Vyasatirtha Biography 
Vyasatirtha is acclaimed as one of the three spiritual lights or munitrayam of dvaita Vedanta, the other two being Madhvacharya and Jayatirtha. He was also a scholar known by the names – Vyasaraja, Vyasaraya, Vyasaraja swamin and Chandrikacharya. He believed in Dvaita Vedanta of thoughts, defending all his counterparts. He belonged to the Dvaita school of Madhvacharya and has played a significant role aside Jayatirtha to systematize Dvaita and make it an established school of Vedic thought. This genius was admired by even his opponents belonging to other schools of thought. The poet Somanatha wrote a biographical record of Vyasatirtha and that’s how the whole world came to know about his significant contributions in the field of Dvaita. He was one of the foremost dialecticians of Indian philosophy.
He was born in Bannur around 1460 AD in the Mysore District of present-day Karnataka. His father was Rallanna Sumati. He was born by the blessings of Brahmanya Tirtha of Channapatna. Vyasatirtha had two siblings – one brother and one sister. His birth name was Yatiraja. He had the traditional thread ceremony at the age of 7 and entered Gurukula system of training at the age of 11. He learnt for the next 5 years including grammar. After that, his father took him to Channapatna and presented him to Brahmanya Tirtha and returned home. Thus Yatiraja became a monk with new name, Vyasatirtha at the age of 16.
Alter he went to Kanchi to master Vedic studies. He is said to have stayed for many years studying six systems of philosophy under different pandits. Vyasatirtha was extremely influential in the Vijayanagar Empire when the kingdom was ruled by Krishnadevaraya. He defeated many scholars in arguments and also headed the Tirupati Temple during 1486-1498. Vyasathirta installed 732 Hanuman idols all over India and is also known as Psalmist in Kannada who composed many beautiful Kannada songs. Purandaradasa, Kanakadasa, Vadiraja Tirtha,Sreenivasa Thirtha, Vijayendra Thirtha and Somanatha Kavi were his noted disciples.
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Updated: March 12, 2014
