We all know that Madhwacharya
is an avatar of Hanuman first and Bheema next. Madhwacharya himself has
referred to these avatars of his.
His Hanumana avatar was
during the period of Ramayana. Bheema was during the Mahabharata. If Hanuman
was a vanara, Bheema was a Kshatriya. Both the Hanuman and Bheema avatars are
part of ferocious wars.
Hanuman has to take on the
might of Ravana and is evil forces at Lanka in Ramayana. Hanuman plays a
crucial role here and his burning son of Lanka is symbolic of wiping out the
evil from the Earth.
The Bheema that we know kills
Duryodhana by ripping him apart. Here too, Bheema is sending out a message that
evil has to be uprooted and that all means have to be employed to get rid of
it.
As Madhwacharya, the avatar
is a pious Brahmin who leads a life of Sanyasa. If in both the earlier avatars
he is married, as Madhwa he takes a vow of a Sanyasi from an young age.
His weapon as Madhwacharya is
the shastras and Vedas that he has so diligently studied and mastered. He
writes a commentary on both the Mahabharata and Ramayana, pointing out the many
inconsistencies that have crept in and giving it the correct and proper
interpretation. This is the Manabharata Tatpariya Nirnaya.
The Nirnaya is a highly
scholastic work and Madhwa here picks up only a few passages from the epics
whose meaning, he says, have been distorted. Madhwacharya should know about the
contexts as he next only to the central figures in both the epics.
Madhwacharya himself has
referred to his avatarhood in many of his works. In fact, there are eleven
works where there are references to this unique phenomenon.
The eleven works are: Brahma Sootra
Bhashya; Anu Vyakhyan; Vishnu Tatwa Nirnaya;
Brahadaranya Bhashya; Chhandogya Bhashya; Taittireya Bhashya; Geeta Tatparya Nirnaya;
Nyaya Vivarana; Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya; Tantra Sara Sangraha and Krishnamrita
Maharnawa.
Alur Venkata Rao, in his work
on Madhwacharya, mentions of the measurements of the Acharya’s body and the
marks of Chakra which an Avatara Purusha should have.
Alur says Hanuman is made up
of two words, Anu and Mahan. Here, Anu means small and Mahan means big. Hanuman
is born small but he becomes big thereafter. This refers to his physical
dimension.
Alur
says the Anu-Mahan concept that he talks about is first mentioned in an ancient
Kannada book called “Shri Bhu Valaya”, which was written in 783 by a Jain poet, Kumuderidu.
To
Alur “It is the most mystical book which fits itself in many, many languages of
the world such as Sanskrit, Prakrita,
Telagu, Tamil, Maharashtra , and Bengali”.
In
this printed book on page 21, there is an inscription and an image of Hanuman
said to belong to the Iron Age. Here, he is described as Anu-Mahan and this
fits in, with the mythological story of Hanuman that as soon as he was born as
a child (Anu) he at once became big ( Mahan ) and jumped to swallow the
orb of the Sun.
It is not merely physically
that Madhwacharya can be compared to the Sun. We seethe Hanuman and Bheema in
the vastness of his works and their originality. We see him easily discussing Vyakaraiia,
Nirukta, Logic, Prosody, Etimology, Jyotisha, Psychology, Science of Images,
Science of Yoga and numerous other subjects. Madhwa buttresses his arguments on
each topic with quotations and references and there are hundreds of them from Vedas, Shastras and Upanishads.
Since he was proficient in
Sangeeta Shastra and he himself was a very good songster. He composed the
melodious Dwadesha Stotra. He himself prepared seventeen idols and presented
them to his disciples. Both the Stotra and the idols exist.
Madhwacharya showed all his
three avatars to Trivikrama Panditacharya and an awed Trivikrama
Panditacharya wrote Sri Hari Vayu Stuthi.
Interestingly, his son, Narayana
Panditachrya, has written about the Hanuman-Bheema avatar in Madhwa Vijaya.The
Madhwa Nama of Sripadaraja is another work where we get to know the three
avatars.
Vadiraja Theertha has a
beautiful composition where he speaks of the three avatars.
ಈತನೆ
ಲೋಕಗುರು
ವೇದವಿಖ್ಯಾತ
|| ಪ ||
ಭೂತಳದಿ
ಶ್ರೀರಾಮ
ದೂತನೆಂಬಾತ
|| ಅಪ ||
ಅಂದು
ಹನುಮಂತನಾಗಿ
ಅಖಿಳ
ದಿಕ್ಕೆಲ್ಲವನು
ಒಂದು
ನಿಮಿಷದಲಿ
ಪೋಗಿ
ಉದಧಿ
ಲಂಘಿಸಿದ
ಇಂದೀವರಾಕ್ಷಿಗೆ
ವಂದಿಸಿ
ಮುದ್ರಿಕೆಯನಿತ್ತು
ಬಂದು
ರಾಮರ
ಪಾದಕೆರಗಿ
ನಿಂದಾತ
|| ೧ ||
ಅರ್ಜುನಗೆ
ಅಣ್ಣನಾಗಿ
ಅಂದು
ದುರ್ಯೋಧನನ
ಲಜ್ಜೆಯನೆ
ಕೆಡಿಸಿ
ಶದ್ರಥಿಕರನು
ಗೆಲಿದ
ಮೂಜಗವು
ಮೆಚ್ಚಲು
ಮುನ್ನ
ಮಾಗಧನ
ಸೀಳಿದ
ಸಜ್ಜನ
ಪ್ರಿಯ
ಭೀಮಸೇನ
ನೆಂಬಾತ
|| ೨ ||
ಮೂರಾರು
ಎರಡೊಂದು
ಮೂಢಮತಗಳ
ಜರಿದು
ಸಾರ
ಮಧ್ವ
ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರವನು
ಸಜ್ಜನರಿಗೆರೆದು
ಕೂರ್ಮ
ಶ್ರೀಹಯವದನನ
ಪೂರ್ಣ
ಸೇವಕನಾದ
ಧೀರ
ಮಧ್ವಾಚಾರ್ಯ
ಲೋಕದೊಳು
ಮೆರೆದ
|| ೩ ||
The English translation of
the composition is as follows:
Itane lOkaguru vEdaviKyAta ||
pa ||
BUtaLadi SrIrAma dUtaneMbAta || apa ||
BUtaLadi SrIrAma dUtaneMbAta || apa ||
aMdu hanumaMtanAgi aKiLa
dikkellavanu
oMdu nimiShadali pOgi udadhi laMGisida
iMdIvarAkShige vaMdisi mudrikeyanittu
baMdu rAmara pAdakeragi niMdAta || 1 ||
oMdu nimiShadali pOgi udadhi laMGisida
iMdIvarAkShige vaMdisi mudrikeyanittu
baMdu rAmara pAdakeragi niMdAta || 1 ||
arjunage aNNanAgi aMdu
duryOdhanana
lajjeyane keDisi Sadrathikaranu gelida
mUjagavu meccalu munna mAgadhana sILida
sajjana priya BImasEna neMbAta || 2 ||
lajjeyane keDisi Sadrathikaranu gelida
mUjagavu meccalu munna mAgadhana sILida
sajjana priya BImasEna neMbAta || 2 ||
mUrAru eraDoMdu mUDhamatagaLa
jaridu
sAra madhva SAstravanu sajjanarigeredu
kUrma SrIhayavadanana pUrNa sEvakanAda
dhIra madhvAcArya lOkadoLu mereda || 3 ||
sAra madhva SAstravanu sajjanarigeredu
kUrma SrIhayavadanana pUrNa sEvakanAda
dhIra madhvAcArya lOkadoLu mereda || 3 ||
Purandara Dasa, who is an
incarnation of Narada, has this to say about the three avatars.
“'kamadhenu chintamani
kalpavrukshanada swamy,
premadindali nenevara bhagyakkeneyunte,
samanyanallovo yita mokshadi
sampadadata, aa maha aparokshgyna dadrya bhakutiyaniva,
hanuma bhima madvamuniya
nenedu bhadukiro.”
