Sri Vasudevaya Namaha

SRI MADHVACHARYA

(Life and Philosophy in brief)

KALANIDHI SATYANARAYANA MURTHYLaw Secretary (Retd.) Government of Andhra Pradesh

Foreword by

Vachaspati Dr. V.R.Panchamukhi

Chancellor, Sri Gurusarvabhouma Sanskrit Vidyapeeth

EDITOR

"SAMSKRITA MITRA" "VACHASPATI"

Dr. Remella Avadhanulu

M.Sc. (Nuclear Physics), M.A., Ph.D (Sanskrit), M.A., Ph.D. (Jyotisha)

Dy. Director (Computers), (Retd)., NIMS, Hyderabad.

SHRI VEDA BHARATHI

Hyderabad

Om Sri Venkatanathaya Namaha

SRI MADHVACHARYA

(Life sketch and Philosophy in brief)

INDEX

Forewored i

Chapter – I

1. Boyhood and Education 32. Southern tour 73. Pilgrimage to Badri 94. To Badri for a second time 125. Challenges 146. Last days 167. No ordinary task 178. Udupi 18

9. Sri Madhva’s writings 2010. Dasa sahitya 22Chapter II1. The Dvaita Siddhanta 232. Sri Maha Vishnu 243. The Reality of the Universe 284. Sri Madhva’s Dualism 345. The Jiva 426. Devotion - Bhakti 487. Liberation – Mukti 558. Lakshmi 609. Theory of Knowledge 6210. Ontology 6411. Prakriti – Fundamental substance 6712. Substances and their qualities 6913. Sri Madhva – a Realist 7114. Dvaita Literature 7515. Other Madhva saint-scholars 76

1. Sri Jayatirtha 772. Sri Vyasatirtha 783. Sri Vadirajatirtha 804. Sri Raghavendra Swami 81

Foreword

by

Vachaspati Dr. V.R.Panchamukhi

Chancellor, Sri Gurusarvabhouma SanskritVidyapeeth

and

Former Chancellor, Rashtriya SanskritVidyapeeth (Deemed University), Tirupati

The Indian Philosophical space is adorned bythree great Acharyas, namely, Sri Adi Shankaracharya,Sri Ramanujacharya and Sri Madhvacharya, each ofwhom has provided perceptive interpretations of thesame basic source material of knowledge namelyUpanishads, Brahmasutras and the Bhagvadgita,thereby deriving their own schools of thought on In-dian Philosophy. No study of Indian Philosophy wouldbe complete unless all these three main schools ofthought are studied, understood and critically analyzed.Each Acharya claims his interpretation to be the finalTruth and it is only the followers of the differentAcharyas, who take such assertions as unquestion-able.

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Sri Vadiraja Tirtha, the great saint philosopherof Madhva school of thought argues in his highly logi-cal and penetrative treatise called Yuktimallika that theMadhva Siddhanta is the Final Truth, becauseMadhva’s interpretations have been propounded afterrefuting all the earlier interpretations as PurvaPakshas. He mentions, rather very forcefully, his as-sertion in the following Sloka.

purvah purvah purvapaksho yaavanmadhva matodayah|

ante siddhastu siddhanto madhvasyaagama eva hi ||

(Yuktimallika gunasourabha, 9)

It is commendable that Shri Vedabharatiheaded by Vidwan Dr. Remella Avadhanulu haslaunched the project of publishing three small book-lets on Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya andMadhvacharya with a view to acquainting the studentsof Indian Philosophy, about the life and the philosophi-cal contributions of the different Acharyas. This initia-tive is indeed a very noble service in the interest ofpreserving and fostering the Indian heritage and knowl-edge system.

The present booklet on Sri Madhvacharya,authored by Sri Kalanidhi Satyanarayana Murthy ful-fils very eminently the objective of providing the basic

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information about the life and contributions ofMadhvacharya.

Sri Satyanarayana Murthy, not only narrates thesignificant events in the life of Sri Madhvacharya, butalso provides insight into his Philosophy of DwaitaVedanta in a critical framework of analysis.

In narrating the events of life of Madhvacharya,Sri Satyanarayana Murthy, is very succinct and insight-ful. It is well known that the life story of Madhvacharya,is very well documented, in the most celebrated MahaKavya entitled “Sri Sumadhwa Vijaya” authored by thethen contemporary scholar-poet, named, Sri NarayanaPanditacharya. Sri Sumadhwa Vijaya consists of six-teen sargas dealing with the events of childhood, ac-ceptance of samnyasa, refutation of the other schoolsof thought, touring the Bharata Desha for propagatingMadhva Vedanta, acceptance of the scholars of thedifferent schools of thought as his sishyas, after con-vincing them about the superiority and authenticity ofhis own interpretations, description of Badari Yatra andvisits to various pilgrimage centres in the north, east,west and the south of India. Sri Sumadhwa Vijaya isregarded as the most sacred and authentic documentof the life and works of Madhvacharya. It is interestingto observe that it is only in the case of Madhvacharya

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that an authentic account of his life and work is avail-able in the form of a Maha Kavya, composed by acontemporary poet.

Trivikrama Panditacharya the father ofNarayana Panditacharya was an Advaitin, to beginwith, and he got converted as a follower of DwaitaVedanta after 14 days of disputation withMadhvacharya. He became a prominent disciple ofMadhvacharya and he wrote a number of profoundcommentaries on the works of Madhvacharya. Hisextempore composition entitled Sri Hari Vayu Stuti isregarded as the most sacred and the most percep-tive account of the magnificent personalities ofHanuma, Bhima and Madhva, believed to be the threeincarnations of Vayudeva.

Sri Satyanarayana Murthy has taken greatpains in studying various source materials on the Phi-losophy of Madhvacharya and presenting MadhvaSchool of thought in a clear and dispassionate man-ner. His description of the Navaratna Prameyas ofMadhva Siddhanta, based on the following famoussloka of Sri VyasaTirtha is very succinct and henceuseful to the inquisitive seekers of knowledge:

Srimanmadva mate Harih paratarah, Satyam jagat tatvato |

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bhinnaah jivaganaah Hareranucharaah

nichochhabhaavam gataah ||

muktir Naijasukhaanubhutiramalaa bhaktischa

Tatsaadhanam |

hyakshaaditritayam pramaanam akhilaamnaayaika

vedyo Harih ||

The critical assessment of the NinePrameyas, containing the quotations from the differ-ent authors and scholars of the Indian Philosophy, suchas Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Dr. S. Dasgupta, Dr. B.N.K.Sharma and others, has added a lot of intellectual valueto this Booklet.

Sri Satyanarayana Murthy has also given de-scription of the main works of Madhvacharya, to cor-roborate the narration of the different Prameyas ofMadhva Siddhanta.

The various distinguished saint philosophersand authors of Madhva Siddhanta, who emerged inthe illustrious lineage of the “Tatva Vada”, by whichterm the Madhva Siddhanta is being called by its fol-lowers have written many commentaries and inde-pendent works on Tatva Vada. They have been ex-tremely useful in understanding the various tenets ofMadhva Siddhanta since the original works of

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Madhvacharya are in themselves very terse and cryp-tic. In this context, Sri Satyanarayana Murthy presentsin a very clear language, but briefly, the information onthe select works of the select Saint Philosophers/Authors of Tatva Vada, such as, Jayatirtha,Vyasatirtha, Vadirajatirtha and Raghavendra Tirtha.This has been one more very useful part of the Book-let.

Brevity and Clarity in presentation are the hall-marks of this Booklet.

On the whole, this Booklet is a very useful ad-dition to the literature on Madhva Philosophy and I sin-cerely commend it to all the inquisitive students of In-dian Philosophy.

Durmukhi,Karthika Purnima14.11.2016 Dr. V.R.Panchamukhi

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Om Sri Venkatanathaya Namaha

Our Objective

Sri Adi Shankaracharya, Sri Ramanujacharya andSri Madhvacharya propagated the Advaita,Visistadvaita and Dvaita systems of philosophiesrespectively. There are sizeable followers to each oneof these schools of thought. But most of the followerssimply claim that ‘I belong to this or that system ofphilosophy’ but do not know the core principles of thatphilosophy and more importantly, where it agrees withor differs from the doctrines of others schools. Theirknowledge about the life and works of the concernedAcharya too is skin deep. This might be mainly due tobusy life or lack of aptitude to understand theconcerned doctrine or due to terseness of the workson the subject, which defy their understanding. It mustalso be admitted that these schools of thought are, tosome extent, recondite to the uninitiated. This is theposition of the common man. However, scholars andthose who make determined effort to understand thedoctrine stand on a different footing and these bookletsare not written keeping such scholarly people in mind.

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For the benefit of those who have a desire tounderstand the basic tenets of each doctrine but areunable to follow the bulky scholarly and terse treatises,Sri Veda Bharati has decided to publish small bookletson the three Acharyas briefly touching upon their life,teachings and doctrines. These small booklets areintended mainly to introduce the ordinary readers tothe life and teachings of the trinity (trimatacharyas ).It is hoped that these booklets will evoke interest inthe readers to undertake an in-depth study of thesethree schools of thought and enthuse them to make acomparative assesment.

To conclude we are deeply indebted to Dr. V.R.Panchamukhi, M.A. PhD, Chancellor, Sri GuruSarvabhouma Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Mantralayam,who has carefully gone thorugh the draft of the bookand made many valuble suggestions, which we haveincorporated. He was also kind enough to give ascholarly and comprehensive foreword to this bookletwhich stands as a value addition.

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