Take part in our competitions and win prizes. Past and current activities. General information about the Saraswat Samaj. Brilliant recepies to tickle your taste buds. Information about Saraswat Samaj (UK). The history of the Samaj. A list of related links.
Historical  
The Saraswats  
Diaspora  
Guruparampara  

Chitrapur Saraswat Guruparampara 

Shrimat Vamanashram 

Vamanashram Swami was formally invited to be a shishya of Keshavashram Swami in 1804. He began his training at Mangalore with certain brahmin teachers; however, once he succeeded Keshavashram Swami in 1823, he focused his time and energy in the southern region of the Kanara district. During his reign from 1823 to 1839, one of his most important tours was to the sacred shrine at Tala Kaveri in Coorg. Bhanap tradition maintains that Vamanashram Swami focused more of his attention on the spiritual and religious aspects of the matha and left less time for its actual management than Keshavashram Swami. However, the documents that have survived clearly show that guru ardently sought donations from the members of the community in order to maintain the matha and purchase more land for the matha. One of the documents demonstrating this fact is a letter that the guru himself wrote to his laity requesting payments for this very purpose.  

Shrimat Krishnashram 

To ease the gurus anxieties over the maintenance of the matha, however, the community then requested that he adopt a shishya to help him. This request was strongly suggested again to the guru by forty-eight Bhanap families of Kundapur when they heard that his health was deteriorating. The Bhanap families assured their guru that once he selected a shishya, the donations would be sent to the matha. An influential man of the community, named Yellur Devapaya, suggested that the guru should adopt a young boy from the Nagar family. The young boy, Parameshvara, was a servant to Devapaya in his house. Devapaya had taken the boy to an astrologer who assured him that the child was suited for a life beyond the tasks of a servant. This question was also put forth to the spirit medium oracle at Shrimat Ananteshwar temple at Vithal. The oracle also suggested that Parameshvara had been ordained for more spiritual duties in life.

However, there was one problem with the acceptance of this child as shishya: the family of the Shukla Bhats were supposed to be given the first option in the selection of the shishya (since this family had offered their son to the community to be a shishya and then a guru). They also had been given the right to nominate any other child as a substitute candidate for the shishya position. However, the people of the Chitrapur Saraswat community who lived in Gokarn, Bantwal, Manjaeshvar, Ullal, and Bhatkal all strongly supported Devapaya's suggestion to adopt Parameshvara as the shishya. In this situation of such a large portion of the community favoring the adoption of one particular child, Shrimat Vamanashram Swami finally selected Nagar Parameshvara in 1836. During the formal initiation ceremony in Mangalore, he was given the name Shrimat Krishnashram Swami. 

Therefore, the Shukla Bhat family was not given preference in the selection of the shishya in this case. Since they had felt that they had not been given their due consideration, some members of this family wrote a letter from Shirali to Vamanashram Swami in Mangalore. In the letter, they stated that since the shishya Krishnashram had been selected from another family without their formal consent, they should be given something of monetary value in return. They felt that they should receive certain supplies, such as rice and donations, for maintenance of the matha as well as for the Shukla Bhat family. Unfortunately, the contributions from the laity at that time were so small that it is questionable whether the Shukla Bhats request was immediately met or not. In response to the low level of funds, the community members urged Vamanashram Swami to allow Krishnashram to go on tour to request contributions for the matha. 

Shrimat Vamanashram Swami was better at encouraging the community members to donate money to their own towns or villages. For example, there was a town named Bantwal which had no temple for the Bhanaps. Shrimat Vamanashram Swami felt that a temple in this location would benefit the community in a variety of ways, and it would also serve as place for the swami to stay there on his way from Mangalore to Vithal. Therefore, he initiated a plan which would allow for the building of a center that would serve this dual purpose. So in 1836, Nagarkatte Manjappaya (a judge in the town of Bantwal) and Kombrabail Subraya (an accountant) began the construction of the Shri Sitarama temple. Due to the Coorgi invasion, the construction of the temple was delayed in 1837, but it was finally completed by the year 1838. At first, the expenses for the daily rituals were paid for by donations from members of the community. However, a judge named Venkappaya insisted that the donations be invested so that the necessary funds would be available when the community would want to purchase more lands for the shrine. Therefore, Shrimat Vamanashram Swami successfully initiated the construction of a caste temple for the members of his community. Vamanashram Swami attained mahasamadhi in November of 1839 at Mangalore. The members of the community donated a substantial amount of money in order to cover the costs of the rituals of his memorial.  More Previous

Source: NAKC 1996 Souvenir, Aarti Maskeri PA USA