Devarshi Ramanath Shastri

Pundit Devarshi Ramanath Shastri (1878 – 1943) was a Sanskrit poet, scholar and commentator on Pushtimarg (the path of Krishna’s grace) and Shuddhadvaita Vedanta, the philosophical school of pure non-dualism propounded by Shri Vallabhacharya (1479-1531). He was born in 1878 (corresponding to Shravana Shukla Panchami of Vikram Samvat 1936 of the Indian calendar) in Jaipur, Rajasthan in a renowned Vellanadu Brahmin family of Sanskrit scholars belonging to the Taittariya branch of Krishna Yajurveda, who migrated from Andhra Pradesh to North India in the 15th century AD and to Jaipur in the 18th century with his famous ancestor Kavikalanidhi Devarshi Shrikrishna Bhatt having been invited by Sawai Jai Singh II. His father’s name was Shri Dwarakanath Bhatt and mother’s name was Shrimati Janaki Devi. His only son was Devarshi Brajnath Shastri (1901-1954), who was also a scholar of Shuddhadvaita. He was the elder brother of epoch-making Sanskrit poet and scholar Bhatt Mathuranath Shastri. He wrote extensively in Hindi, Sanskrit and Brajbhasha languages. Devarshi Ramanath Shastri received his early Sanskrit education in the famous Maharaja Sanskrit College of Jaipur. He had started composing poems in Sanskrit from his childhood. One of his earliest poems titled ‘Dukhinibala’ was published in a reputed Sanskrit magazine ‘Sanskrit Ratnakar’ of that era. He moved to Varanasi (then Benaras) in 1896 in pursuit of higher education. Later, he shifted to Mumbai (then Bombay) in the year 1903, which became the abode for his literary, academic and spiritual activities for the next 27 years. At Mumbai, he became a regular visitor to a book shop owned by one Narayan Moolji, where litterateurs, scholars and those interested in spiritual discussions assembled every evening. At one of the scholarly discussions, a renowned denizen of Mumbai, Seth Chattamorarji, was present who got highly impressed by the level of Devarshi Ramanath Shastry's scholarly arguments and oratory skills to conclude a debate on an issue. On Seth Chattamorarji's insistence, Pandit (Pt.) Ramanath Shastry started living in Anantwadi locality where he would give learned discourses on such scriptures as Shrimadbhagwat, Gita, Upanishads, etc. His popularity and fame spread throughout Mumbai, drawing people from all walks of life to listen to his scholarly enunciation of the intricacies in these scriptures and tenets of pushtimarg.