[Advaita-l] Vidyaranya and vedanta deshika.

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 10 Nov 2010, srikanta wrote:

> Moreover,Vidyaranya in his "sarva Darshan
> sangraha"specifically mentions Vedanta desika by his personal
> name,Venkatanatha(that the tenets of ramanuja darshana must be known only
> from venkatanatha's granthas.Vidyaranya has not mentioned so specifically
> with reference to other darshanas in his review,notably in Poornaprajna
> Darshana.

There is some confusion about several members of one of the most 
illustrious Brahmana families in Indian history.

Madhava was the author of works on Dharmashastra (Parashara Madhava, Kala 
Madhava) grammar (Madhaviya Dhatuvrtti), poetry (Shankaradigvijaya), the 
adhikaranas of the Mimamsa sutras) (Jaiminiya Nyayamala and 
self-commentory called Vistara) and adhikaranas of the Brahma sutras 
(Vaiyasika Nyayamala and Vistara.)

Madhava took sannyasa under the name Vidyaranya and ascended to the 
Shringeri Pitha.  He wrote many celebrated Vedantic works such as Dipikas 
on the major upanishads, tika on Aparokshanubhuti of Shankaracharya, 
Jivanmuktiviveka, drgdrshyaviveka, vivaranaprameyasangrah etc.  In 
conjunction with his guru Shri Bharati Tirth (his predecessor as Shringeri 
jagadguru) he wrote Panchadashi, the most influential Advaita work of the 
medieval period.

Madhava's brother was Sayana acharya the authoritative commentator on 
Shruti.

Sayana had a son also named Madhava and it is this junior Madhava who is 
the author of the sarvadarshanasangraha.  The author mentions his 
father in shloka 3 (shrImatsAyaNadugdhAbdhikaustubhena) and shloka 4 
(shrImatsAyaNamAdhavaH) atleast.

So maybe Madhava senior and Venkatanatha were classmates but it is not 
proven based on this evidence.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>