Brief History of Madhvacarya: History Sites

[PADA: We are following the Brahma / Madhva / Gaudiya system. And we owe a lot of credit to these founders of the Vaishnava siddhanta. I cannot say these accounts below are fully accurate, but I like to read these historical versions from time to time as a matter of personal interest. Of course -- nowadays all sorts of upstarts are claiming to be acharyas --- and that is why we need to realize how advanced and powerful actual acharyas are.  

ys pd angel108b@yahoo.com]

Madhva

Hindu philosopher

Alternate titles: Anandatirtha, Purnaprajna

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Last Updated: Article History

Born: 1199? or 1238 Udipi India

Died: c.1278 or 1317 Udipi India

Subjects Of Study: Dvaita / heaven / hell

Madhva, also called Anandatirtha or Purnaprajna, (born c. 1199 or 1238 CE, near Udipi, Karnataka, India—died c. 1278 or 1317, Udipi), Hindu philosopher, exponent of Dvaita (“Dualism”; belief in a basic difference in kind between God and individual souls). His followers are called Madhvas.

Madhva was born into a Brahman family. As a youth, he was discovered by his parents, after a four-day search, discoursing learnedly with the priests of Vishnu. Later, on a pilgrimage to the sacred city of Varanasi, he is reputed to have walked on water. 

Britannica Quiz Philosophy 101

Madhva set out to refute the nondualistic Advaita philosophy of Shankara (died c. 750 CE), who believed the individual self (jiva) to be fundamentally identical with the universal self (atman), which in turn was identical with the Absolute (brahman), the only reality. Thus, Madhva rejected the theory of maya (“illusion” or “play”), which taught that the material world is not only illusory but also deceptive. 

Madhva maintained that the simple fact that things are transient and ever-changing does not mean that they are not real. He also insisted that knowledge is relative, not absolute. In Madhva’s time, most Hindus believed in heaven and hell as well as in a process of transmigration (samsara) from which it was possible to attain release (moksha). 

Madhva outlawed devadasis—members of an order of women devoted to the temple patron god and who performed sexual favours for the king and his close circle — in all places of worship under his followers’ control. He offered figures made of dough as a substitute for blood sacrifices. His adherents customarily branded themselves on the shoulder with a multiarmed figure of Vishnu. Madhva wrote 37 works in Sanskrit, mostly commentaries on Hindu sacred writings and treatises on his own theological system and philosophy.

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Madhyageha Bhatta was happy at the arrival of his son on Vijayadasami day in the year 1238 A.D. He named him Vasudeva. Vasudeva was very precocious and initially the father taught the boy the lessons of philosophy. As a boy not even attaining his teens, Vasudeva felt an inner urge he could not resist, to take up Sanyasa under Guru Achutaprekshacharya.

Achutaprekshacharya taught from the then current Advaita school of thought but the philosophy of that school did not appeal to Vasudeva. Guru was displeased with his new disciple but he was however very much impressed with the earnest and scholarly disciple whom he had named Purnaprajna. Purnaprajna thereupon began to preach his own philosophy according to which -- the world is real, the individual souls are different. 

Many scholars of other schools came to him for debate and went back defeated by his keen and irrefutable logic. Purnaprajna, in order to propagate his faith undertook a pilgrimage to various shrines in South India and the pilgrimage was also an opportunity to meet opponents of other schools in the different places. Immediately after he returned from the pilgrimage Purnaprajna wrote the commentary on Bhagavad Gita which is the first work of the Acharya.

Seven years after he took Sanyasa, Purnaprajna started a pilgrimage to the North where he touched Varanasi, Allahabad, Dwaraka, Delhi and other places and reached Badrikshetra. He composed the Brahmasutra Bhashya at Badri and went further to the depths of Himalayas, where Bhagavan Vyasa resides. 

On returning back Purnaprajna came to the banks of Godavari and had debates with two eminent scholars namely Sobhana Bhatta and Shama Shastry belonging to Advaita School. Both were defeated in the debate and with the conviction of the truth of the school of philosophy expounded by Purnaprajna, both of them became his disciples taking up Sanyasa. 

Shobana Bhatta went on to become the famous Padmanabha Thirtha who succeeded to the pontifical seat of Madhva Samstana. Shama Shastry became Narahari Thirtha and at the behest of the Acharya stayed behind to obtain the idols of Moola Rama and Sita from the treasury of the local prince. Padmanabha Thirtha followed his master and was greatly devoted to him.

After his return to Udupi Purnaprajna began to write various works establishing the new system of philosophy which has come to be called Dvaita Siddhanta. The cardinal point which distinguishes his system from others is the essential difference between Brahman who is Independent and all else which are Dependent. 

This system has therefore come to be called Dvaita Siddhanta (Philosophy of Basic difference), Purnaprajna installed Kadagolu Krishna at Udupi and established eight mutts, the Sanyasis of which has to worship Krishna by rotation. The Paryaya (System of Rotation) has continued until the present day at Udupi. Sriman Madhva wrote commentaries on the ten principal Upanishads, the special treatises called Prakaranas ten in number, the Gita Tatparya and other works during this period.

Sriman Madhva undertook the second tour to the north again. He met Jalaluddin Khilji at Delhi and seems to have conversed with him in Persian Language. After returning from the North he spent the rest of his life in Udupi occasionally visiting a place called Vishnu Mangala near Udupi. During one of his visits to Vishnu Mangala he had to meet a reputed champion of the Advaita School by name Trivikramapanditacharya. The debate between them extended to fifteen days and covered all the different systems of philosophy like the Bauddha, Sankhya, Nyaya and Advaita.

In the end Trivikramapanditacharya has to admit defeat. He was very much impressed with the Acharya and became his disciple having renounced Advaita and accepting the Dvaita Siddhanta. The conversion of Pandita Trivikrama was a great moral victory for the Acharya and many were the new adherents to his system. Trivikramapanditacharya became so devoted to Acharya that he wrote the commentary known as Tatvapradipa on the Brahmasutra Bhashya of Sriman Madhva. At his request Sriman Madhva wrote a metrical commentary on the Brahmasutras which is famous as Anuvyakhyana.

Sriman Madhva had many disciples belonging to the Sanyasa ashrama and many disciples who were house holders. He vanished from the sight of mortals in his 80th year while he was teaching the Aitareya Upanishad Bhashya to his disciples. A shower of flowers is said to have rained on him and he vanished from the sight in the shower of flowers.

The shower of flowers happened on this day, Magha Maasa Shukla Paksha Navami 706 years ago.