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Saraswati Gangadhar (16th century) wrote Shri GuruCharitra , a book on the life of Narasimha Saraswati who is considered to be the second avatar of Dattatreya. Nothing much is known about Gangadhar's life other than through the Shri GuruCharitra.
Guru-Charitra means "Guru's Life Story" or "Guru's Biography".
Shri Gurucharitra indicates that Gangadhar belonged to the Deshastha Brahmin family of kaundinya gotra. It is not known how many children he had but he frequently mentioned his "poorvaj" (Ancestor) called Sayandev who was one of the four close disciples of Narasimha Saraswati. Gangadhar also mentions the four generations of his family that preceded him.
Gangadhar was a gifted poet. Although his mother tongue was Kannada, the Shri Gurucharitra displays his mastery over the Marathi language. It is considered[ by whom? ] a "Ved" of Datta-Sampradaya, which is quite widespread in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. This Grantha is somewhat like Gita for Datta-Sampradaya adherents. Gangadhar wrote 52 chapters in which he describes the life and philosophy of Shripad ShriVallabha and Narasimha Saraswati. These are two avatars of Dattatreya. In spite of descriptions of Vedanta and other heady philosophical ideas, the Grantha is written with clarity. It is quite possible (according to experts such as R. C. Dhere) that he had the Sanskrit version of the Gurucharitra written by Narasimha Saraswati's disciple, Siddha, and he may have translated that into Prakrit language, i.e. Marathi.
Little is known about Gangadhar's life and death. But it appears that he was born after Narasimha Saraswati, possibly living between 1378 - 1458. It is also not possible that he may have had contact with one of the disciples, such as Siddha.[ clarification needed ] However, he may have had access to a Sanskrit Gurucharitr written by Siddha, although there is no extant copy of this original Sanskrit work. Later, in the 19th-20th century, Vasudevanand Saraswati, alias Tembe Swami, (1854-1914) wrote a Sanskrit version of Shri GuruCharitra.
He lived in the village of Kadaganchi, now located in Karnataka.
Dattatreya, Dattā or Dattaguru, is a paradigmatic Sannyasi (monk) and one of the lords of yoga, venerated as a Hindu god. He is considered to be an avatar and combined form of the three Hindu gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, who are also collectively known as the Trimurti, and as the manifestation of Parabrahma, the supreme being, in texts such as the Bhagavata Purana, the Markandeya Purana, and the Brahmanda Purana, though stories about his birth and origin vary from text to text. Several Upanishads are dedicated to him, as are texts of the Vedanta-Yoga tradition in Hinduism. One of the most important texts of Hinduism, namely Avadhuta Gita is attributed to Dattatreya. Over time, Dattatreya has inspired many monastic movements in Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism, particularly in the Deccan region of India, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himalayan regions where Shaivism is prevalent. His pursuit of simple life, kindness to all, sharing of his knowledge and the meaning of life during his travels is reverentially mentioned in the poems by Tukaram, a saint-poet of the Bhakti movement.
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