Raghavendra Swami

Rāghavēndra Tirtha (ರಾಘವೇಂದ್ರತೀರ್ಥ)
Religion	Hinduism
Philosophy	Dvaita
Personal
Born	Venkata Natha 1595 or 1598 or 1601 CE Bhuvanagiri (now in Tamil Nadu)
Died	1671 Mantralayam (now in Andhra Pradesh)
Spouse	Sarasvati
Children	Lakshminarayanacharya
Guru	Sudheendra Tirtha
Honors	Parimalacharya, Jagadguru

Rāghavēndra Swami or Rāghavēndra Tirtha (1595–1671 CE), born Venkata Natha, was a renowned Madhwa saint, philosopher and proponent of Dvaita philosophy established by Sri Madhvacharya. He is worshiped as a Guru. He served as the head of the matha in Kumbakonam from 1621 to 1671 and established the Brindavan in Mantralayam in the present-day Andhra Pradesh as an important place of pilgrimage.

Raghavendra was born as Venkatanatha in the town of Bhuvanagiri, Tamil Nadu in a Kannada Madhva Brahmin family to Thimanna Bhatta and Gopikamba in 1595. He was also called Venkatacharya in honor of Venkateswara. After his initial education under his brother-in-law Lakshmi Narasimhachar in Madurai, Venkatanatha was admitted to the Sri Mutt in Kumbakonam. He married Sarasvati Bai and had a son Lakshminarayanacharya, after which the family moved to Kumbakonam.

In the Sri Mutt, Venkatanatha studied under Sudheendra Theertha and emerged as a talented scholar and consistently won debates over scholars older than him. He was also known as a teacher of Sanskrit and the ancient Vedic texts. He was also a skilled musician and an expert in playing the instrument Veena. In 1614, he took sannyasa and adopted the name Raghavendra Theertha. In 1621, Raghavendra Theertha succeeded his guru Sudheendra Theertha as the head of the Sri Mutt and served from 1621 to 1671. He traveled all over South India expounding Madhvacharya's Dvaita philosophy and is attributed with a number of miracles. In 1671, after assuring his disciples in a speech that he will be in spirit with them for the next seven hundred years, Raghavendra attained Samadhi at Mantralayam.

...
Wikipedia