The philosopher Trinity of India

Madhwa Navami is a highly important event for all Madhwas and it was held a few days ago. All mathas in Bangalore and Vaishnava temples celebrated the day with free food, religious discourses and special poojas.

It was on this day that Madhwacharya, the Viashnava saint philosopher of the 12^th century, disappeared amid a shower of flowers from the Anantheshwara Temple in Udupi after giving a lucid lecture on the Upanishad.

A master commentator, philosopher and writer, Madhwacharya is ranked among the trinity of saint-philosophers of India who have given a solid foundation to Indian philosophy and religion. The trinity are Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya and Madhwacharya. The first of the trinity was Shankaracharya who propagated the concept of  monoism or Adwaitha.

Shankara or Adi Shankara (788-820) wrote several works in Sanskrit and established the four Shankara Peethas across India to support his doctrine of Adwaitha Vedanta.

He preached the unity of the atma and and nirguna Brahman (one which has no attributes) and extensively based this concept on the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras and, of course, the Bhagawath Geetha. He took on the Mimamsa school of thought and pioneered what later came to be known as Shanmata tradition of worship.

His philosophy can be summarised in his own words as,

 

“ Brahma satyam jagat mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah,”

meaning that Brahma (paramathma) is the only truth and that the world is an illusion  and that finally there is no difference between  Brahma and Atma (individual self).

After Shankara came Ramanujacharya (1017-1137) with his concept of  Vishistadwaitha. This concept stresses that Brahma is ultimate and that it has several attributes. Ramanuja says that Brahma or truth (paramathma) is different from the individual.

He further says that all jeevatmas will join Paramathma.

He set out five basic steps of his philosophy of Vedanta. They are 

Taapa or the branding of the symbols of conch and discuss on the shoulders of a person. These two symbols will help eliminate past sins and also serve as a reminder to the person that he is a servant of Narayana.

The second is Pundra or the application of sacred marks on twelve places on the human body. This, Ramanujacharya, said is protection against temptation and also a reminder that the body is a temple.

The third step is Dasya Nama or securing a name that constantly reminds one that the person is a servant of god. 

The fourth is Mantra Upadesha or instruction of the three sacred mantras and their meaning. Ramanajucharya was certain that recitation of these mantras will redeem one from the cycle of birth and death (Karma and rebirth).   

The fifth and last step was Yaga or complete surrender to Narayana.

The third of the trinity was Madhwacharya (1199-1287). It was Madhwacharya who for the first time opposed the concept of Shankara and his monoism.

Madhwa said the world is not an illusion as set out by Shankara. He said the world is not maya and that it is as real as a human being. The pain, suffering and desires of man were also as real as other human attributes. 

Madhwacharya preached what is known as Dwaitha or Bhedavada. This is also known as Tatwavada and Bimba-pratibimba-vada. He has a huge volume of works which are collectively known as Sarvamoola Grantha. He based his philosophy on the Vedas, Puranas, Ramayana, Mahabharatha and Pancharatra Agamas

Madhwacharya distinguishes between Atma or bodily soul and Paramathma, the supreme being and this is the essence of  his philosophy.

For Madhwacharya, the supreme being was none other than Narayana or Vishnu. For him, the soul of an individual was not created by God but nonetheless they depended on God for their existence or survival.

For the acharya, the supreme being is personal and one who has several attributes. This supreme being is none other than “brahmashabdashcha vishnaveva” or Vishnu.

Vishnu thus takes on the role of a guardian of the Universe and all others Gods are subordinate to him. It is in his “Vishnu tatwavinirnaya” that he establishes the supremacy of Vishnu.

Interestingly, Madhwacharya’s principle of Dwaitha is not similar to the concept of Western dualism. For Madhwacharya, the jeevatama or individual Jeeva or prana are dependent on Paramathma. Thus, he says there are two worlds and one is dependent on the other.

Madhwacharya enunciated five main differences and they are  the differences:

Between the individual soul (jeevatma) and God (Brahmatma or Vishnu).

Between matter (inanimate-jata) and God.

Among individual souls (jeeva)

Between matter (jata) and jeeva.

Among various types of matter (jata-jata).

All these five differences go on to make up the universe which Madhwacharya calls prapancha.

However, the Jeeva or atma for Madhwacharya is not one. He not only attributes characters to them but also distinguishes them into three categories.

The souls are classified as Mukti (which can get liberated), nitya which means rebirth and andhatmas which are condemned to hell. This is the first time that an Indian philosopher makes such a distinction. No other Indian philosopher or theologician or even school of thought has held such thoughts or propagated them.

It was Jayatheertha or Teekacharya who interpreted the works of Madhwacharya so that even a common man could understand them. This was further simplified by Vyasa Raja (1447-1539).

Today, we have a huge volume of works on Dwaitha philosophy. The essence of this philosophy is Taratamya and the five-fold differences which is commonly called Pancha Beda.

The Sarvamoola Grantha on palm leaves

A well-preserved 700-year-old palm leaf manuscript belonging to the Palimar Math in Udupi is one of the rarest books in the Madhwa Parampare.

The book has always drawn attention, not only for its antiquity but also for the fact that it was written by Hrikesha Theertha, the first and favourite disciple of Madhwacharya.

The 250 manuscripts are handwritten and they contain the entire set of  39 works of  Madhwacharya, the 13^th century saint-philosopher from Karnataka and the fountainhead of Madhwa philosophy.

Popularly believed to be the third of the avatar of Hanuma-Bheema and Madhwa, his works put together are called as Sarvamoola Grantha. The 250-odd manuscripts contain all the 39 works of the Acharya and they are in Tulu.

Handwritten by Hrikesha Theertha, the manuscripts are in the Palimaru Matha at Palimaru, 7 kms from Udupi. The matha is adjacent to the serenely flowing Shambaavi river.

The matha is as old if not slightly older than the grantas. The main deity of the matha is Kodanda Rama with Seetha and Lakshmana. These idols were gifted by the Acharya himself to Hrikesha Theertha when he made him the founder-pontiff of the Palimaru Matha.

Hrishikesha Teertha (1250-1330 AD) is the first among the eight seers of the Asta Mathas to be ordained into the Dwaitha order. That is why the cycle of Paryaya system for Krishna pooje begins with this matha.

The Sumadhwavijaya mentions that Hrishikesha Teertha was one of the favorite disciples of  Madhwacharya. He used to read out the verses of Bhagavatha during discourses by the Acharya.

He is the author of  “Sampradaya paddati” and “Anumadhvacharita” both of which deal with the early life and works of Madhwa.

Since he was a favourite of the Acharya, he was given the name Astotkrsta.

The Sampradaya Paddathi is a work in 26 verses. This is perhaps the first work or among the first few works on the Acharya and his texts.  

In the Sampradaya Paddathi, Hrikesha Theertha refers to the Sanyasa given by the Acharya to his brother Vishnu Theertha. He also talks about Madhwacharya asking Vishnu Theertha to keep his works in safe custody and to retrieve them at a later date.

We owe to Hrikesha Theertha the information that Padmanabha Theertha was a native of Karnataka. The seer acknowledges that Padmanabha Theertha played a vital and important role in spreading Dwaitha thought and philosophy in north Karnataka and Bombay Karnataka areas.

The Madhwa Vijaya calls Padmanabha Theertham the “Guru of Karnatakas and other good men”.  

He has personally made a copy of Sarvamoola Granthas in Tulu script on palm leaves even as the Acharya dictated them in Sanskrit. The manuscripts were copied on to silicon wafer to preserve them for posterity.

The manuscripts are housed in the sanctum sanctorum of the Palimaru Math and worshipped by successive pontiffs. These  manuscripts first saw the light of day when Bannanje Govindacharya, noted Sanskrit and Kannada scholar, persuaded the then Palimaru Math pontiff Vidyamanya Tirrtha to publish them.

Mr. Govindacharya, who edited and printed the works, has clarified that the Acharya wrote 39 and not 37 works.

These manuscripts were digitalised along with the digitilisation of more than 2,000 volumes of palm leaf manuscripts belonging to Sode Vadiraja Mutt of Udupi, which are between two and three 

centuries old. 

The ten monographs of Madhwacharya

The Sarvamoola Grantha are a collection of 37 works written by Madhwacharya during the 13^th century and early part of the 14^th century.

These works are the fountainhead of the Dwaitha philosophy. It is in these works, that Madhwa refutes the Adwaitha way of life or rather philosophy and takes the Dwaitha Siddantha to a higher plane than the Adwaitha or Buddhist philosophy.

These texts formed the basis for the subsequent saints of the Madhwa order such as Sripadaraja Theertha, Vyasa Theertha, Jaya Theertha, Raghavendra Swamy, Vadiraja Theertha, Raghuttama Theertha and others to base their preachings and also their texts.

It is the very philosophy in the Sarvamoola Grantha that led to the development of Haridasa literature.

The fist ever interpretation of a work of Madhwa is by his first disciple Padmanabha Theertha. The next, and thios was in the form of a torrent, was by Jaya Theertha, whose commentaries on Madhwa earned him the sobriquet Teekachar. His Nyaya Sudha is perhaps the most important interpretation of  Madhwa and this ha formed the core of further interpretations of  Madhwa’s work.

In between Padmanabha Theertha and Jayatheerta, came Akshobya Theertha who took on Vidyaranya in an argument in Mulabagal, Akshobya Theertha based all of his arguments on Madhwa’s interpretation and won.  

All the ten works, except the Vishnu Tatwa Nirnaya, are short. However, the language is tough and one needs the texts of Jayatheerta or Raghavendra Swamy to understand them.

In the Sarvamoola Grantha series, these ten short monographs are also called as Dasha prakaranas. They are:

1. Pramaana Lakshana

2. Kathaa Lakshana

3. Upaadhi Khandana

4. Maayaavaada khandana

5. Mithyaatvaanumana Khandana

6. Tatwa Samkhyana

7. Tatwa Viveka

8. Tattvodyota

9. Vishnu Tatwa Nirnaya

10. Karma Nirnaya.

These ten books too are important as they deal with a variety of subjects. Pramana lakshana talks about the theory of knowledge and various other issues related with it, while Katha lakshana is a book on the subject of debate, its varieties and the rules and regulations governing its conduct.

The next three-Upaadhi, Maayaavaada and Mithyaatvaanumana Prakaranas- take on the Adwaitha tenets and refute them. In Mithyaatvaanumana, the Acharya takes on the Adwaitha theory of “Jagath mythyatva”.

The Tattva samkhyana and Tatwa Viveka deal with the ontology according to the Madhwa school of Vedanta.

The Tattvodyota is belived to contain the arguments that Madhwa actually put to use against two Adwaitha scholars Pundarika Puri and Padmatirtha in Udupi. To the Adwaitha scholars’ argument  “Vishwam mithyaa drshyatvaat”, Madhwa retorts “Chandrapraadeshatvaadivishayam tu

Doorasthatvaadidoshayuktatvaadapatu.”
The Vishnu Tatwa Nirnaya  is the most important work of the Dasha prakranas. It details the concept of Bheda and comes down heavily on Adwaitha concepts.

These books can be easily understood today, thanks to the commentaries on all ten of them by Jayatheertha and subsequently by Vyasa Theertha.

The four main works of Jayatheertha- Maayaavaada khandana Teeka,  Mithyaatvaanumaana khandana Teeka, Upaadhi khandana Teeka and the Tatwa Viveka Teeka-are further elaborated upon and digressed by Vyasa Theertha. Raghavendra Swamy too makes it much more easy for us to understand Madhwa Tatwa.

Raghavendra Swamy wrote Mantrartha manjari to elucidate  Madhwacharya;s Rig Bhashya for 40 hymns.

It is always said that the original is much better than the copy. But in this case, the original has to be read with others as otherwise it would be next to impossible to digest.

As Naarayana Panditacharya aptly pointed out in his biography of Madhwa called “Madhwa Vijaya”,

“Vaadaadayh prakaranasphulingah tanavopyalam.

Vipakshaksham kshinvanti maaruten tvayeritaah.

Maayaavaada khandana “