Mahipati

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Mahipati (b. 1715 in Tharabad, India d. 1790) was an author who wrote in Marāthi biographies of a few prominent religious figures who had lived between the 13th and the 17th centuries in Mahārāshtra, India.

He was a "Deshastha Brāhmin" by birth, and worked for some time as a scribe/record keeper for the local government of the town of Tharabad in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra.

There is a legend about Mahipati which runs thus:

One day, outside his working hours, his superior sent a messenger to his house to ask him to come to the superior's office immediately for some urgent official business. When the messenger arrived at his house, Mahipati was engaged in the worship of God, and asked the messenger to take back a message that he would be coming to the superior's office as soon as he was done with his worship. The messenger insisted, however, that Mahipati should come with him right away. Very reluctantly, Mahipati cut short his worship, accompanied the messenger to the superior's office, finished the urgent business, and let the superior know that he no longer wanted to stay in the secular job and that he preferred to use his pen thenceforth exclusively for writing religious material. Soon after that, Mahipati received one night in his dream both a mantra and a command from the departed spirit of Sant Tukārām to write the life stories of some past prominent religious figures in Maharashtra. Accordingly, Mahipati put together his noteworthy biographical book BhaktaVijay in Marathi. He also wrote another book titled BhaktaLeelāmrut.

An English translation of Mahipati's BhaktaVijay was published under the provisions of the will of the late Dr Justin E. Abbott.