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53
xxv]
Madhva's Life by the Madhvas. Grierson, writing in 1915, says that there are about 70,000 Madhvas in the locality. Elsewhere they are more distributed. It must, however, be noted that from the South of Hyderabad to Mangalore, that is, the whole of the North and the South Kanara, may also be regarded as the most important centre of Vīra-Saivism, which will be dealt with in the fifth volume of the present work. The village of Rajatapīķha, where Madhva was born, may probably be identified with the modern Kalyāņapura. He was a disciple of Acyutapreksa, and received the name of Pūrņaprajña at the time of initiation and later on another name, Ananda-tīrtha; he is known by both these names. He at first studied the views of Sankara, but soon developed his own system of thought, which was directly opposed to that of Sankara. He refuted twenty-one Bhāsyas which were written by other teachers who preceded him; and Seșa, the disciple of Chalāri-nrsimhācārya, the commentator on the Madhva-vijaya of Nārāyana Bhatta, enumerates the designations of these commentators on the Brahma-sūtra as follows; Bhārativijaya; Samvidānanda; Brahmaghoșa; Satānanda; Vāgbhața; Vijaya; Rudra Bhatta; Vāmana; Yādavaprakāśa; Rāmānuja; Bhartsprapañca; Dravida; Brahmadatta; Bhaskara; Piśāca; Vșittikāra; Vijaya Bhatta; Vişnukrānta; Vādīndra; Mādhavadeśaka; Sankara. Even in Rajatapithapura he once defeated a great scholar of the Sankara school who came to visit Madhva's teacher Acyutapreksa. He then went to the South with Acyutapreksa and arrived at the city of Vişnumangala1. From here he went southwards and arrived at Anantapura (modern Trivandrum). Here he had a long fight with the Sankarites of the Srigeri monastery. Thence he proceeded to Dhanuskoți and Rāmeśvaram, and offered his adoration to Vişnu. He defeated on the way there many opponents and stayed in Rāmeśvaram for four months, after which he came back to Udipi. Having thus established himself in the South as a leader of a new faith, Madhva started on a tour to North India, and, crossing the Ganges, went to Hardwar, and thence to Badarikā, where he met Vyāsa. He was here asked by Vyāsa to write a commentary on the Brahma-sūtra repudiating the false Bhāsya of Sankara. He then returned to Udipi, converting many Sankarites on the way, such as Sobhana Bhatta and others residing near the banks of the Godāvaria. He at last converted Acyutapreksa to his own doctrines. In the i Madhva-viyaya, v. 30.
2 Ibid. ix. 17.
