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आद्यकवी मुकुंदराज अध्यासन केंद्र

About Aadykavi Mukundraj

Mukundaraj is the first Marathi poet. His book 'Viveksindhu' is considered as the first book in Marathi. There are disputes regarding his place, period and whether there is one Mukundaraj or two in the history of Marathi literature. Considering that he wrote 'Viveksindhu' in 1188, it is believed to be the verse collection in Marathi. However, in his 'Viveksindhu' there is a verse - “Shake Akara Dahottaru. Sadharan Sanvastaru. Raja Sarngadharu. Rajya Kari.'' [“शके अकरा दाहोत्तरु । साधारण संवत्सरु । राजा शार्ङ्‌गधरु । राज्य करी ।।”] (V. 18.142). This doesn’t match the timeline of Shak and Samvatsara. Moreover, K. P. Kulkarni observes that ‘out of the total 92 manuscripts of 'Viveksindhu' he has seen, only two included the above verse’.

His tomb at Ambajogai in Beed district is evidence that Mukundaraj hailed from there. He wrote two important books in Marathi, Vivekasindhu and Paramamrut. It is believed that he composed the Sanskrit book 'Mahabhashyam' which explains the meaning of 'Vivekasindhu'. Apart from this, there are two more books to his credit - 'Moolastambh' and 'Pavanvijay'. The book 'Viveksindhu' has a total of eighteen chapters. Out of these, the first verse corresponds to Shankaramat and the second corresponds to the dualism of Mahanubhav. Therefore, it seems that someone added it later. The number of verses (Ovi) varies less or more from 1,630 to 1,684 in various scripts of Viveksindhu. In this book, Mukundaraj has propounded the Advait siddhant, and everywhere there is an atmosphere of Shankarmat, i.e. Sannyasamat of Shankaracharya. He says that his book has the meaning of Vedashastra, and its 'Rahati' is of Upanishads, and Shankarokti is presented in it. (vs. 1.11 1.26 7.147). His main aim is to systematically present Advaita mat in Marathi, and he has done this work logically. Not only this but in his preface, he says that it is not appropriate to treat a subject like spirituality with interest, as it would be 'wachesi nagwane' (‘वाचेसि नागवणे’). In this composition, the role of Mukundaraja is not that of a poet but that of a philosopher. Therefore, Tarkteerth Laxman Shastri Joshi has said, ' Viveksindhu is the eloquent Vedantapatha in Shankaramatha in the corpus of Marathi language'. His 'Paramamrita' is another metrical (ovibaddha) composition which is smaller in size, i.e. a book of 323 Ovis. Mukundaraja's tomb is 5 km away at the northwest of Ambajogai town.

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