ஶ்ரீபாதாஷ்டகம்

Eight verses to Shripada Shrivallabha, the first of the Datta incarnations, each closing on the same line — I go for refuge to Shripadaraja. What it does with him is hold two descriptions together without choosing. In one he is a renunciate and looks like one: ochre cloth, a staff in the hand, a water-pot. In the other, in the very same verse, the lotus hand holds a conch, and a discus and a mace complete the ornament — which is Vishnu's equipment given to a wandering ascetic. The fourth verse states the identification outright, calling him a descent of Krishna, and the sixth places him, saying he is famous for dwelling on the bank of the Krishna river, which is Pithapuram and Kuravapuram in the tradition. He is called the wish-tree that everyone has thought of.