The Gurucharitra, also known as the Dnyaneshwari or Bhavarth Deepika, is a revered Hindu scripture attributed to the 13th-century Marathi poet and philosopher, Dnyaneshwar. This sacred text is a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, written in a simple and lucid style, making it accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds.
The primordial Guru, combining the energies of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh (Shiva). gurucharitra
Websites like Saibaba.org provide the full text chapter-by-chapter in English. The Gurucharitra, also known as the Dnyaneshwari or
[Generated for Academic Purposes] Course: South Asian Religious Texts (REL 5xx) Date: April 14, 2026 Websites like Saibaba
The Gurucharitra as a Foundational Hagiography: Narrative Theology, Ritual Performance, and the Construction of Guru-Kingship in the Dattatreya Tradition
The Gurucharitra (c. 15th–16th century CE) is a Marathi hagiographical compendium detailing the life and miracles of Śrīpāda Śrīvallabha and Śrī Nṛsiṃha Sarasvatī, two early avatars of the deity Dattatreya. This paper argues that the text functions not merely as devotional biography but as a manual for living guru-centric spirituality. Through a literary, theological, and ritual analysis, this study demonstrates how the Gurucharitra constructs the figure of the sadguru (true guru) as the sole arbiter of liberation, delineates a systematic guru-kingship model, and serves as the liturgical backbone for the Guru-caritra-pāṭha (ritual recitation). The paper concludes that the text’s enduring authority in Maharashtra and beyond lies in its dialectical resolution of bhakti (devotion) and śāstra (scriptural law) under the absolute sovereignty of the living guru.