Otherwise known as Vyasaraya and Vyasaraja Swamin, as we briefly
mentioned, he was the disciple of Brahmanya Tirtha. Born around 1460 AD
in the village of Bannur in Mysore District, his father's name was
Rallanna Sumati and his gotra was Kasyapa. As previously stated, he took
his birth by the blessings of Brahmanya Tirtha. Altogether,
Vyasatirtha's parents had three children, a girl and two boys. In his
childhood Vyasatirtha was known as Yatiraja. At the age of five he
underwent the Vidyarambha samskara to begin his formal education,
starting with writing the alphabet, and at seven took upanayana (the
sacred thread.) He stayed at gurukula for only four years after that. At
eleven he went to his home and continued his studies of poetry, drama
and grammar for about five years. Before Vyasatirtha's birth, his father
promised his second son to Brahmanya Tirtha. He gave the boy the name
Yatiraja to indicate his future as a renunciate, and in due course he
was given to Brahmanya Tirtha as an assistant. After some time, however,
Yatiraja, being unsure of Brahmanya Tirtha's intentions, slipped away
and ran into the forest and headed for the direction of "home," away
from the hermitage. One night whilst sleeping in the forest under a
tree, Lord Vishnu came to him and told him what to do. The teenager
returned to the asrama hermitage that very same day, and shortly after
this, upon proving his dedication to his guru, young Yatiraja was
formally initiated and given the name Vyasatirtha.
Some time
shortly after the two year famine of 1475 and 1476 Brahmanya Tirtha, his
guru, left this world. Vyasatirtha came to the Vedanta Pitha about 1478
in his late teens. Due to his young age and little time spent with his
guru, he didn't really know the conclusions of the Madhva sastras very
well, so he went to Kancipuram to study, where, after a very short time,
he became a renowned pandit. Whilst in that area he was entrusted with
the worship of Shrinivasan (Lord Vishnu) at Tirupati. Vyasatirtha's Mutt
is still at Tirupati on the hill (Tirumala). Before leaving that place,
after about twelve years of being there, he gave the worship over to
his disciples.
In local history corresponding to the time, it is
mentioned that the King of Bisnaga used to listen daily to a great
Madhva Vaishnava sannyasi who had never married or touched a woman in
his life. Though his name is not directly mentioned, history infers that
this was Vyasatirtha.
From Kancipuram he went to Vijayanagar,
and became known for his radical statements regarding Brahmanism,
Vaisnavism, Varnasrama, and who was worthy to worship the Lord. It was
at this time and place where he was challenged to a debate by brahmana
pandits from all over India. The pandits were led by the learned brahmin
Basava Bhatta of Kalinga (Orissa). They all pinned their challenges to
the pillars of the palace. After a thirty day discussion, Vyasatirtha
emerged triumphant, and his reputation earned him the respect of King
Krishnadevaraya (1509) who regarded him as guru and gave him all
honours. He awarded him the order of the camel on a green flag, and a
drum on the back of a camel as a mark of respect. This is still kept by
the Vyasaraya Mutt at Gosale. Once the flag was taken by King Nrsimha in
his attacks against the Muslim sultans who caused threats and violence
to devotees and temples in South India, but between Krishnadevaraya,
Shivaji and others, the sultans were stopped before getting very far.
There are many nice stories telling of the great King Krishnadevaraya,
who ruled the Vijayanagar kingdom on the Tungabhadra River in Karnataka
in connection with his guru. Vyasatirtha gave the King formal
initiation, and then out of gratitude and love for his guru,
Krishnadevaraya had made beautiful Deities of Vittala (Krishna) and
Rukmini, and established the fine Vittala Rukmini temple which still
stands there today5. On the temple wall there are inscriptions giving
the date 1513 AD, and refers to Vyasatirtha as the guru of
Krishnadeva-raya. There is also mention of Vyasatirtha ceremonially
bathing Krishnadevaraya at his initiation, following in the method of
Madhvacarya's puja manual entitled "Tantrasara" (Chapter 2.10-11), in
which the Tantrasara points out that the ceremonial bathing (abhiseka)
of a disciple by the guru adds to the glory of the disciple. As we can
see by the next brief story, this did make him glorious.
Once a
Gajapati King of Orissa tried to humiliate Krishnadevaraya by sending
Adwaitin Mayavadi philosophical points to him to try to catch him out,
but on the instructions and potency of his guru Vyasatirtha,
Krishnadevaraya was, as usual, victorious. Out of gratitude
Krishnadevaraya gave the village of Bettakonda to Vyasatirtha in 1526,
and a huge lake was dug for the pleasure of guru called Vyasa samudra.
The dates vary from 1523, 1524 and 1526 by various records, but all the
points are substantiated by the writings of devotees of the time,
including Purandara dasa. It is also recorded that Krishnadevaraya
literally bathed Vyasatirtha in jewels as well, performing
"Ratnabhiseka" (bathing him in jewels). Generally to install a person,
an abhiseka is done with ghee, milk, yogurt, gaur, honey, sugar-water
and tender coconuts in this part of the country, but this was done with
priceless gems. After the death of Krishnadevaraya in 1530, Acyutaraya
continued to honour Vyasatirtha for a few years until Vyasaraya's
demise. Krishnadevaraya, by the way, is always referred to as probably
the most spiritually enlightened of the Vijayanagar dynasty. He
established many fine temples and Deities in this area under the
guidance of Vyasatirtha. To this day there still stands the Deity of
Laxmi Nrsimha standing twenty five feet tall in the banana fields. The
Deity was carved from one stone under Krishnadevaraya's instructions.
After his demise, the invading Muslims smashed many temples out of their
envy of Vaishnava culture. Many deities like Vittala Rukmini and
Krishnaswami were moved further south, but although the Muslims tried to
smash the Deity of Lord Nrsimha, still He stands, though His temple
lies in rubble around Him. This old and sacred place is the old
Kishkinda mentioned in the Ramayana where Hanuman was born, and where
Rama killed Vali and put Sugriva on the throne.
There are
numerous glories of Shrila Vyasatirtha to be sung. It is not
unintentional that I have said "sung" in his connection, for the highly
controversial and powerful preacher, the third moon of the Madhva line,
was always absorbed in harinama sankirtan. Many say this was due to the
influence of his teacher, Shripadiraja Swami, who is reknowned for his
poems and songs glorifying Lord Shri Krishna. Some say he was the
instigator of the Hari dasa or Dasakuta Movement, which is further
discussed in the section at the back of this book entitled "Modern Day
Madhvas". Anyway, during his life Vyasatirtha established 732 temples of
Hanuman all over South India and composed poems and songs based on the
Shrimad Bhagavatam, Mahabharata and Ramayana.
One day after
composing his famous work called "Krishna Ni Begane Baro" which, for the
last four centuries has become a Bharat Natyam dance repetoire, a
strange thing happened.
Vyasatirtha was taking a little rest
when Lord Shri Krishna appeared in his dream and proceeded to address
him. "You are a sannyasi, you do not have any wife or children. On the
other hand, I am very much married and lave a large family - so why is
it that you only call Me Krishna?" From that day on in any further
compositions, Vyasatirtha always referred to his Lord as Shri Krishna.
Once Vyasatirtha was sitting upon the pitha amongst his many, many
disciples, when out of nowhere one low-born farmer happened to come into
the assembly requesting mantra diksa initiation from Vyasatirtha. The
farmer humbly begged, but in his humility he was persistent. The many
other disciples, who were mostly brahmana stock, viewed him as being
completely unqualified due to his birth and education, or rather lack of
it - not being born in a Brahmin family like all the other disciples.
Vyasatirtha however, being pure and free from bodily conceptions of
birth, etc, was of a different mind and to everyone's amazement
Vyasatirtha told the farmer to chant the name of Yamaraja's bull. Going
away and coming back after some time after chanting that name, the
farmer's voice was again heard. "Swamiji, Swamiji, he is here," the
farmer exclaimed. When the devotees peaked outside the Mutt, to their
surprise there was Yamaraja's bullm Mahisa, big as a mountain, right
there outside the door of the Mutt. "Now what shall I do Swamiji?" the
farmer enquired from Vyasatirtha. Vyasatirtha instructed him to take the
bull to the river where there was one huge boulder that hundreds of men
couldn't move. The farmer went to the river and requested the bull to
move the boulder out of the main stream of the river to allow the water
to flow to reach the crop irrigation areas downstream. That rock, which
was in itself like an island amidst the river, the bull submerged beyond
sight simply with the lifting of his hoof and resting it upon it. To
the delight of everyone the water again began to flow. Soon after this
incident the bull returned to Yamaraja, his master. The farmer then
asked Vyasatirtha for more service. Vyasatirtha, who was always
compassionate, then engaged him in looking after the Mutt's goshalla.
Not long after that, an annual festival for the Deity came around on
the calendar, and a huge festival was put on for the Lord. The high
point was the abhiseka bathing ceremong in which the Deity was to be
bathed in many different auspicious by-products of the cow. However,
just as the bathing commenced, the Deity of Udupi Krishna suddenly
disappeared right in front of everyon'e eyes. Everyone was very confused
except for Shrila Vyasatirtha, who asked all the assembled devotees to
conclude as to what had happened. The debating took some time, and the
disciples came to their conclusion that due to the offence of allowing
the low-born farmer to look after the cows and procure the milk, yogurt,
ghee, etc for the puja, the Lord had disappeared.
Indirectly
they were blaming their guru, saying that this was his offence, for they
were still on the bodily concept of life, thinking themselves as
brahmanas and he a mere vaisya farmer.
Vyasatirtha very
tolerantly tilted his head and asked everyone to follow him for a
moment. Everyone went to the goshalla headed by Vyasatirtha. As they
looked into the goshalla they saw the farmer scrubbing down the cows,
brush in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. In his total
absorption of serving the Lord's cows, the farmer didn't even notice
that the Deity had manifested His Gopal form and was standing beside him
holding the bucket for him. Needless to say, all of his disciples were
amazed that Udupi Krishna personally served this non-brahmin farmer, but
Shrila Vyasatirtha explained that, "No, the Lord had come to serve His
pure devotee. Previously he came for Acarya Madhva to have him glorified
and now he has found another worthy soul." Shrila Vyasatirtha later
formally initiated the farmer as his disciple.
Vyasatirtha
passed away at Vijayanagar on the caturthi (fourth) day in the dark
fortnight in the month of Phalguna (Jan-Feb), corresponding to Saturday
8th March, 1539 AD. His tomb remains on the island of Navavrindavanas in
the Tungabhadra River, half a mile from Anegondi (Hampi).
Vyasatirtha was, as some say, almost the second founder of the system of
Madhvacarya, after the great Madhvacarya. Vyasatirtha influenced many,
including the aristocracy, and many of his disciples travelled north
preaching his glories to places which included Madhya Pradesh, Orissa,
Maharastra, and even Rajasthan and Uttara Pradesh.
According to
Kavikarnapur in his Gauraganoddesa Dipika, Vyasatirtha wrote the famous
book, "Shri Vishnu Samhita", and had a disciple by the name Laxmipati
Tirtha who was originally from North India.6
The following is a
story in connection with the disciple of Vyasatirtha who was given the
name Laxmipati Tirtha, and who became the next to be recognised as the
acarya in the line in which we follow.
