This is a brief note on the plight of Brahmans working under Islamist rulers of 18th century, as gleaned from a life account of Venugopaladasa, illustrious shishya of Sri Vijayadasa. After the fall of Vijayanagara, the greatest Hindu Empire in South India & also after the disintegration of kingdoms of various Nayakas, the 17th century…
TIRTHA PRABANDHA – AN YATI’S TRAVELOGUE Today is the 409th ArAdhana of Sri Vadiraja Tirtha who appeared on earth in physical form for 120 years. He witnessed the fate of Vijayanagara Empire from c.1480-1600. This thread is about his unique contribution to the world of Samskruta literature titled “Tirtha Prabandha.’ Vadiraja was a prolific writer in Samskruta,…
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS Regarding the Periods of the first five great Madhva saintsSri Padmanabha, Narahari, Madhava, Akshobhya and Jaya Tirthas INTRODUCTION: The last two decades of Acharya Madhva 1238-1318 AD, followed by the five ascetics in his Peetha (till 1388 AD) were known for some of the epoch making developments in History, specially on the Deccan…
Published in 1909, ‘The Life and Teachings of Sri Madhvacharya” by Sri C.M. Padmanabhachar could be one of the earliest book on Sri Madhvacharya in English language. Sri Padmanabhachar seems to be the first scholar to fix the date of Sri Madhva between 1238 – 1317 AD which has been supported and strengthened further by greats like…
This article is about an anecdote found in a Telugu book on Andhra literature in Vijayanagara which throws light on Sri Vyasatirtha’s persona. Tekumalla Achyuta Rao, a Telugu writer specialised in history of Telugu literature wrote a book titled “Vijayanagara mandali Andhra Vangmaya Charitramu” (విజయనగరమందలి ఆంధ్ర వాజ్ఞ్మయ చరిత్రము) which means “The History of Telugu Literature in…
Sri Vijayindra Tirtha is the bulwark of Dvaita Vedanta from post-Vyasatirtha period. This write-up is a humble contribution about a great yati who foresaw the difficult times for Vijayanagara Empire & forewarned Ramaraya to take measures. Vijayindra was born in c.1514 as ‘Vitthala.’ Got initiated into sanyAsa by Vyasatirtha as ‘Vishnutirtha.’ But subsequently…
INTRODUCTION Sri Brahmanya Tirtha is a lesser known stalwart from Dvaita school of Vedanta which has more than 800 years of recorded history. Sri Brahmanya Tirtha’s first unique identity is that he was the Ashrama Guru of the much celebrated Madhva Guru, Sri Vyasatirtha. It is well known that Sri Vyasatirtha lived during the heydays…
THE BELL IN HANUMAN’S TAIL [As told by Sri Vidya Vijaya Tirtha Sripadaru of Sri Vyasaraja Matha-Sosale] The Bell in Hanuman’s tail – is an interesting feature that can be seen not just in Vyasa-Anjaneya pratima-s but also in many pratima-s across Bharata bhUmi. I have learnt one legend associated with it from elders. Here is…
INTRODUCTION: Sri Vijayadasa, second only to the great Sri Purandaradasa, was born in c.1687 and left the mortal world in c.1755 on Thursday, 10th day of bright half of kArtika month. Sri Vijayadasa said to have written 25,000 kIrtanA-s most of them being suLAdi-s. Legend has it that he was the son…
SRI VYASATIRTHA’S ASSOCIATION WITH TIRUMALA TEMPLE – A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE Sometime ago, on Facebook, one of my friends wrote a post expressing skepticism over the fact that Shri Vyasarajaru did puja at the Tirumalai kshetra. He pointed out anachronism when the period of Vyasarajaru is compared with that of the ruler who is believed to…
