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Madhvacharya

c. 1238–1317

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God, souls and the world are truly and forever different from one another – against the view that everything is ultimately one.

Placement

South Asian & Tibetan Philosophy · South Asia · Metaphysics, Religion

Founder of Dvaita Vedanta: against Shankara he taught that God, souls and the world are really and eternally distinct.

Key ideas

  • Dvaita (dualism)
  • Fivefold difference
  • Reality of the world

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Influence

Influenced by 1

  • Yajnavalkya

    influenced by

    Madhva commented on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which preserves Yajnavalkya’s teaching, among the ten principal Upanishads, and read it in support of a real difference between God and selves. Madhva, Brihadaranyakopanishad-bhashya; B. N. K. Sharma, History of the Dvaita School of Vedanta and Its Literature (1960)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Yajnavalkya › traditionally c. 800–720 BCE

Criticism

Criticizes 1

  • Adi Shankara

    criticised

    Madhva rejected Shankara’s non-dualism, holding the difference between God, selves and matter to be real and eternal (Mayavadakhandana; Vishnutattvavinirnaya). Madhva, Māyāvādakhaṇḍana; Viṣṇutattvavinirṇaya; B. N. K. Sharma, History of the Dvaita School of Vedānta, 1960

    Evidence: AI draft

    Adi Shankara › c. 700–750 · conventionally dated 788–820

Works

  • c. 1285Brahma Sutra Bhashya

    Madhva’s commentary on the Brahma Sutras: Brahman, souls and the world are eternally distinct.

Position

Madhva founded Dvaita (“dualist”) Vedanta, the sharpest counter-position to Shankara’s non-dualism. For him the world is no illusion but real, and difference belongs to the nature of reality. He taught a fivefold difference: between God and souls, God and matter, one soul and another, souls and matter, and one material thing and another. God – Vishnu – alone is independent; souls and world exist only in dependence on him. Souls differ in rank by nature; liberation comes through devotion (bhakti), knowledge and above all God’s grace, yet never dissolves the soul into God. Unusually in Indian thought, he held that some souls are never liberated.

Life & context

Madhva, also called Madhvacharya or Anandatirtha, was born, according to the traditional dating, in 1238 near Udupi on the south-west coast of India. He became a monk in his youth but soon broke with the Advaita teaching of his teacher. He travelled widely, debated with rival schools and is credited with founding the Krishna temple at Udupi and its monasteries. Tradition says he vanished in 1317 while teaching.

Further main works

  • Anuvyakhyana (verse commentary on the Brahma Sutras, late 13th century)
  • Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita (Gita Bhashya, 13th century)
  • Ascertainment of the Truth about Vishnu (Vishnutattvavinirnaya, 13th century)

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

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