Mahipati

[3][4] Mahipati was born in a Marathi Deshastha Rigvedi Brahmin family of Shakala Shakha and Vasishta gotra[5] to Dadopant Kamble who was the hereditary Kulkarni (record keeper) of Taharabad in present day Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.

[4] During his life, Mahipati played down his abilities, his hagiographies of the Varkari saints are considered to be the most authoritative.

[3] Mahipati claimed Varkari sant Tukaram as the inspiration for his writings.

[9] Although in early part of his literary career he relied on works by Nabha Dass and Uddhava Ciddhan for his biographies, he soon realized shortcomings in their accounts of the saints and started collecting information himself.

[7] Christian Lee Novetzke considers Mahipati's work to be a kind of transcribed kirtan.