The first disciple of Madhwacharya

He is universally regarded as the first disciple of Madhwacharya, the saint-philosopher who pioneered the Dwaitha concept. He is also the first Adwaitha scholar to have been converted to Dwaitha system by Madhwacharya himself.

He has several other distinctions as he is the first person ever to write commentaries on several works of Madhwacharya. He is also ranked as among the first to propound the Dwaitha Siddantha and the first Madhwa seer to ascend the Dwaitha peeta after Madhwacharya disappeared from view in Udupi.

He is also the first to enter Brindavana and the second after Madhwacharya to give deekshe to another Madhwa saint to found a new Madhwa matha. A high ranking minister in a kingdom in Andhra Pradesh which covered present day Godavari and surrounding areas, he was essentially a Telugu speaking Brahmin. But after accepting Madhwacharya as his guru, he spent all his life in Karnataka and spread the gospel of dualism throughout the State. 

On several occasions, he expounded the doctrines of the Vedas before a galaxy of scholars and among those in the audience was Madhwacharya himself. His commentaries on the many works of Madhwacharya, particularly the Bhashya, helped scholars and people of the times in understating the hidden meaning of the works.

These commentaries remained the only sources for people and scholars to interpret Madhwacharya till Jayatheertha or Teekacharya came up with his erudite interpretations and they supplanted the works by this seer.

This seer is none other than Padmanabha Theertha, one of the leading lights of the Dwaitha movement and a close disciple of Madhwacharya. He was born as Shobana Bhatta, an Adwaitha, and he took to Dwaitha when he was defeated in a debate by Madhwacharya himself.

Born in a small town on the banks of the Godavari, he quickly rose to become a minister on the Kingdom of Raja Mahendra. However, his place of birth near the Godavari is disputed by the renowned scholar BNK Sharma who says he was a Kannadiga.

BNK Sharma says Madhwacharya met Padmanabha Theertha, then called as Shobana Bhatta, when he was returning to Udupi from a pilgrimage to north India. This was sometime in 1265. Padmanabha Theertha was not only a leading scholar of his times but also an eminent logician. He was an expert in fourteen arts and he was silenced in fourteen seconds by Madhwacharya. References to this debate between Madhwacharya and Shobana Bhatta can be found in Madhwa Vijaya  by Narayana Panditacharya. This is a biography of Madhwacharya.

By the way, Hrikesha Theertha, another disciple of Madhwacharya talks of Padmanabha Theertha in his work, Sampradaya Paddathi, as “the teacher of good folk of Karnataka and others”. Another work, Gurukarya, clearly stats that he was a native of Uttara Kannada.

The reason why he is associated with a region close to Godavari is because of a reference in the Madhwa Vijaya by Trivikrama. It is in this work that Padmanabha Theertha is said to be a native of a country near Godavari.

Scholars and researchers say Padmanabha Theertha wrote 15 works but most of them are lost. He is also the author of commentaries on all the ten Prakaranas or the Dasa Prakaranas of Madhwacharya.

His Sannyayaratnavali is the precursor of Nyaya Sudha of Jayatheertha who has quoted from this work as has Vyasa Raja or Vyasa Theertha in his Chandrika.

Jayatheertha in his Nyaya Sudha gratefully acknowledges his debt to Padmanabha Theertha by saying,

“Sa padmanAbhatIrthakhyagogaNostu dR^ishe mama

na tattva mArge gamanaM vinA yadupajeevanam.”

The Sannyayaratnavali is considered to be one of the biggest works of  Padmanabha Theertha and it runs into 5304 granthas.

Madhwa Matha sources place his period as the Mathadipathi for seven years. He handed over the reigns of the Dwaitha Matha to Narahari Theertha before entering Brindavana in Nava Brindavana near Hampi in 1325.

Padmanabha Theertha also handed over the reigns of a matha in Mulabagal near Kolar which he established to Lakshmidhara Theertha and this later came to be known as Sripadaraja Matha. This was sometime in 1324. The idol of Gopinatha that the matha has today was the one which Madhwacharya gave to Padmanabha Theertha who in turn handed it over to Lakshmidara Theertha.

Some of his works include Geetha Bhashya Teeka, Mayavada Khandana Teeka, Sattarka Deepavali, Tatvaviveka Teeka, Upadhi Khandana Teeka (Nyaayavali), Ananda Mala, Prapancha mityatvanumana Kandana Teeka, Katha Lakshana Teeka, Geetha Tatparya Nirnaya Teeka,  Tatvodyota Teeka, Tatvasankyana,  Teeka,  Pramanalakshana Teeka, Karmanirnaya Teeka,  

Vishnutatva nirnaya Teeka and Vayuleela vistarana.

The aradhana of  this great saint as held at Nava Brindavana on November 11.

There is a Mrithika Brindavana of Padmanabha Theertha in the Sripadaraja Matha in Mulabagal and also at the Vyasa Vittala temple near Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bangalore.  

The Rg Bhashya of Madhwacharya

This is a work wherein Madhwacharya has interpreted the first forty slokas of the Rig Veda. According to the Acharya, each sloka and statement in the Vedas has at least three meanings.

Elaborating further on the etymology of the words used in the Rig Veda, he says the underlying meaning when he reads the slokas is that they are all in praise of Vishnu or Hari, who according to him is supreme.

The three levels of understanding are  Adhibhautic, Adhidaivic and Adhyatmic.

The first level or Adhibhatic or agryadidevataparatvene-meaning looking at the slokas from the physical level. The second also called tadantargatavisnuparatvena  is to understand them as a praise to the Abhimana devethes or gods who dwell within us. The final level or adhyatmaparatvena is interpreting them as the Supreme being or Vishnu. All the three levels of meaning is contained in this sloka,

 “tryo'rthah sarvavedesu dasarthah sarvabharate,

Visnoh sahasranamapi nirantarasatarthakam. ”

He commences his brilliant work by starting with “AgnimeelE purOhitam”. He shows us how the words in these forty lines are nothing but a prayer to Vishnu and his glory. Vishnu is supreme and the other gods are dependent on him.

He bases his argument that the Rg Veda means Vishnu on two main planks or doctrines. The first is the repeated use of Omkara as conveying a Brahaman and this means Vishnu and Vedas.

The second is that the entire Vedas and its study is meant to provide us a vehicle to move away from the worldly  to the holy and from the materialistic to the spiritual. Only the supreme being or Vishnu ca help us attain this goal and nobody else. Since Vishnu is supreme and all other gods subordinate, the Rg Veda is an exposition of Vishnu himself. The niruKti of the vedic deities and the adjectives given to them are explained. We can also find a similar explanation in the work or teeke of Jayatheertha and Mamtrartha Manjari of  Raghavendra Swamy

This is not a very big text. There is no colophon or closing notes at the end of the book and, hence, we are unsure whether the Acharya commented further and whether this was among the many parts that he wrote. As even Jayatheertha or Teekacharya wrote his commentary or Teeke on these forty lines only, we can surmise that this is all that has survived.

The text is important from two points. The first is because Madhwacharya shows us how the Rg veda can be interpreted to highlight the supremacy of Vishnu. The second is because he becomes the first saint-philosopher to directly refer and touch upon the Rg veda and comment on it. He is also the first to interpret the Veda, which is among the earliest religious texts of India.

Madhwacharya, here, adopts a poetical form to point out, the supremacy of Vishnu. He thus becomes the first religious leader to give us a totally spiritual meaning of the Rg Veda. 

Madhwacharya draws upon his vast repertoire of Sanskrit and he used many Sanskrit phrases and idioms to buttress his argument. We find that he follows the ancient rhythmical patterns while composing the Rg Bhashya.

Raghavendra Swamy too wrote a commentary on the Rg Bhashya but the text is no longer available. However, we have an oral tradition of this work. But it remains to be seen how authentic this can be.

The first to write a commentary on this work was Narahari Theertha, one of the four direct disciples of  Madhwacharya. Jayatheertha has written an excellent commentary on this text and to date it remains the most outstanding interpretation and commentary of Madhwacharya’s work.

Jayatheertha has written a detailed commentary on Rg bhasya and he explains each hymn of Rg veda and gives their meaning word by word. He also gives us grammatical explanation of the words, Risi, devata, Chandas and also the three levels of meaning.

The Mantrarthamanjari of Raghavendra Theertha is much more simple in style and Rayaru explains the importance of each hymn and he adheres to the interpretation offered in the Bhasya by Madhwacharya and Jayatheertha’s Teeka.  

Another excellent treatise on the Rg Bhashya is “Rgbhasyatika vivrti Padartha Prakasika” by Srinivasa Theertha (1590 – 1640). A disciple of  Yadavarya, some of his works supplements the work of his guru.

His commentary is rather elaborate. He explains the grammatical points in detail by liberally quoting the relevant sutras of Panini and a few other texts of Vyakarana shastra.

The “Rgbhasya Tippani Padartha Deepika by Pandurangi Kesavacharya (1580-1640) is another scholarly book. He was the younger brother of Vidydeesha Theertha who headed the Uttaradi Matha from 1619 to 1631.

His commentary on Rg Bhasya is a magnificent example of  giving  grammatical explanations for the Vedic words occurring in the hymns. He quotes extensively from Vyakarana shastras.

Chalari Narasimhachar (1620-1674) also has given us a commentary on Rg bhasya. He was a contemporary of Satyanatha Theertha of Utaradhi Matha.

Jayatheertha-the bard of Malkhed

It is a remote village in Gulbarga district but it is a shining star in the Madhwa galaxy where no less than sixteen saints of the Dwaitha order are entombed.

Once the capital of the Rashtrakutas from 818 AD to 982 AD, the village is now more known for its Madhwa Brindavanas than for its history. The memories of the once powerful Rashtrakuta is seen in the ruins of the place.

The once powerful city of the Rashtrakutas has lost its glory but what still remains and continues to shine as bright as the Sun is the is one of the most prominent Brindavanas of the Madhwa order.

The Brindavana belongs to one of the most revered and scholarly Dwaitha saint-the one who dared for the first time ever to interpret the works of Madhwacharya also called as Madhwa or the Acharya.

This saint is nine other than Jayatheertha or Teeka Char and his Brindavana is located in the small town of Malkhed, which was in ancient times known as Manyakheta. It is one the banks of the serene Kagina.

Manyakheta has a hallowed history. It was the capital of the Rashkrakutas but by the time of Jayatheertha, it had lost its standing in history and was already in ruins. One of Karnataka;s greatest ruler, Amoghavarsha, the first, had shifted the Rashkrakuta capital from Mayurkhandi in Bidar district to Mānyakheṭa.

This was also the city which the Kalyani Chalukyas, after the fall of the Rashtrakutas, made their capital till 1050 AD. Malkhed is also the place where Sri Vijaya, the eminent poet and Aasthana  Vidwan of  one of the greatest Rashtrakuta Emperor Nrupatunga, resided.

The famous Mahapurana (Adipurana and Uttarapurana) was composed here by Acharya Jinasena and his favourite pupil Gunabhadra in 9th century AD . Somadeva Suri’s Yasastilaka Champu was written in Malkhed as was the brilliant mathematics treatise Ganita Saara Sangrahae by Mahaviracharya.

Another obscure fact is that the well-known Apabramsha poet Pushpadante lived here. Yet, almost all these figures are almost forgotten but not Jayatheertha. With each passing day, his stature and fame seems to increase.   

Jayatheertha was the direct disciple of Akshobya Theertha, his uncle. Akshobya Theertha was the fourth disciple of Madhwacharya and he had left his home in Jamkhandi in erstwhile Bijapur district to join the Dwaitha bandwagon of Madhwa.

One day when Akshobya Theertha was sitting in meditation on the banks of the Bheema, he saw a horseman called Dondupant gallop into the river , bend down and drink water from the river.

Struck by this event, Akshobya Theertha asked the horseman whether he was an ox in his previous birth. The remark triggered past memories of the horseman who recollected that he was an ox which had carried the works of Madhwa on its back.

He also recollected that the Acharya, in the course of his discourse, had remarked that the ox would write commentaries on his works. This had enraged some of the disciples who had poisoned the ox.

The ox was reborn as Jayatheertha.  The horsemen immediately jumped down from the animal and urged Akshobya Theertha to give him Sanyasa.

When Dondopant’s father heard of what had happened, he came to Akshobya Theertha and berated him for giving sanyas to a man in the prime of his youth. He forcibly took Dondopant home and got him married.

When the bride entered the bridal chamber in the night, she was shocked to see a huge serpent sleeping on the bridal bed. She immediately called for help. Jayatheertha’s father came running and was astonished at what he saw. He immediately sensed that his son was no ordinary mortal and he came back to Akshobya Theertha and handed over Donupant to him as his Shishya.

It is now that the real training of Jayatheertha began. Akshobya Theertha spent all his life teaching his favourite disciple about Shastras, Vedas, Upanishats and other texts.

Akshobya Theertha was particular in teaching to Jayatheertha about all the works of  Madhwa. To his great astonishment, Jayatheertha was a hard working pupil, brilliant in several topics, including Teeke.

Days passed into months and months into years and Alshobya Theertha spared no effort to make Jayatheertha the most well-known and knowledgble scholar of his time.

Akshobya Theertha entered Brindavana in Malkhed and Jayatheerta personally oversaw the construction of the Brindavana. He then sat down to write his commentaries, which are relevant even today and are taken as the first and foremost guide to interpret the works of Madhwa.

He headed the Madhwa Matha for 22 years and seven months. During his period, there was none to challenge him and even Vidyaranya, the Raja Guru of  Vijayanagar, acknowledged the ability and scholarship of Jayatheertha.

Vidyaranya had been defeated several years ago in a debate by Akshobya Theertha in Mulabagal in Kolar district. Soon after the debate, the adversaries had gone their ways-Vidyaranya to Sringeri and Vijayanagar and Akshobya to Malkhed.

After several years, Vidyaranya desired to meet Akshobya and he came down to Malkhed where he was told that Akshobya had entered Brindavana and that Jayatheertah was his disciple.

Vidyaranya wanted to test how much Akshobya had taught Jayatheertha and he came to a cave at Yeragol where Jayatheertha was residing. As can be expected, Jayatheertha proved his mettle and Vidyaranya was gracious in his compliments.

He is said to have remarked that Akshobya taught his disciple well. He then placed the works that Jayatheertha had written on an elephant and took it out in a procession.           

Jayatheertha composed almost all his works and, of course, commentaries in this cave in Yeragol which is near Malkhed.

By all accounts, it was in this cave that the Nyaya Sudha, one of the seminal works in Dwaitha literature came to be composed. The author-who else but Jayatheertha. This one works alone is enough to place Jayatheertha on a pedestal next to the venerable Madhwa. It is this work that earned him the nomenclature Teekachar.

Jayateertha is believed to be an avatara of Indra with aavesha of Shesha and personally blessed by Goddess Durga with a writing instrument and a piece of areca nut.

Another legend has it that he was Arjuna during the Mahabharata war. Soon after the Mahabharata war, Arjuna thought to himself that it was because of him that the war was won. He thus for a moment forget Vasudeva or Krishna. For this sin, he was cursed to be reborn as a mortal. His mortal birth was as Jayatheertha.

Whatever his previous antecedents, one thing is for sure. No mere mortal could have so beautifully interpreted Madhwa and in such a manner that all Madhwa saints following him, be it Vyasa Raja or Raghavendra Swamy, Sripadaraja or Raghuttama, have referred to Jayatheertha and his Nyaya Sudha.

Today, if one has to understand Madhwa and his teachings, the first thing one has to do is to get the commentaries of  Jayatheertha.    

Jayatheertha entered Brindavanan near his Guru at Malkhed itself after handing over the reigns to yet another illustrious scholar-Vidyadhiraja Theertha.

However, one puzzling fact is why Jayatheertha and others chose a territory in north Karnataka under the Muslim Bahamani kings to enter Brindavana, while the Hindu Vijayanagar Kingdom was so prominent in south Karnataka. 

One reason is that Jayatheertha acknowledged Malkhed as the place where the saint Brigu     

Malked is just 40 kms from Gulbarga. There are frequent bus service from Gulbarga, Sedam and nearby places to Malkhed. The Uttaradhi Matha and other mathas in Malkhed offer Theerthaprasada and accommodation.

Malkhed is also famous for the Uttaradhi Matha and the Jain Bhattaraka Matha.  The Jain temple of Neminathm built in the 9^th century AD  is a remarkable structure with iodls of all the 24 Jain Theerthankaras. The temple is home to the Panchdhatu shrine with 96 images.