Sri Jayateertharu

Sri Jayateertharu, is one of the Main pillars to the great Madhva Philosophy. He is considered among top three great yatis(“Munitrayaru”) of Dvaitha Philosophy, along with Sri Madhwacharya and Sri Vyasarajaru. He is 6th in the lineage from Sri Madhwacharyaru.

Poorvashrama details

Period : 1365 – 1388

Poorvasharama Name : Sri Raghunatha Nayaka

Ashrama Gururagalu : Sri Akshobya Theertharu

Ashrama Sishyaru : Sri Vidyadhiraja Theertharu

Aradana : Ashada Krishna Panchami, Vibhava Samvatsara

Vrundavana Place : Navavrundavana (Anegondi) / Malakheda

Brief Sketch

Sri Raghunatha Nayaka is 4th son of Sri Dundiraja nayaka belong to renouned sastika vamsha of Bharadvaja gotra,Chinnabandari manetana(family) from Jamakhandi region in Karnataka. Sri Dundiraja nayaka was close relative of Sri Govinda Bhatta (Sri Akshobhya thirtharu) & by profession was ruler (samantha) & commanding worrier in Yadavas of devagiri.  Sri Raghunatha Nayaka  was young handsome, intelligent, and was master in horse riding required for the profession.

Sansyasa Sweekara

We all should be indebted to Sri Akshobya Theertharu who transformed Raghunatha nayaka into Sri Jayateertharu who made greatest contribution in establishing Thatvavada as a widely accepted school of thought.

Sri Akshobya Theertharu was camping on the bank of river Bheema, an young Raghunatha Nayaka mounted on a horseback waded into the river to assuage his thirst and drank water directly without even dismounting from the horse. Seeing this, Sri Akshobhya Thirtharu asked “Kim Pashuhu purva deehe” (Were you an animal in your last life?). With that question Sri Raghunatha Nayaka’s mind started to divert from materialistic desire to Spirituality. Sri Raghunatha nayaka renounce his material life and decided devote his entire life to the services of his master and became his devoted shishya & followed his footsteps. Hearing the news of his son changing the family profession his father Dundiraja nayaka forcefully brought back his son & got him married. Raghunatha nayaka who was already in spiritual mind could not continue to be in material life & left his home, he came back to Sri Akshobhya thirtha. Finally Sri Akshobhya thirtha convinced Dundiraja nayaka to allow his son to continue his spiritual life & took Sri Raghunatha Nayaka along with him & started teaching him all that he had learned from Sri Madhwacharya.  Through Acharya devine blessings Sri Akshobhya thirtha  completely transformed Raghunatha nayaka to a great learned man & appointed him as successor, named him as “Sri Jayathirtha”.  With this incident Sri Dundiraja Nayak’s family transformed & accepted into a spiritual legacy of Sri Madhwacharya & contributed many great stalwarts who took dvaitha philosophy to great heights. Some among them were Sri Jayadhwaja Thirta, Rajendra Thirtha, Sri Purushottama Thirtha, Sri Brahmanya thirtha,Sri Lakshminarayana Thirtha, Sri Surendra Thirtha, Sri Vysarajaru, Sri Purandaradasa, Sri Vijayeendra Thirtha, Sri Sudheendra Thirtha & Famous Sri Raghavendra Thirtha and many more down the the line.  

Post Sri Madhwacharya’s period tattvavada saw a great depression & Sri Akshobhya Thirtha being a direct student of Sri Madhwacharya foresee the need to spread the knowledge to reach wider audience, which was until known to handful. Hence he prepared Sri Jayathirtha for such a responsible work  & ordered him to compose details explanations of Sri Madhwacharya’s messages & concepts which was very new to the society, in more clear, simplified & understandable way to reach wider audience. That should be used for different needs for e.g teaching students, establishing tatvavaada through debate with other schools of thoughts like, Adviatha, Visitadvaitha, Boudda, Jaina etc.

Thus having been appointed to a responsible work Sri Jayathirtha took on the pen in the hands which used to hold the sword & started explaining Sri madwacharya’s messege and concepts through his writings. He spent day and night in this jnana yagna, most of his time stayed in a natural cave adjoining Mukhya Prana temple near Yergola village. He used to spend minimum time in other matters of samstana & even used to just have only maize powder offered by disciples & continue his work. Such was his austerity & commitment for his guru.

It is believed that Sri Jayathirtha has composed twenty two granthas on different subjects to capture Sri Madhwacharya’s messege. Which include Anu Vyakyanateeka (Nyayasudha), Tatvaprakashika, Teekas on Upanisad Bhashyas, Geetha, Rigbhashya, and other short compositions of Sri Madhwacharya. By this Sri Jayathirtha created a milestone & standard in tattvavada literature, which next generation commentators invariably reffered his works as authoritative and accurate and correct interpretation / expression of Sri Madhwacharya’s concepts.  

The Magnum opus of Sri Jayateertharu is Anuvyakhayna Teeka(later known was Sriman Nyaya Sudha) is considered as a yard stick to measure the scholarliness of a person on Tattva Siddhanta. There is a saying “Sudhava pataniya Vasudhava Palaniya” meaning one who study Nyaya sudha will have equal pleasure of being a king. It is said that one who study Sriman nyayasudha is considered as scholar of highest standard in maadhva tradition.   All literary scholars in dvaitha siddhantha has tried to write  commentary on Nyaya Sudha grantha. Sri Parimala a commentary written by Sri Raghavendra Theertha of Mantralaya is very famous among them.

Sri Jayathirtha adopted a unique style of writing his commentaries by systematically establishing the siddhanta by logical interpretation of Objective(Purvapaksha), Subjective(Tatva) & Conclusions(Siddhantha) in a clinical precision. Thus making a significant improvisation in the literary world & become the pioneer of literary doctrine. Later date literary scholar followed his footsteps in defining aruguments and even today’s modern university (western / Indian) adopted his style in writing & submitting thesis for fellowships.

His style of writing include using rich, appropriate words & phrases coupled with extraordinary competence in subject & clarity of thinking. He also shows how to be respectful in dealing with different schools of thoughts while showcasing the negative sides of their siddhantha through right proofs & pramanas

Since Sri Jayateertharu has written Teeka’s (Commentary) to all Acharya Madhwa’s compositions, he is popularly known as Teekacharyaru/Teekarayaru, and his aradhana is called as “Tikarayara Panchami”.

There is also incident of Sri Vidyaranya of Vijayanagara Empire meeting Sri Jayathirtha at Yeragola cave and his appreciation to the commentary on PramanaLakshna of Acharya Madhwa. Later offered him to take on procession (on elephant) to mark his respect. The procession was done with Sri madhwacharya’s grantha kept on elephant which indicate the acceptance of Sri Madhwa siddhantha to wider society.

After creating basic foundation, Sri Jayathirtha taught all the knowledge that he learned from Sri Akshobhya thirtha and the works he created to Sri Krishna Bhatta(Sri Vidyadhiraja Thirtha) & also prepared Sri Rajendra thirtha, Sri Jayadewaja thirtha, Sri Vyasathirtha, & Sri Vasudevashastry (Sri KAvindra Thirtha). Sri Rajendra thirtha in purvashrama travelled in southern India to spread the newly shaped Sri Madhwa siddantha.Sri Rajendra thirtha took on the responsibility & developed many top class scholars like Sri Vibhudendra Thirtha who lead the way to establish and grow Tattva siddhanta & also passed on the valuable knowledge to next generations. Sri Jayadwaja thirtha in purvashrama was sent to spread the philosophy in the northern India, where he initiated bhakti moment in Bengal region, later known as Chaitanya bhakti movement.

Thus Sri Jayathirtha created the necessary foundation that was needed to re-ignite & spread the Sri Madhwa Siddantha by establishing necessary infrastructure, library, Resource, Competence & Respect in society single handed. The knowledge he created was passed on generation to generation by his students & blossomed to grow into many branches and finally yield fruits.   

Brindavana Pravesha :

Sri Jayatirtha completed his enormous achievements in only 23 years of asceticism and entered the Brindavana on Ashada Krishna Panchami during 1388 AD. He handed over the responsibility of the Sri Madhwacharya samstana to Sri Krishnabhatta & named him as Sri Vidyadhiraja Thirtha.

There are various school of thoughts which are making rounds on the actual place of Sri Jayateerthara vrundavana. One group of thought says that he entered Vrundavan in Malkhed near Gulbarga. According to oldest available sources & recent research, there is an other thought that Sri Jayateertharu entered Vrundavan in Navavrundavana in anegounde opposite to Sri Padmanabha Theertharu. This needs to be further confirmed with more research.

Grantha’s :

After Sri Madhwacharya it is Sri Jayathirtha who occupies a prominent position in the world of Dvaitha philosophy. Without Sri Tikakacharya’s interpretation, none of the books of Sri Madhwacharya  would be easy to comprehend.

Sri Tikakacharya has written the following Grantha’s

1. Eshopanishatteeka
2. Shatprashnopanishatteeka
3. BrahmasootraBhashyateeka (Tattvaprakashika)
4. Anuvyakhyanateeka (Nyaya Sudha)
5. Nyayavivaranapanchika
6. GeethaBhashyateeka (Prameyadeepika)
7. Nyayadeepika (Geethatatparyateeka)
8. Pramanlakshanateeka
9. Kathalakshanateeka
10. Upadhikhandanateeka
11. Mayavadhakhandanateeka
12. Prapanchamithyatvanumanakhandanateeka
13. Tattvasankhyanavivarana
14. Tattvavivekavivarana
15. Tattvodyotavivarana
16. Karmanirnayateeka
17. Vishnutattvanirnayateeka
18. Rigbhashyateeka

Independent Works

1. Pramanapaddhathi
2. Vadavalee
3. Shathaparadhasthotra
4. Padyamala

Sloka :

Sanskrit :
यस्य वाक्कामधेनुर्नः कामितार्थान् प्रयच्छति ।
सेवे तं जययोगीन्द्रं कामबाणाच्छिदं सदा ॥

Kannada :
ಯಸ್ಯ ವಾಕ್ಕಾಮಧೇನುರ್ನಃ ಕಾಮಿತಾರ್ಥಾನ್ ಪ್ರಯಚ್ಛತಿ |
ಸೇವೇ ತಂ ಜಯ ಯೋಗೀಂದ್ರಂ ಕಾಮಬಾಣಚ್ಛಿದಂ ಸದಾ ||

Telugu :
యస్య వాక్కామధేనుర్నః కామితార్థాన్ ప్రయచ్ఛతి |
సేవే తం జయయోగీంద్రం కామబాణచ్ఛిదం సదా ||