Vyasatirtha

Vyasaraja or Vyasa Thirtha (Kannada: ವ್ಯಾಸತೀರ್ಥ; 1447–1548), also called Vyasaraya or Chandrikacharya, was a Hindu philosopher, dialectician, polemicist and poet. He is considered to be one of the three great spiritual sages or munitrayam of Dvaita Vedanta, along with Madhvacharya and Jayatirtha, for his immense contribution to the school of thought. He was a scholar of very high order with a judicious defence of the Dvaita Vedanta against all rival schools of thought. He also brought the Haridasa cult, historically believed to be propagated by Sri Narahari Tirtha, into limelight. He belonged to the Dvaita school of Madhvacharya. He, along with Jayatirtha, helped systematize Dvaita into an established school of Vedic thought. Vyasaraja's genius lay in his clear understanding and exposition of all his opposing schools of thought, for which even his opponents admired him. He was a master at debate and dialogue in logic and philosophy. Till the publication of the Vyasayogicharita of the poet Somanatha, the world had no idea of the part played by Vyasaraja in the history of the Vijayanagara empire.

He was born in Bannur in and about 1447 in the Mysore District in what is now the modern Karnataka state. He was one of the foremost dialecticians in the history of Indian philosophy. His father Ballanna Sumati, of kashyapa gotra, was the youngest of the six sons of Ramacharya. By blessings of Brahmanya Tirtha of Channapatna Ballanna Sumati had three children born to him- a girl and two boys. The youngest was Yatiraja the future Vyasaraja swamin. the traditional thread ceremony or upanayana at age of seven, for four years afterwards, he was at his gurukula(school) whence he home at eleven. There he went through the complete course of studies in kAvya, nATaka, alaMkAra and grammar, which must have covered at least a period of five years. As per the promise made by Ballanna, he himself took his son to Channapatna and presented him to Brahmanya Tirtha and returned home. Very much impressed with the superior attainment of his ward, Brahmanya Tirtha ordained his ward Yatiraja a monk and gave him the name Vyasaraja. Assuming that he was sixteen years old at the time of demise of his Guru (some time after the great famine of 1475-76), we may easily fix the date of birth of Vyasaraja in or about 1460. Vyasaraja did not had any time studying much under his Guru Brahmanya. He was obliged, soon after his succession to the head of the maTHa (or Pitha), to go to Kanchi, the center of the vedic studies in South India, in those days, where he is said to have stayed for many years studying six systems of philosophy, under the most eminent pandits there. It was probably here that Vyasaraja acquired his deep erudition in the systems of Sankara, Ramanuja, Bhatta and others. After the completion of his studies at Kanchi, he went over to the seat of Shripadaraja at Mulbhagal. There he spent many years in study and meditation. Vyasaraja is believed to have studied for several years under Shripadaraja.

...
Wikipedia