The Anu Vayu Stuti

The Sri Hari Vayu Stuti is one of the most famous stuti or poem composed by Trivikrama Panditacharya.

This beautiful composition is in praise of Madhwacharya.

The Stuti, which has 41 paragraphs, has been composed recognising the three avatras of Hanuma, Bheema and Madhwacharya. It is, therefore, a mantra as well as a stotra. Women are, therefore,  forbidden from reciting it. However, they can recite the Anu Vyau Stuti as well as the Laghu Vayu Stuti.

The Laghu Vayu Stuti is composed by Kalyani Devi, sister of Trivikrama Panditacharya.

There is another Kalyani Devi and she is the sister of Madhwacharya. She too has written a Laghu Vayu Stuti.

Here are the Kannada and Sanskrit lyrics of Anu Vayu Stuti.

ಅಣುವಾಯುಸ್ತುತಿ

ಚಂದ್ರವಿಭೂಷಣ ಚಂದ್ರಪುರೋಗೈಃ
ವಂದ್ಯಪದಾಂಬುರುಹಂ ಪವಮಾನಮ್|
ಆನಂದತೀರ್ಥ ಮಹಾಮುನಿರಾಜಂ ಗೋವಿಂದಭಕ್ತಶಿಖಾಮಣಿಮೀಡೇ        ||೧||

ಪ್ರಾಣಗಣಾಧಿಪತಿಂ ಭುವಿವಾಣೀ
ಪ್ರಾಣಸಮಂ ದಯಯಾ ಹ್ಯವತೀರ್ಣಮ್|
ಆನಂದತೀರ್ಥ ಮಹಾಮುನಿರಾಜಂ ಗೋವಿಂದಭಕ್ತಶಿಖಾಮಣಿಮೀಡೇ        ||೨||

ಶ್ರೀಹನುಮಂತಮನಂತಭುಜಿಷ್ಯಂ
ಲಂಘಿತಸಿಂಧು ಮುದಸ್ತಮಹೀಧ್ರಮ್|
ಆನಂದತೀರ್ಥ ಮಹಾಮುನಿರಾಜಂ ಗೋವಿಂದಭಕ್ತಶಿಖಾಮಣಿಮೀಡೇ        ||೩||

ಭೀಷಣದುಷ್ಟಕುಲಾಂತಕಭೀಮಂ
ಭೀಮಮಭೀತಿದಮಿಷ್ಟಜನಾನಾಮ್|
ಆನಂದತೀರ್ಥ ಮಹಾಮುನಿರಾಜಂ ಗೋವಿಂದಭಕ್ತಶಿಖಾಮಣಿಮೀಡೇ        ||೪||

ಶಾಂತಮನಂತನಿಶಾಂತಸಮಾಹ್ವೇ|
ಶಾಂತಕುಲೇಖಕುಲೇ ಕಿಲ ಜಾತಮ್ |
ಆನಂದತೀರ್ಥ ಮಹಾಮುನಿರಾಜಂ ಗೋವಿಂದಭಕ್ತಶಿಖಾಮಣಿಮೀಡೇ        ||೫||

The Anu Vayu Stuti in Sanskrit.

अणुवायुस्तुति

चंद्रविभूषण चंद्रपुरॊगैः
वंद्यपदांबुरुहं पवमानम्।
आनंदतीर्थ महामुनिराजं गॊविंदभक्तशिखामणिमीडॆ        ॥१॥

प्राणगणाधिपतिं भुविवाणी
प्राणसमं दयया ह्यवतीर्णम्।
आनंदतीर्थ महामुनिराजं गॊविंदभक्तशिखामणिमीडॆ        ॥२॥

श्रीहनुमंतमनंतभुजिष्यं
लंघितसिंधु मुदस्तमहीध्रम्।
आनंदतीर्थ महामुनिराजं गॊविंदभक्तशिखामणिमीडॆ        ॥३॥

भीषणदुष्टकुलांतकभीमं
भीममभीतिदमिष्टजनानाम्।
आनंदतीर्थ महामुनिराजं गॊविंदभक्तशिखामणिमीडॆ        ॥४॥

शांतमनंतनिशांतसमाह्वॆ।
शांतकुलॆखकुलॆ किल जातम् ।
आनंदतीर्थ महामुनिराजं गॊविंदभक्तशिखामणिमीडॆ        ॥५॥

The Anu Vayu Stuti is a short composition-hence the name Anu which in Kannada means small-wherein Vayu and his three incarnations of Hanuma, Bheema and Madhwacharya-are addressed.  

We can see that the second line of  each of the verse has a single or constant refrain or line and this is “AnandatIrtha mahAmunirAjam Govinda bhakta shikhAmaNimIDe”.

Here, Ananda Theertha or Madhwacharya is reckoned to be the King of ascetics and a jewel among the devotees of Govinda or Krishna.

The first verse celebrates the moola roopa of Vayu who is addressed a Pavamana.  

The second verse tell us how Vayu enters the body and becomes Prana Devaru or Mukya Prana. Here Prana means any sensory organ.    

The third verse makes overt and covert references to the Monkey God or Hanuma, the first avatar, who lifted the Sanjeeveni parvata, and played a major role in the Ramayana. There is a reference to Lord Rama (Govinda here is Rama) too whose doota was Hanuman.

The fourth verse is about the magnificent Bheema, the second avatar. Here Govinda refers to Krishna and Veda Vyasa to the one who organised the Vedas.

The fifth verse celebrates Ananda Theertha or Madhwacharya, the third and final avatar. Govinda here means Veda Vyasa whom Madhwacharya saw in Badari. However, Govinda can also mean Rama and Krishna whom Madhwacharya worshipped.

The verse subtly says Madhwacharya took birth to uphold Dwaitha and silence all other wrong doctrines.

The avatara Purusha

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 ||

aMdu hanumaMtanAgi aKiLa dikkellavanu
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 ||

mUrAru eraDoMdu mUDhamatagaLa jaridu
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.”

The man of three Avatars- Madhwacharya

Madhwacharya was sitting on his favourite seat at the Ananthaswara temple in Udupi. Before the establishment of the Sri Krishna Temple in 1278, the Anantheswara Temple was the centre of learning in Udupi. It was also one of the favourite temples of Madhwacharya.

It was the morning of Navami in 1317 and Madhwacharya  was giving a discouse on Upanishads to his disciples. When he finished the discourse,  a shower of flowers fell on him. The shower soon turned into a cascade and in a few minutes it had covered the Acharya completely.

A little later his disciples began removing the flowers and to their horror they found that the Acharya had disappeared. They then suddenly heard the voice of Madhwa telling them that he had left for Uttarabadari and that he would not come back. This is the day that is called as Madhwa Jayanthi.

Tomorrow is Madhwa Jayanthi, the day he was born, and all the 28 Madhwa mathas owing allegiance to Madhwacharya will be following it. Interestingly, while almost all the Madhwa saints have entered Brindavana, Madhwacharya who is the Bheeshma Pitah of Dwaitha philosophy, just vanished into thin air. It is for this reason that there is no Brindavanan for him.

The place from where he disappeared and the house he was born and other places that he is associated with can still be seen today in Udupi, Pajaka Kshetra and surrounding areas.

One of the earliest works that throw a lot of light on Madhwacharya, his life and times, is Madhwa Vijaya by Pandit Narayanacharya. He was the son of  Trivikrama Panditacharya, who was one of  the Acharya’s favourite disciple.

There is an interesting anecdote about the Acharya and Trivikrama Panditacharya. It was an usual day at Udupi when the Acharya would go into the sanctum sanctorum of the Krishna Temple and offer prayers to the diety.
As was his usual practice, the Acharya would close the door and perform pooja before offering Naivaidya to Krishna.  One day, a curious Trivikrama Panditacharya wanted to know what went on behind the closed doors. He then sneaked a look through a small window and to his amazement he saw Hanuma performing pooja to Rama, Bheema performing pooja to Krishna and Madhwacharya himself performing pooja to Veda Vyasa (Narayana).
Dumbstruck by what he had seen, Trivikrama Panditacharya composed Vayu Stuti or Hari Vayu Stuti. It contains  41 paragraphs and  Trivikrama Panditacharya presented it to Madhwacharya. The Acharya said the work should not be dedicated to him and added a two paragraph composition on Lord Narasimha.
Even to this day, the house of  Trivikrama Panditacharya and his son Narayana exists in Kasargod,Kerala. The building is called Kavu Math and the Brindavana of  Trivikrama Panditacharya is located here. The descendents of  Trivikrama Panditacharya still live there.         

Coming back to Madhwacharya,  the Madhwa Vijaya by Pandit Narayanacharya contains a lot of information on the Acharya, It is a book of 16 chapters and the last chapter gives an elaborate account of the miracles performed by the Acharya and several incidents that took place during the time of Madhwacharya. Some of these incidents are already contained in earlier chapters.

However, what is astonishing is that this book gives no information about the disappearance of the Acharya although there is the incident of showering of flowers upon Madhwacharya. A work by Hrishikesh Theertha, the first pontiff of  Palimaru matha, one of the eight mathas set up by Madhwacharya, too does not mention this incident.

Historical and contemporary records indicate that the Acharya spent the last few  years of his life on the banks of Kanva Theertha. It was also perhaps during this period that he initiated Shobana Bhatta into the Dwaitha order and gave him the name Padmanabha Theertha. Shobana Bhatta was from Orissa as was Madhwa’s second disciple Narahari Theertha (His earlier name was Shama Shastri), also from Orissa.

The Acharya also initiated swamijis into the Asta Mathas, including his own brother Vishnu Theertha who was the first pontiff of the Sode Matha or Vadiraja Matha. A little later, Vishnu Theertha founded the Subramanya Matha at Kukke Subramanya near Dharmasthala. He is thus the first pontiff of two Madhwa mathas.

The Acharya introduced the Paryaya system for the worship of Lord Krishna Temple at Udupi. This arrangement began from 1317 and continued till 1532. Under this arrangement, each of the eight maths were allowed to be in charge of the Udupi Temple for two months by turn. This system was called Paryaya and it meant that each Matha would come to Paryaya  once in 16 months.

In 1532, Vadiraja changed the tenure of the mathas to two years. So now each Matha  has to wait for 16 years for its Paryaya turn.

By the way it was the Acharya himself who first declared that he is an avatar of Hanuman and Bheema. This, he declared in Vishnu Tatya Vinirnaya.

Even to this day, though the Paryaya Seer performs pooje to the Krisha idol every day, he closes the door of the sanctum sanctorum during Naivaidya and come out. This is because of the belief that the Acharya himself comes every day and offers Nauvaidya t Krishna. There is an interesting story behind this.

The third of the four direct disciples of  Madhwacharya is Madhava Theertha (the first is Padmanabha Theertham second is Narahari Theertha and the fourth is Akshoba Theertha) was performing pooje to Krishna at the udupi temple when he suddenly stood up and reverentially folded his hands,  All the people assembled there were astonished,

They then saw Madhava Theertha extend his palms towards open air. Madhava Theertha then brought the hand towards his mouth and appeared to swallow something. He then folded his hands and performed Shastanga Namaskara.

When the assembled gathering wanted to know what had happened and why Madhava Theertha had interrupted his own pooje,  he replied that he saw Madhwacharya himself performing the pooje  of  Krishna. “The acharya gave me theertha and also blessed me. I did my namaskara to him and when I got up, he was gone,” said Madhava Theertha. 
Since that day, seers worshipping Krishna leave it to Madhwacharya to offer Naivaidhya.