Vyasatirtha - The Place of Vyasatirtha in The Dvaita Philosophy and Dvaita System

The Place of Vyasatirtha in The Dvaita Philosophy and Dvaita System

As Shri BNK Sharma says, Vyasatirtha is the prince of the Dialecticians of the Dvaita systems. He carried forward the work of his distinguished predecessors: Madhva, Jayatirtha and Vishnudasa and explored and exhausted all the technical and Shastric possibilities of making the doctrines and interpretations of his school, impregnable and invulnerable to attacks from any quarter. Dr Dasagupta pays him the highest tribute the modern historian of Indian philosophy could pay when he says that "the logical skill and depth of acute dialectical thinking shown by Vyasatirtha, stands almost unrivaled in the whole of Indian thought" (p. viii, preface to vol. IV op. cit). He also follows the example of great dialecticians like Udayana, Shriharhsa and Chitsuka in summing up the discussion of the topic at the end of the sections in pithy samgrahashloka's. Vyasatirtha has thus enlarged the scope and vision of Madhva shastra and its commentaries (tIkA's) with the exegetical apparatus of nyAya, vyAkaraNa and mImAMsa shAstrAs and expanded the significance of the original texts of his school in light of their methodology. His Tatparya-chandrika is a commentary, only in name; in effect, it is a scintillating critical and comparative study of the interpretation of the Brahmasutras according to the Bhashyas of the three main schools of Vedanta (together with their important commentaries). Its powerful flow of arguments and breathtaking points of criticism are such as to leave the modern scholar and critic, grappling with the Sutras and their commentaries, dumb with astonishment at the masterly way in which Vyasatirtha has successfully probed the problem of the interpretation of Sutras. The tradition rightly regards him, with Madhva and Jayatirtha as constituting the 'trinity of authorities on Madhva siddhanta'. He showed to the philosophical world that the system of Madhva was not just an effervescence of Puranic Hinduism or merely revival of Bhakti cult but a mighty philosophical movement of thought and a well laid metaphysical structure that could hold its own against other speculative systems in the field, for richness and depth of thought and fineness of the speculative content. The age of Vyasatirtha was, thus, the most glorious epoch in the history if Dvaita school and its literature and philosophy and has not been rivaled, either before or after him for so much all-round distinction, progress and development. The political influence of the Madhva school also rose to its highest level under Vyasatirtha. He enjoyed the closest affection, and commanded the highest esteem of the great Hindu emperor of South India, Krishnadevaraya.