Padmanabha Tirtha

Sri Padmanabha Theertha was one of the prominent disciples of Sri Madhvacharya, the founder of the Dvaita school of philosophy.

Sri Padmanabha Tirtha was initially a follower of the Advaita school of philosophy and his earlier name was Shobhana Bhatta. He was one of the most well known scholars of his time. He came under the influence of Shri Jagadguru Madhvacharya and converted to the Dvaita school.His mother tongue was Telugu. Sri Padmanabha Theertha is credited with spreading the Dvaita movement all through Karnataka.

After Sri Madhva left for Badrinath, it was Sri Padmanabha Theertha who took over the "Pitha" and continued the tradition.

The brindavana of Sri Padmanabha Tirtha can be found at Navabrundavana near Hampi.

Sri Padmanabha Tirtha is foremost among the direct disciples of Sri Madhvacharya. He was a distinguished scholar and was recognized and honoured by people of those times as 'THE DISCIPLE OF SRI MADHWACHARYA'.

He has the greatest honour of lecturing on the Vedas before an assembly of great scholars and was acclaimed to be a master in expounding the meanings of the Vedas. He is known for his learning, intelligence, ever lasting devotion, detachment to worldly affairs, service to His guru, etc. With all these extraordinary qualities, he has rightly succeeded Sri Madhva in the pontificial seat of Sriman Madhvacharya to which almost all the present day mathas trace their root.

Sri Padmanabha Tirtha's purvashrama name was Shobhana Bhatta. He was a renowned Advaita Scholar, accomplished logician and one with great faith in Veda, Mahabharata and Puranas. He is said to have hailed from a region close to the river Godavari. He has won many a great scholar in debates and refuted all the prevalent systems of philosophy before he was defeated by Sri Madhava in a famous debate. His defeat at the hands of Sri Madhva made the bold Shobhana Bhatta to renounce the world and accept sanyasa from Sri Madhwacharya.

Our scriptures explain how difficult it is to be blessed with a guru who knows the real nature of the disciple. It requires several thousands of years of sadhana before one is blessed with such an opportunity to meet an all-knowing Guru. We can think how blessed Sri Padmanabha Tirtha was to have had the opportunity of being the direct disciple of the Sarvagna Jagadguru Sri Madhwacharya himself.

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