery, a member of the Team of Research on Culture and Heritage (TORCH) here, Saikumar K., has hit upon a three-foot idol of the 13th Century saint, Narahari Tīrtha recently.

Believed to have hailed from Chikakolu town (present Srikakulam), Tirtha’s ancestors were aristocrats in the Gajapati empire in what is now the Odisha state. Available epigraphical evidence suggests that kings of Eastern Ganga dynasty were assisted by the saint for three decades, indicating he was already ordained into the fourth order by Acharya Madhva then.

That the saint was commanded by Acharya to assist the empire even after ordination is being cited as proof of Acharya’s foresightedness and his care for the welfare of humanity as per his own dictum “Nāna Janā Śuśṛṣa Karmākhya Karavanmite.”

Saikumar said the saint was a multi-faceted personality: aristocrat in the administrative realm, intellectual in the philosophical realm and a poet in the devotional realm. His contributions on each of these fronts speak for themselves.

Being an aristocrat, the saint ensured that the king followed Sanatana Dharma and took care of its adherents by formulating a proper executive system to oversee the temple administration.

His contributions on this front are well documented in inscriptions available in the Simhachalam and Srikurmam (Srikakulam) temples. Some honorific prefixes being used along with the name of this saint are: ‘Loka Suraksḥaṇa Ati Nipuṇaḥ’, ‘Yo Avati Kalinga Bhu Sambhavān’.

As saint Ramanuja had introduced Vaiṣṇavism in the region, it was Narahari Tīrtha’s prolonged presence that resulted in Acharya’s Vaiṣhṇavism getting a firm following in this region, but in a completely non-interfering and secular manner.

On the intellectual front, tradition records that the saint, being a Prachina Ṭikakara, composed commentaries for several of Acharya Madhva’s works out of which only four are available now.

On the devotional front, tradition records the saint as the first one to have composed Devaranamas in Kannada.

“We also understand that the saint was instrumental in propagating two more art forms: Yakṣagana Bayalaṭa which is a form of dance-drama famous in and around coastal Karnataka. It has to it theme stories of Lord and his devotees as recounted in our sacred epics, and the classical dance form that evolved in Andhra Pradesh as the famous Kuchipudi,’’ Saikumar said.

Having accomplished this mission, the saint continued his adhyayana with Acharya Madhva in Udupi, at which time he perhaps completed his commentaries on Ācharya’s works.

The saint, upon his passing away, was consecrated near the rock adjacent to Chakratirtha at Hampi on the banks of river Tungabhadra.