अणुभाष्य (महाप्रभु वल्लभाचार्य - शुद्धाद्वैत वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र महाभाष्य प्रकाश टीका सहित)

( 8 ) Purushottamaji seems to have migrated from Gokula to Surat in Gujarat with his uncle S'rī Vraja-Rajaji soon after 1737 Saṁvat. After this date S'rī Vraja-Rajaji settled at Surat, where he raised the Haveli for S'rī Bala- Krishnaji. Vraja-Rajaji was childless. He was a great scholar of the Prameya School of the Sampradaya. From him S'rī Purushottamji got in inheritance the Swarupa of S'rī Bala-Krishnaji with the Mandira. Purushottamaji ac- knowledges this obligation in the opening verses of his Bhashya-Prakāsa. Though Purushottamaji seems to entertain the greatest respect for S'rī Vraja- Rajaji, the Prameya mode of thought of his uncle, does not seem to have appealed to him. Purushottamaji's writings can be equally appreciated by both scholars Sampradayikas and others. Purushottamaji's literary activities continued at Surat and Dumas for forty years and over. It seems that he did not live long after 1781 Samvat second Ashadha Sudi 10th Thursday, on which day by a writing he bequeathed all his property including the Swarūpas of S'rī Balakrishnaji and S'rī Vrajes'aji with temples and everything to his namesake cousin. Between the period of S'rī Vitthaleswara and S'rī Purushottamaji, Aṇu- Bhashya does not seem to have received requisite attention. Some of the des- cendants of S'rī Vitthaleshwara might have read the Aṇu-Bhashya here and there, but the absence of any commentary during almost a century, would rather suggest that sufficient attention was not bestowed on the study of the Aṇu- Bhashya. S'rī Hari Rayaji the illustrious descendent of Vitthaleswara did copy out Aṇu-Bhashya in his own hand, but being extremely emotional, he has not chosen to write anything like a commentary, on the Aṇu-Bhashya. When Purushottamaji approached Aṇu-Bhashya for his studies, in the absence of any tradition, he felt himself baffled, as can be seen from the concluding verse of the Bhashya-Prakas'a 'संप्रदाये निवृत्ते'. It was a question to him as to how he should find out a mode by which he can thoroughly master Aṇu-Bhashya. Fortunately for him, there was his Guru S'rī Krishṇa Chandraji, another descendant of Vallabhacharya. It is possible that the seed of comparative study was sown in Purushottamaji by S'rī Krishṇa-Chandraji. Through his inspiration S'rī Purushottamaji, it would seem, thought of undertaking the herculean task of studing all the Brahma-Sūtra-Bhāshyas that were available in his times. Being a Goswami himself, there was no dearth of riches, and in a city like Surat where he lived, materials were ample. With the help of these riches, it seems, he secured not only authentic texts of all the Bhashyas, but he seems to have collected round him a band of scholars of those vari- ous schools, so that he could be in a position to understand those Bhashyas in their true perspective. With this equipment S'rī Purushottamaji approached the Aṇu- Bhashya, and his masterly review of the systems of शंकर, रामानुज, भास्कर, मध्व, निम्बु, and शैव is unparalleled in the history of Vedanta literature. Great scholars like सुदर्शन, जयतीर्थ, वाचस्पतिमिश्र, had written commentaries on the Bhashyas of their respective Acharyas, but nowhere do we find the critical and comparative method such as adopted by S'rī Purushottamaji in the exposition of the Aṇu-Bhashya. 1528