Thread by @shrikanth_krish

Twitter is rife with the news of vandalism at the Brindavana of Vyasatirtha - the great Madhwa theologian (1460-1539)

This is a good time to reflect on Vyasatirtha
A figure not as well known as he should be

One who belongs to a period of v hectic theological activity in India

His near contemporaries (+/- 100 years) include

Madhusudana Saraswati
Appayya Dikshitar
Vallabhacharya
Manavala Mamunigal
Vasudeva Sarvabhouma
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Raghunatha Shiromani
Jiva and Rupa Goswami
Vijnanabhikshu

Each one of them graced this land b/w 1400 and 1600

In texts of Indian intellectual history, much print is devoted to the earlier vintage of Vedantins, the founders of the 3 primary Vedantic sampradAyas -

Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva

Yet we give short shrift to the medieval period when philosophical exegesis scaled new heights

Few periods in Indian history can boast of as many great minds cogitating on matters of metaphysics and religion, as the 15th and 16th centuries

And it was a very diverse group

Vyasatirtha and Vadiraja championing Dvaita in and around Hampi

Madhusudana Saraswati - the great Advaitin in Varanasi

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his GauDiya VaishNava movement in Bengal

Raghunatha Shiromani, the great logician and developer of Navya Nyaya in Bengal

Vasudeva Sarvabhauma, teacher par excellence, whose students included Chaitanya and Raghunatha Shiromani

Sri-Vaishnava theologian ManavAla Mamuni in Srirangam

The great Advaitin polymath of northern Tamil country- Appayya Dikshitar

Vijnanabhikshu the commentator on Patanjali

So India in the 15th and 16th century was a place teeming with religious innovation, and much hair-splitting

Among these many great names, Vyasatirtha is particularly distinguished

A man who was not just a fine theologian, but a patron of many Bhakti saints (e.g. Kanakadasa), and also a very influential figure in the Vijayanagara court

As per some accounts, Vyasatirtha was also a diplomat and frequent interlocutor on behalf of the Vijayanagara throne

But it is as an expounder of the Dvaita Doctrine (Dualist interpretation of Vedanta) of Madhvacharya that Vyasathirtha is known best

The 20th century historian of Indian philosophy Surendranath Dasgupta said -

"The logical skill and depth of acute dialectical thinking shown by Vyasa-tirtha stands almost unrivalled in the whole field of Indian thought"

His most famous work is a book named "NyayAmruta" - a work of such immense importance in Dvaita thought that it has an entire portal dedicated to it today!

nyayamruta.org

Nyayamruta is one of the few Indian books, about which it can be legitimately argued that it created "waves"

It shook the intellectual world, with its frontal critique of Advaita

To the extent that it elicited a strong response from the Advaitin - Madhusudana Saraswati, who lived several thousand kilometers away from Vyasatirtha's Hampi in Varanasi!

Madhusudana's greatest work Advaita Siddhi, was a riposte. A response to Vyasatirtha's Nyayamruta

Prof BNK Sharma in his essay on Vyasatirtha claims that Advaita may have suffered a grievous setback but for Vyasatirtha and the reinvention of Advaitin doctrine in the hands of Madhusudana Saraswati, which was necessitated by Vyasatirtha's critique

An extract -

What's important to note is that Nyayamruta is not merely a meta-commentary on another text

But an independent work. So it merits comparison with other independent works like Ramanuja's Sarva Darshana Sangraha, or Sankara's Upadeshasahasri

Vyasatirtha of course wrote commentaries as well

For e.g. His Tatparya Chandrika is a bhashya on a bhashya on a bhashya

A commentary on Jayatirtha's Tattva Prakashika, which is a commentary on Madhva's Brahma sutra bhashya, which is a commentary on Badarayana's Brahma Sutras

But it is for Nyayamruta that he is most celebrated. In part because of the impact it had on the Advaita intellectual scene. And the strong responses it elicited

Here's BNK Sharma summing up Vyasatirtha's impact

The debate triggered by Nyayamruta lasted for 2+ centuries in terms of ripostes penned

Nyayamruta itself triggered Madhusudana to write his Advaita Siddhi as we discussed

Madhusudana was refuted by the Dwaita writer Ramacharya Vyasa's Nym-Taramgini

(Contd..)

Which in turn was refuted by Brahmananda Saraswati of Bengal who wrote his brahmAnandIya

This in turn was refuted by Vanamala Mishra, a North Indian Madhwa!

So the trigger given by Vyasatirtha gripped Indian philosophers for a good two centuries

Vyasatirtha of course did not live to see the impact of his works.

Madhusudana's own riposte to Vyasatirtha happened in late 16th century, a good 50+ years after Vyasatirtha had passed on

A shame

The impact of Vyasatirtha across India, is also a testament to the pan Indian intellectual influence of Vijayanagara - the epicenter of the HIndu world in early 16th century

By far the largest city in India (as well as the second largest city in the world)

A more detailed discussion of the arguments in Nyayamruta and in Madhusudana's Advaita Siddhi are discussed in this English language work by BNK Sharma -

nyayamruta.org/downloads/advv…

Vyasatirtha also had his life well documented. Perhaps on account of him being the Raja guru of the Vijayanagara Empire at the time of its zenith

The best known biography is that of Somanatha, which is not fully extant

A book that suggests Vyasatirtha enjoyed considerable prominence

The Portuguese visitors Pass and Nuniz knew him well

BNK Sharma in his essay on Vyasatirtha suggests that the man was also engaged in building several public works, including irrigation projects in Rayalseema - perhaps a tidbit from Somanatha's biography

All of which points to a very well rounded personality

Vyasatirtha was a native of the Mysore region, though he lived his later life in Hampi.

While we have briefly referred to his dense, influential, Sanskrit works, hagiographies suggest he was also a write of compositions in Kannada

The most famous of which is "Krishna nee Begane Baro" - the most beloved of Carnatic compositions, with which no connoisseur of Carnatic music is unfamiliar.

Vyasatirtha was also a patron of many great Bhakti saints - the most prominent among whom was the great Kanaka Dasa, an important figure of the Bhakti movement, and in the history of Carnatic music

It is a shame that Vyasatirtha is not as well known today.

An even greater shame that his glorious Brindavana located on a river island in Tungabhadra was subject to vandalism today

Here's the Brindavana in better times

Post-script :

As a typo while comparing Nyayamruta with other independent works, I mistakenly referred to Ramanuja's Vedartha Sangraha as "Sarva Darshana Samgraha"

A terrible mistake. Sarva Darshana Samgraha was of course the work of the great Advaitin Vidyaranya