Rang Avadhoot, born Pandurang Vitthalapant Valame, (21 November 1898 – 19 November 1968) was a mystic saint-poet belonging to Datta-panth (Gurucharita tradition of

Dattatreya Dattatreya ( sa, दत्तात्रेय, ), Dattā or Dattaguru, is a paradigmatic Sannyasi (monk) and one of the lords of yoga, venerated as a Hindu god. In Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, and M ...

) of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or ''dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global po ...

. He was a social worker and

independence activist Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the sta ...

before accepting asceticism. He is credited with the expansion of Datta-panth in

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the nin ...

state of India. He has written more than 45 works, mostly concerning spirituality and devotion.

Early life

Rang Avadhoot was born Pandurang Vitthalapant Valame on 21 November 1898 (Kartika Sud 9 according to

Hindu calendar The Hindu calendar, Panchanga () or Panjika is one of various lunisolar calendars that are traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, with further regional variations for social and Hindu religious purposes. They adopt a ...

) in

Godhra Godhra is a municipality in Panchmahal district in Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Panchmahal district. Originally the name came from ''gou'' which means "cow" and ''dhara''- which have two meanings dependi ...

in a Marathi family of Vitthalpant Jairam Valame and Rukmini (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Kashi). His family belonged to Devle village (now in Sangameshwar taluka of

Ratnagiri district Ratnagiri District (Marathi pronunciation: �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a district in the state of Maharashtra, India. The administrative headquarter of the district is located in the town of Ratnagiri. The district is 11.33% urban. The district ...

in Maharashtra). His father moved to Godhra as a caretaker (

pujari Pūjari is a designation given to a Hindu temple priest who performs pūja. The word comes from the Sanskrit word "पूजा" meaning worship. They are responsible for performing temple rituals, including ''pūjā'' and ''aarti''. ''Pujari'' ...

) of Viththal temple. His father died in a plague in 1902. He had a brother named Narayan. He met his spiritual teacher (

guru Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverentia ...

)

Vasudevanand Saraswati Vasudevanand Saraswati ( mr, वासुदेवानंद सरस्वती/टेंबे स्वामी; 1854–1914), also known as Tembe Swami, is a Hindu saint who is regarded as an incarnation of Dattatreya. Early life ...

(Tembe Swami) in 1905. He was religiously inclined since his childhood. He received his school education in Godhra and

matriculated Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination. Australia In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...

in 1917 from Telang Highschool, Godhra. For higher studies, he joined

Gujarat College Gujarat Arts & Science College, popularly and previously known as Gujarat College, is one of the oldest educational institution of India and second arts and science college of Gujarat, near Ellis Bridge, Ahmedabad. The institution was founded ...

in Ahmedabad and completed his first year there. He moved to Baroda College in

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capi ...

for the second year. Influenced by

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure ...

, he postponed his studies in order to participate in the

non-cooperation movement The Non-cooperation movement was a political campaign launched on 4 September 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi to have Indians revoke their cooperation from the British government, with the aim of persuading them to grant self-governance.Gujarat Vidyapith Gujarat Vidyapith is a deemed university in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It was founded in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian independence movement, and deemed a university in 1963. Etymology "Vidyapith," in many languages of ...

was founded, he joined and graduated among its first batch of students in 1921. He befriended Amritlal Modi and Ambalal Vyas there. In

Panchmahal Panchmahal, also known as Panch Mahals, is a district in the eastern portion of Gujarat State western India. ''Panch-mahal'' means "five tehsils/talukas" (5 sub-divisions), and refers to the five sub-divisions that were transferred by the Maharaj ...

region, he participated in the independence movement activities with his friends and others. He briefly worked with

Swami Anand Swami Anand (1887 – 25 January 1976) was a monk, a Gandhian activist and a Gujarati writer from India. He was the manager of Gandhi's publications such as ''Navajivan'' and ''Young India'' and inspired Gandhi to write his autobiography, ''Th ...

at the

Navjivan ''Navajivan Trust'' is a publishing house based in Ahmedabad, India. It was founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1929
and has published m ...

trust. He later joined the Rashtriya Adarsh Vinaymandir school in Ahmedabad as the teacher of Sanskrit in 1921. In 1922, he decided to never marry and became involved in social work and politics.

Spiritual career

Due to his spiritual inclination, he left his job and accepted asceticism. After spending some time in Ranapur, in December 1925, he moved to Nareshwar on the bank of Narmada river. He recited Saraswati's ''Shri Dattapurana'' 108 times there. He completed the Narmada Prarikrama (religious circumvention of Narmada river) in 108 days on foot in 1927. He meditated and undertook ''tapa'' (austerities). He again completed the Parikrama in 1930. His residence Dattakutir was constructed and a trust was formed in 1931. In 1936, when his younger brother died, his mother moved to Nareshwar and lived there till her death in 1967. A hospital was also built there later. He died on 19 November 1968 (Kartika Vad 30) at

Haridwar Haridwar (; ) is a city and municipal corporation in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand, India. With a population of 228,832 in 2011, it is the second-largest city in the state and the largest in the district. The city is situated on the ri ...

(now in

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in the North India, northern part of India. It is often referred to as t ...

, India) on the bank of the

Ganga river The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

. His body was brought to Nareshwar and cremated two days later on 21 November. His followers worship him as an incarnation of Dattatreya. He played an important role in spreading Datta-panth (path of

) in

, India. His

ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (<

Works

Rang Avadhoot was fluent in Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, English and Sanskrit. Under the pen name of Ganjeri, he started writing columns on contemporary issues in dailies. Between 1918 and 1925, he wrote and translated several works. He translated

Ernest Howard Crosby Ernest Howard Crosby (November 4, 1856 – January 3, 1907) was an American reformer, georgist, and author. Early life Crosby was born in New York City in 1856. He was the son of the Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby (1826-1891), a Presbyterian minist ...

's ''Tolstoy as a Schoolmaster'' as ''Tolstoy Ane Shikshan'' (1924) in Gujarati''.'' ''Upanishadni Vato'' (1924) and ''Vishnupuranni Varta'' (1924) are his works on the

Upanishads The Upanishads (; sa, उपनिषद् ) are late Vedic Sanskrit texts that supplied the basis of later Hindu philosophy.Wendy Doniger (1990), ''Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism'', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press, , ...

and

Vishnu Purana The Vishnu Purana ( IAST:, sa, विष्णुपुराण) is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism. It is an important Pancharatra text in the Vaishnavism literature corpus. The manusc ...

. ''Girvahbhasha Pravesh'' 1-2 (1924) is a work on Sanskrit grammar which he prepared for students when he taught Sanskrit in a school. ''Sadbodhshatakam-Balbodhini'' (1924) is a commentary on

shloka Shloka or śloka ( sa, श्लोक , from the root , Macdonell, Arthur A., ''A Sanskrit Grammar for Students'', Appendix II, p. 232 (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927). in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is ...

s (verses) selected by

Kaka Kalelkar Dattatreya Balkrishna Kalelkar (1 December 1885 – 21 August 1981), popularly known as Kaka Kalelkar, was an Indian independence activist, social reformer, journalist and an eminent follower of the philosophy and methods of Mahatma Gandhi. B ...

from

Bhartṛhari Bhartṛhari (Devanagari: ; also romanised as Bhartrihari; fl. c. 5th century CE) was a Hindu linguistic philosopher to whom are normally ascribed two influential Sanskrit texts: * the ''Vākyapadīya'', on Sanskrit grammar and linguistic phil ...

Śatakatraya The ''Śatakatraya'' ( sa, शतकत्रय, lit=The Three Satakas), (also known as , ) refers to three Indian collections of Sanskrit poetry, containing a hundred verses each. The three '' śataka's are known as the , , and , and are attribut ...

and dedicated to the students. He also co-translated

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

's '' What Shall We Do Then?'' as ''Tyare Karishu Shu?'' (1928) in Gujarati with

Narhari Parikh Narhari Dwarkadas Parikh was a writer, independence activist and social reformer from Gujarat, India. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, he was associated with Gandhian institutes throughout his life. He wrote biographies, edited works by associates ...

. His other works during this period include ''Rentiyanu Rahasya'', ''Swaraj-Kirtan'', ''Ahinsa Etle Shu?'', columns published under title of ''Bhangno Loto.'' After accepting asceticism, he wrote about 45 works mostly focused on spirituality and devotion to

. He wrote

Bhajan Bhajan refers to any devotional song with a religious theme or spiritual ideas, specifically among Indian religions, in any language. The term bhajanam (Sanskrit: भजनम्) means ''reverence'' and originates from the root word ''bhaj'' ...

s (devotional songs) collected under the title ''Avadhooti Anand'' (1931). ''Ranghridayam'' (1932) has

stotra ''Stotra'' (Sanskrit: स्तोत्र) is a Sanskrit word that means "ode, eulogy or a hymn of praise."Monier Williams, Monier Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Article on 'Stotra'' It is a literary genre of In ...

s (hymns) on knowledge and devotion. His ''Shri Guruleelamrit'' (1934–36) contains more than 19,005 dohras (couplets) divided in three volumes and 148 chapters. He composed ''Dattabavani'' (1935), a 52 stanza poem dedicated to Dattatreya which is popular in Gujarat. ''Patrageeta'' (1939) is a collection of 16 letters about spirituality addressed to his friend Amrutlal Modi. ''Rangtarang'' (1951) is a collection of Marathi Abhang Bhajans. Amar Adesh (1955) is a collection of his various lectures. ''Shrirang Patramanjusha 1-2'' (1975, 1986) is a collection of letters addressed to friends and relatives. ''Sangeetgeeta'' is an original verse translation of the Bhagwad Geeta in Gujarati. His other major works (some published posthumously) are ''Ranghridayam'' (1932)'','' ''Nareshwar Mahatmya'', ''Shri Vasudevnam-Sudha'', ''Vasudev Saptashati'' (1970), ''Shri Saptashati Gurucharitra'', ''Dattayag-paddhati'' (1973), ''Shri Gurumurti Charitra'', ''Prashnottargeeta'' (1976), ''Datta Namsmaran''.

Notes

References

External links