The one episode from Brahmanya Tirtha's life that survives in real detail is not really his own story. It is the opening chapter of someone else's. The Vyasayogicharita, an early Sanskrit biography of Vyasa Tirtha, tells this story. A childless brahmana couple in the village of Bannur, Ramacharya and Lakshmi Bai, came to Brahmanya Tirtha to ask for his blessing to have children. He blessed them to have three, on one condition: their second child would belong to him. That child was born and named Yatiraja.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Source | Vyasayogicharita, an early Sanskrit biography of Vyasa Tirtha |
| Parents | Ramacharya (Ballanna) and Lakshmi Bai (Akkamma) of Bannur |
| Boy's birth name | Yatiraja |
| Age at ordination | About sixteen |
| Name given at ordination | Vyasatirtha |
A Boy Given Over After His Upanayana #
Yatiraja received his upanayana, the sacred-thread ceremony that marks the start of a brahmana boy's formal education. Then, as promised, his parents handed him over to Brahmanya Tirtha. The older sannyasi took full responsibility for raising and teaching him. Tradition says Brahmanya Tirtha was struck almost at once by the boy's unusually sharp intelligence. He decided that Yatiraja should not remain a householder. He should take sannyasa in the same renounced order Brahmanya Tirtha himself belonged to.
A Vision That Sent Him Back #
Yatiraja sensed what his guardian intended and tried to avoid it. The Vyasayogicharita says he ran away from the hermitage instead of accepting sannyasa. While he was resting under a tree during his flight, he is said to have had a vision of Lord Vishnu, who told him to turn back. He did, and soon after, Brahmanya Tirtha gave him diksha. The scholar B. N. K. Sharma estimates that he was about sixteen at the time. Brahmanya Tirtha gave him the monastic name by which the world would come to know him, Vyasatirtha.
A Disciple Who Outgrew His Guru's Own Fame #
The rest belongs to Vyasa Tirtha's own life story. He went on to study the six orthodox schools of Vedic philosophy at Kanchi. Then he had twelve years of advanced Dvaita training under Sripadaraja at Mulbagal. In time he became rajaguru, first to Saluva Narasimha Deva Raya and then, most famously, to Krishna Deva Raya at the height of the Vijayanagara Empire. In that role Vyasa Tirtha shaped the Dvaita philosophy of the scholars. Through disciples such as Purandara Dasa and Kanaka Dasa, he also shaped the popular Haridasa devotional-song tradition of Karnataka. Tradition says that none of that would have happened without the guardianship, education, and diksha that Brahmanya Tirtha gave him at Abbur. This is the single most important thing Brahmanya Tirtha is known to have done. Vyasa Tirtha's life is told in full on Vyasa Tirtha's own page.
