Sri Madhvacharya
Sri Madhvacharya
Date of Birth 1238 CE
Place of birth Pajaka, Udupi, India
Birth Vasudeva Naduilya
Date of death 1317 CE
Place of death Adi Udupi,Udupi,India
Philosophy Dvaita Vedanta
Birth and childhood
Acharya Madhva was born on Vijayadashami day of 1238 CE at Pajaka, a tiny hamlet near Udupi. Narayana Panditacharya who later wrote Madhva's biography has recorded the names of Acharya's parents as Madhyageha Bhatta as name of the father and Vedavati as Acharya's mother. They named him Vasudeva Naduilya at birth.Later he was also refferred to as Purnaprajna ,Anandatirtha and finally Madhvacharya. Even as a child, Vasudeva exhibited precocious talent for grasping all things spiritual. He was drawn to the path of renunciation and even as a young boy of eleven years, he chose initiation into the monastic order from Achyuta-Pragna, a reputed ascetic of the time, near Udupi, in the year Saumya (1249 CE). The preceptor Achyuta-Pragna gave the boy Vasudeva the name of 'Purnaprajna' at the time of his initiation into sanyasa.
A little over a month later, little Purnaprajna is said to have defeated a group of expert scholars of Tarka(logic) headed by Vasudeva-pandita. Overjoyed at his precocious talent, Achyuta Preksha consecrated him as the head of the empire of Vedanta and conferred upon him the title of Anandatirtha.
