Vijayīndra Tīrtha ''(also known as Vijayendra Tīrtha)'' (1517 - 1614) was a

Dvaita Dvaita Vedanta (); (originally known as Tattvavada; IAST: ''Tattvavāda''), is a sub-school in the Vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; , ), also known as ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six orthodox (Āstika and nāstika, ''āstika'') trad ...

philosopher and dialectician. A prolific writer and an unrelenting polemicist, he is said to have authored 104 treatises expounding the principles of

and defending it against attacks from the contemporary orthodox schools of

Vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; , ), also known as ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six orthodox (Āstika and nāstika, ''āstika'') traditions of Hindu philosophy and textual exegesis. The word ''Vedanta'' means 'conclusion of the Vedas', and encompa ...

. He held the pontifical seat at

Kumbakonam Kumbakonam (formerly spelt as Coombaconum or Combaconum), or Kudanthai, is a city municipal corporation in the Thanjavur district in the States of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located from Thanjavur and from Chennai and is the hea ...

under the rule of

Thanjavur Nayaks The Thanjavur Nayak dynasty (or Thanjavur Nayak kingdom) were the rulers of Thanjavur in the 15th and 17th centuries founded by Sevappa Nayaka. The Nayaks, who were Telugu Balijas,* * * * * * * * * were originally appointed as prov ...

where he participated in polemical discussions with the Advaita philosopher

Appayya Dikshita Appayya Dikshita (IAST '), 1520–1593 CE, was a performer of yajñas as well as an expositor and practitioner of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy but with a focus on Shiva or Shiva Advaita. Life Appayya Dikshitar was bo ...

Inscriptions from that era record grants of villages received by Vijayindra for his triumph over theological debates . Legend ascribes to him mastery over 64 arts and his erudition, writes Sharma, "is evident from a few of his works bearing on

Purva Mimamsa The Fourteen Purvas (meaning ancient or prior knowledge) are a large body of Jain scriptures that was preached by all Tirthankaras (omniscient teachers) of Jainism encompassing the entire gamut of knowledge available in this universe. The persons ...

Nyaya Nyāya (Sanskrit: न्यायः, IAST: nyāyaḥ), literally meaning "justice", "rules", "method" or "judgment", is one of the six orthodox (Āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy. Nyāya's most significant contributions to Indian philosophy ...

and Kavya literature".

Life

Almost nothing is known about his early life and family. Most of the information on Vijayindra is derived from a few inscriptions and two hagiographies: ''Rāghavendra Vijaya'' and ''Guruguṇastavana''. Born as Vitthalācharya in a

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

-speaking

Deshastha Madhva Brahmin Deshastha Brahmin is a Hindu Brahmin subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and North Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Brahmins are also concentr ...

family, he studied

, Mimamsa and

under the philosopher

Vyasatirtha Vyāsatīrtha (), also called ''Vyasaraja'' or ''Chandrikacharya'', was a Hindu philosopher, scholar, polemicist, commentator and poet belonging to the Madhwacharya's Dvaita order of Vedanta. As the rajaguru of Vijayanagara Empire, Vyasati ...

. He also received training in Kavya (poetics),

Natya Indian classical dance, or ''Shastriya Nritya'', is an umbrella term for different regionally-specific Indian classical dance traditions, rooted in predominantly Hindu musical theatre performance,, Quote: All of the dances considered to be part ...

(drama) and Alankara (rhetoric). Aged 25, he moved to Kumbakonam at the behest of Surendra Tirtha, the erstwhile

pontiff In Roman antiquity, a pontiff () was a member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs."Pontifex". "Oxford English Dictionary", March 2007 The term ''pontiff'' was later applied to any h ...

of the Dhakshinadi Kavindra mutt. Vitthala eventually succeeded Surendra as the pontiff with the title Vijayīndra Tīrtha. Inscriptional evidence and traditional accounts note that Vijayindra received patronage from

Aliya Rama Raya Aliya Rama Raya (1484 – 23 January 1565) was a statesman of the Vijayanagara Empire, the son-in-law (Aliya in Kannada) of Emperor Krishna Deva Raya and the progenitor of the Aravidu dynasty of Vijayanagara Empire, the fourth and last dynasty ...

and grants from

Sevappa Nayak Sevappa Nayaka was a Nayaka (governor) of Thanjavur under the Vijayanagara Empire from 1532 to 1560. Ancestry and personal life Sevappa was the successor of his father Timmappa Nayaka, also known as Timmabuban and Timmabhupati, the Viceroy o ...

Tanjore Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore,#Pletcher, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian c ...

. He was involved in severe polemical discussions with his rival and friend

, with several of his works dedicated to refuting the claims of Appayya. After his death in 1614, his mortal remains were enshrined in the mutt at Kumbakonam. He was succeeded by

Sudhindra Tirtha Sudhindra Tirtha (1596 - 1623) was a Dvaita philosopher of aesthetics, dramatist and the pontiff of the matha at Kumbakonam. Unlike his predecessors who mainly dealt with polemics and theology, most of his written works deal with Kavya (''po ...

Works

Vijayindra Tirtha is credited with as many as 104 literary works of which many are non-extant. A few that remain mainly consist of commentaries on the works of

(''Laghu Amoda'') and

Madhva Madhvacharya (; ; 1199–1278 CE or 1238–1317 CE), also known as Purna Prajna () and Ānanda Tīrtha, was an Indian philosopher, theologian and the chief proponent of the ''Dvaita'' (dualism) school of Vedanta. Madhva called his philosophy ...

(''Tattvaprakasika Tippani''), polemical works refuting the works of

and several treatises dealing with the issue of compatibility of

with Mimamsa (''Chakra Mimamsa''). A few poems and three dramatical works have been attributed to him as well.

List of notable works

104 works are attributed to Vijayindra of which only sixty are extant. Except for a few notable works, many remain unprinted. The manuscripts are preserved in ''mutts'' at

Nanjangud Nanjangud, officially known as Nanjanagudu, is a town in the Mysuru district of the Indian state of Karnataka. Nanjangud lies on the banks of the river Kapila (also called Kabini), 23 km from the city of Mysore. Nanjangud is famous for the ...

Mantralayam Mantralayam is a pilgrim village in Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh, India, on the banks of the Tungabhadra River on the border with neighbouring state of Karnataka. It is known for being the site of the samadhi of Raghavendra Tirtha, a s ...

and

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

Vijayindra Tirtha and the origin of Kashi Math
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tirtha, Vijayindra Vaishnavite religious leaders Dvaita Vedanta Dvaitin philosophers 1510s births 1590s deaths