Nimbarka


Nimbarka or also known as Nimbāditya was a pre-Śaṅkara Vaiṣṇava leader. He is primarily known for having founded the Kumara Sampradaya and propounded the Svābhāviki-bhedābheda or Dvaitādvaita school of thought. He is known to be the disciple of the Four Kumaras having been initiated into the Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa mantra by them. He is regarded as the incarnation of Sudarśana, Lord Viṣṇu's disc weapon.

Early years

According to tradition, Nimbārka was born in Vaidūryapattanam, the present-day Mungi Village, Paithan in East Maharashtra. His parents were Aruṇa Ṛṣi and Jayantī Devī. Together, they migrated to Mathurā and settled at what is now known as Nimbagrāma, situated between Barsānā and Govardhan.

Dating

According to the Bhavishya Purana, and his eponymous tradition, the Nimbārka Sampradāya, Śrī Nimbārkāchārya appeared in the year 3096 BCE, when the grandson of Arjuna was on the throne. Nimbarka is conventionally dated at the 12th or 13th century, but this dating has been questioned, suggesting that Nimbarka lived somewhat earlier than Shankara, in the 6th or 7th century CE.
According to Roma Bose, Nimbarka lived in the 13th century, on the presupposition that Śrī Nimbārkāchārya was the author of the work Madhvamukhamardana.
Bhandarkar has placed him after Ramanuja, suggesting 1162 AD as the date of his demise. S.N.Dasgupta dated Nimbarka to around middle of 14th century, while S. A. A. Rizvi assigns a date of c.1130–1200 AD.
According to Satyanand, Bose's dating of the 13th century is an erroneous attribution, Malkovsky notes that in Bhandarkar's own work it is clearly stated that his dating of Nimbarka was an approximation based on an extremely flimsy calculation; yet most scholars chose to honour his suggested date, even until modern times. According to Malkovsky, the latest scholarship has demonstrated with a high degree of clarity that Nimbarka and his immediate disciple Shrinivasa flourished well before Ramanuja, arguing that Shrinivasa was a contemporary, or just after Sankaracarya. Ramnarace, after critically analyzing the available research, concludes that Nimbarka must be dated in the 7th century CE.

Literature

Sri Nimbarkacharya wrote the following books:
His most famous work is the Vedānta-pārijāta-saurabha, commentary on the Brahma-sūtras. It is peculiar in that it does not critic any of the other philosophical schools of India.