Brahmanya Tirtha's place in Dvaita Vedanta history begins two generations before his own birth. It begins with a dispute about who should lead the sannyasa order that Madhvacharya himself founded. Madhvacharya's disciple Jayatirtha was one of the most important early writers of commentaries in the Dvaita tradition. Some generations after Jayatirtha came a head of the order named Vidyadhiraja Tirtha. When it was time to choose Vidyadhiraja Tirtha's own successor, the seat went to a monk named Kavindra Tirtha. His branch became what is known today as the Uttaradi Matha. Together with the Vyasaraja Matha and the Raghavendra Matha, it is one of three institutions still called the Mathatraya, the "three mathas". These three carried Dvaita learning forward after Madhvacharya's own disappearance.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Matha founded by | Rajendra Tirtha, after a succession dispute with Kavindra Tirtha's line |
| Original names | Rajendra Tirtha Matha, also called Poorvadi Matha |
| Later name | Vyasaraja Matha, after Vyasa Tirtha's own fame |
| Brahmanya Tirtha's position | Eleventh pontiff; third in succession from Rajendra Tirtha |
| Immediate predecessor and guru | Purushottama Tirtha |
A Rival Seat Under Rajendra Tirtha #
Not everyone accepted Kavindra Tirtha's succession. Another monk, Rajendra Tirtha, also claimed the seat and set up a separate seat of his own. It was first known simply as the Rajendra Tirtha Matha, or by its other name, Poorvadi Matha. Brahmanya Tirtha would later come to head this second, separate line, not the Uttaradi Matha. It received its present, better-known name, Vyasaraja Matha, only generations later. By then Brahmanya Tirtha's own famous disciple, Vyasa Tirtha, had made it well known across South India. Two more heads come between Rajendra Tirtha and Brahmanya Tirtha in this line. The first was Vijayadhvaja Tirtha, also known as Jayadharma. The second was Purushottama Tirtha, who personally gave Brahmanya Tirtha sannyasa and gave the matha into his care as its eleventh head.
From Narasimhacharya to Pontiff #
Before he took sannyasa, Brahmanya Tirtha was known by the name Narasimhacharya. The matha records keep this name but say nothing more about it. This is because, as more than one source on his life says plainly, very little else about his personal background survives. But this much can be said. By the time he was installed as head of the matha, he had made the matha at Abbur, near Channapatna in present-day Karnataka, his home. The events of his life for which he is actually remembered took place there, not at any of the matha's later, better-known locations. The most important of them was the arrival of a young boy named Yatiraja, the subject of the next page in this account.
