A Rigveda Deshastha Brahman, Dadopant, had a son called Mahipati. Dadopant was a passionate devotee of Vithoba of Pandarpur but was sad that he and his wife did not have a child in spite of the numerous visits to the shrine of Vithoba. Dadopant was the hereditary Kulkarni of Tarabad in the Ahmadnagar District. But Dadopant became a father at the age of sixty and the story says that when Dadapant had gone Pandharpur during one of his visits, Lord Vithoba appeared to him in a dream. In the dream the Lord put a ball of sweetmeats into his hands and told him to give it to his wife. Dadopant was surprised to see the ball of sweetmeat in his hand when he woke up and he carried it home and gave it to his wife. The wife conceived and gave birth to a son and they called the little boy Mahipati. This is supposed to have happened during AD 1715.
Mahipati was religious right from his young age and showed great religious temperament right from his early age. At the age of five, Mahipati seeked permission from his father to go on a pilgrimage with some pilgrim groups to Pandharpur. From then onwards he went on a yearly pilgrimage to Pandharpur till the death of his father. Mahipati’s father, Dadopant passed away when Mahipati was only sixteen and he took up the place of Kulkarni ofTarabad. Mahipati later left the government service because the Muslim Jaghirdar forced him to work when Mahipati wanted to be engrossed in religious activities. He resigned of Kulkarniship and also took a vow that he or his successors will not take the post under the government. His successors are still observing the vow taken by Mahipati and none have them ever worked under the government. The resignation from the post of Kukarniship, Mahipati found more time to devote to the services and worship of Vithoba. Highest order of devotion of Mahipati paid price with the appearance of Saint Tukaram in his dreams. Saint Tukaram asked him to write about the lives of Deccan Saints. Listening to the order Saint Tukaram, Mahipat started writing Bhaktivijaya and finished writing it in AD 1763. Bhaktivijaya is his most important work but he also wrote Katha Saramrit, Sanlilamrit, Bhaktililamrit and Sahtvijaya which was unfinished.
