Vyasaraya
| Sri Vyasatirtha | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Religion | Hinduism |
| School | Dvaita |
| Personal | |
| Born | Yatiraja Around 1460 Bannur |
| Died | 1539 Hampi |
| Resting place | Nava Brindavana |
| Religious career | |
| Predecessor | Sripadaraja, Bramhanya Tirtha |
| Honors | Chandrikacharya, Vyasaraja |
Vyasatirtha (c. 1460–c. 1539 ), also called Vyasaraja, Vyasaraya and Chandrikacharya, was a Dvaita scholar and poet. As the patron saint of the Vijayanagara Empire, Vyasatirtha was at the forefront of a golden age in Dvaita which saw new developments in dialectical thought, flowering of the Haridasa literature under bards like Purandara Dasa and Kanaka Dasa and an amplified spread of Dvaita across the subcontinent. Three of his polemically themed doxographical works Nyayamruta, Tatparya Chandrika and Tarka Tandava (collectively called Vyasa Traya) documented and critiqued an encyclopaedic range of sub-philosophies in Advaita,Visistadvaita, Mahayana Buddhism, Mimamsa and Nyaya, revealing internal contradictions and fallacies. His Nyayamruta caused a significant stir in the Advaita community across the country requiring a rebuttal by Madhusudhana Saraswati through Advaitasiddhi.
Apart from his scholarly activities, he penned several kirtanas under the nom de plume of Krishna including the classical Carnatic song Krishna Ni Begane Baaro. Under the reign of Krishna Deva Raya, he developed large scale irrigation systems in the villages gifted to him under grants and distributed his patronage among the rival schools of thought building an atmosphere of religious tolerance. For his immense contribution to the Dvaita school of thought, he, along with Madhva and Jayatirtha, are considered to be the three great saints of Dvaita (munitraya). Surendranath Dasgupta notes, "The logical skill and depth of acute dialectical thinking shown by Vyasa-tirtha stands almost unrivalled in the whole field of Indian thought". B.N.K Sharma calls Vyasatirtha "prince of dialectitians" and goes on to say that "we find in his works a profoundly wide knowledge of ancient and contemporary systems of thought and an astonishingly brilliant intellect coupled with rare clarity and incisiveness of thought and expression". Even his rival, Appayya Dikshita, is said to have observed that Vyasatirtha "saved the melon of Madhvaism from bursting by securing it with three bands", referring to the Vyasa Traya.
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