B. N. K. Sharma's academic history is candid that Akshobhya Tirtha was "not distinguished as a writer": one work, the Madhva-tattva-sara-samgraha, is attributed to him by a single source, but no manuscript of it has ever been located, and Sharma judges from the title alone that it was probably a short manual of Dvaita doctrine rather than a major philosophical treatise. What Akshobhya Tirtha is independently documented to have done, instead of written, is found in the institutions and consecrated deities that survive from his time as pontiff.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Matha founded | Sri Kudli Akshobhya Tirtha Matha, at the confluence of the Tunga and Bhadra rivers near Shivamogga |
| Successor at Kudli | His disciple Trailokya Bhushana Tirtha |
| Deity consecrated at Kudli | Chintamani Narasimha |
| Deity consecrated at Mulbagal | Angara Narasimha, traditionally said to have been sketched in charcoal that transformed into an idol |
| Deity consecrated near Shivamogga | Mukhyaprana (Hanuman), at Pillangiri |
| Dated inscription | A Kannada copper-plate grant of 1337 CE recording a purificatory rite he performed at Malkhed |
A Matha at the Meeting of Two Rivers #
At Kudli, where the Tunga and Bhadra rivers meet near present-day Shivamogga, Akshobhya Tirtha is credited with consecrating a Deity of Chintamani Narasimha and founding a matha that continues in an unbroken line to this day, now known as the Sri Kudli Akshobhya Tirtha Matha. Sri Vyasaraja Matha's own succession record states that, in addition to training Jayatirtha as his eventual successor on the Madhva Peetha itself, Akshobhya Tirtha separately ordained another disciple, Trailokya Bhushana Tirtha, specifically to carry forward this Kudli institution — a second, parallel line of succession distinct from the main pontifical seat that passed to Jayatirtha. That Kudli line, under various names, survives independently to the present.
Deities at Mulbagal and Pillangiri #
Two further consecrations are recorded from Akshobhya Tirtha's travels through the region around Kolar and Shivamogga. At Mulbagal — the same town where his debate with Vidyaranya took place — tradition credits him with consecrating a Deity of Narasimha called Angara Narasimha, "the charcoal Narasimha," said to have taken form from a picture he sketched on a hillock using charcoal, which then transformed into an idol. Near Shivamogga, at a site called Pillangiri, he is separately credited with consecrating a Deity of Mukhyaprana, the name Madhva-sampradaya tradition uses for Hanuman as the incarnation of Vayu. These accounts come from Dvaita-tradition sources rather than independent archaeological or academic confirmation, and this page reports them honestly as tradition, in keeping with this website's general practice for legends of this kind.
One Firmly Dated Act #
Amid material that is mostly traditional and undated, one specific act of Akshobhya Tirtha's rests on genuinely independent, dateable evidence. B. N. K. Sharma's academic history cites a Kannada copper-plate grant, dated Sarvajit era 1337 CE and brought to scholarly attention by the researcher Kapatral Krishnarao, recording a purificatory rite (prayashchitta) that Akshobhya Tirtha personally administered at Malkhed to two men, Ranganna and Damanna, described as Patils (village headmen), restoring their lost standing as Brahmins. It is a small act by comparison with a philosophical debate or a temple consecration, but it is rarer and more valuable for a historian precisely because it survives on a dated, physical inscription rather than in a later devotional retelling — direct evidence that Akshobhya Tirtha was, in 1337 CE, an actively functioning religious authority at Malkhed, the same town where his own samadhi would later be established.