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.”

Alur on Madhwacharya

One of the most remarkable Kannada writers of the twentieth century has been Alur Venkata Rao (1880-1964).

Alur was one of the most eminent leaders of the Karnataka Ekikarana movement. He had a very strong impact on the Ekikarana movement which was fighting for a separate state integrating all Kannada speaking areas of Mysore, Bombay Presidency and Nizam's Hyderabad.

He is the author of Karnataka Gatha Vaibhava. It recounted in great detail the glorious history of Karnataka until the Marathas, Nizam and the British took over. The book created a tremendous impact on the people and the Ekikarana movement was an offshoot of this. The movement soon caught the imagination of the public and people started rallying around the Ekikarana movement and the movement picked up momentum

 The book had an impact that Alur came to be known as the Kannada Kula Purohita or the “High priest of the Kannada kula or family.

Alur has written a book on the philosophy of Madhwacharya in which he has specifically dealt with the Rg Bhashya.

Alur says, “The Shlokas of this book are composed in a very easy and flowing style. Such Bhashyas on Vaidic mantras are very rare, or we may say it, is the only one. Though it is easy in style, it is very, very deep in its meaning. Even well- versed Pandits cannot know easily its deep philosophical meanings”.

He says the Pramanas and examples given in the Bhashya can be  nowhere else but in the Vedas only. Hence, he feels that mere

Sanskrit Pandits or scholars cannot know its secret meanings.

He says another special feature of the book is that this book

on Vedas is composed by a Sanyasi. Of all the Sanyasis, Madhwacharya is the only one who has composed such a book.

To Alur, the Rh Bhashya is a small book in Sanskrit in Anushtup Chhandas. Alur found that it contained 489 Shlokas.

He found it easy to memorise the lines as they are ion the form of poetry. Madhwacharya’s scholarly work in writing in poetry what is essentially one of the oldest literary works in the world is nothing short of stunning for Alur.

He sees the Bhashya as the first of its kind-a fitting annexe to the  Veda Mantras. Such a writing is rare and exceptional to Alur as he says all commentaries in Sanskrit literature such as Panini Sutras, Maha Bhashya of Patanjali, Shaber Bhashya and works on Mimasa and Upanishats are in Sanskrit prose. None, he says, have ever even attempted to wrote in poetry, let alone attempt a metrical text.

Therefore, Alur says, the Rg Bhashya deserves to be ranked alongside other Vedic compositions.  

Alur reveals that the book comes up with the etymological meaning of Vedic words, which are not to be found in common Sanskrit literature. Some of the meanings are so complex that they have not been understood even today. Madhwacharya, on the other hand, not only explains them but also traces their etymology and history.  

Madhwacharya, to Alur, has fashioned the meaning of  Vishnu Para in a broad sense. Unfortunately, it became sectarian in the eyes of some people. He finds the Shlokas very easy and composed in a flowing style.

Alur, therefore, says such Bhashyas on Vaidic mantras are very rare, or this should be the only one. Though the style is easy, Alur says it has several layers of meaning. Even well versed Pandits cannot easily understand its deep philosophical meanings.

Alur finds it interesting that Madhwa’s last main proposition in the Bhashya is about the hierarchy of Gods from Chaturmukha Brahma downwards differing in grades and degrees. He says Madhva views the whole of Rg Veda as essentially a  

theosophical document. Madhwacharya thus takes the words of the Geeta, the Katha Upanishad and the Bhagavata literally, and views the entire sacred literature as part of Vedanta.

Alur notes that Madhwacharya maintains the doctrine of three-fold interpretation of Veda in the Bhashya. The Supreme Being or Vishnu is its highest subject matter. All scriptures, including the Rg Veda, primarily sings the glory of the Supreme being. Madhwacharya thus discounts the popular notion that the Vedas  sing the praises of plurality of gods.

All the gods for Madhwacharya are subordinate to Vishnu. Thus, the Bhashya for Alur provides details of the mystic line of interpretation of Madhwacharya.

Interestingly, Madwacharya’s stand on the Rg Veda has been vindicated by modern scholars. The scholar-mystic Sri Aurobindo, in his “The Secret of the Veda” completely agrees with Madhwacharya that vedic hymns are clothed in symbolic terminology.

India’s philosopher President, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, too accepts the authority of the Vedas and its infallibility.