Vallabhācārya

Vallabhācārya, born to a Telugu Brāhmaṇa family at Champāraṇya (in present Chhattisgarh) while his family was on pilgrimage, founded the Puṣṭimārga, a path of devotion centered on the grace (puṣṭi) of Kṛṣṇa worshipped as the divine child Gopāla/Śrīnāthjī. His philosophy, Śuddhādvaita ('pure non-dualism'), affirms — against Śaṅkara's māyā — that the world is a real manifestation of Brahman (Kṛṣṇa) and that devotion, not world-denial, is the way. He commented on the Brahma-sūtra (the Aṇubhāṣya) and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and composed the 'Ṣoḍaśa Grantha.' He undertook pilgrimages across India, debated scholars, and gathered disciples (the Puṣṭimārga's later 'eight-fold' poets, the aṣṭachāp, include Sūrdās). The sect's central image of Śrīnāthjī, long at Govardhan in the Vraja country, was later moved to Nathdwara in Rajasthan. He spent his last years at Varanasi, where he died in 1531.