Sri Yogi Sripadaraja Mutt-Mulbagal

Sri Sripadaraja Mutt is located at Mulbagal in Kolar district of Karnataka.Sri Sripadaraja has his brindavana at a place called Narasimha Theertha which is about a mile from Mulbagal.

It is said that when he was at his old age, he wanted to have Ganga-snana, but could not travel all the way up north. Ganga then appeared before him and said that she herself would come to Narasimha Theertha and stay there for ever. From then on, a dip in Narasimha Theertha is considered to be equivalent to a dip in Ganga.

Yativarya Sripadaraja swami was the Guru of Sri Vyasaraja who was well-known as Sri Raghavendra in his next incarnation. Sripadaraja, with his divine supernatural powers helped people who were in trouble.

Sripadaraja (also called Laxminarayana thirtha or Sripadaraya) was born in Abburu (1404– 1502 AD) in Chennapatna taluk of Karnataka state. He was born to a very pious brahmin couple named Sheshagiri and Giriyamma. Hindu devotees and his followers believe that he was the incarnation (Avatara) of Dhruva. When Lakshminarayana grew up, he had to take the cattle for grazing and return home before the sunset.

Once while he was grazing his cattle in the evening hours, he was approached by Sri Swarnavarnathirtha belonging to Sri Padmanabha Thirtha Samsthana. Abbur was then the seat of Sri Brahmanya Teertharu. Sri Swarnavarnathirtha swami was on his way to Abbur from Srirangapatna asked the young lad Lakshminarayana about the distance he had to travel to reach Abbur. Lakshminarayana demonstrated his gift of gab to Swarnavarnathirtha swami saying – “Look at me and my herds, gaze at the sky and realize the distance”. His answer turned the pontiff’s mind to make the boy his pupil and Lakshminarayana Tirtha eventually succeeded Svarnavarna Tirtha as the pontiff of the mutt at Mulbagal.

Later, the same boy who was so clever with words, composed devotional hymns in kannada and thus laid a foundation to Dasa Sahitya. He had contributed to the Dwaita philosophy and the Haridasa Sahitya.

Sripadaraja was a contemporary of Vibhudendra Tirtha, the progenitor of the Raghavendra Math and Raghunatha Tirtha of Uttaradi Math, who conferred upon him the title Sripadaraja or Sripadaraya.