Padmanabha Tirtha a biography
Padmanabha Tirtha is the seniormost of Madhva’s disciples. He was a leading contributor to the literature of Tatvavada in the pre-Jayatirtha period, and also the first scholar to write commentaries on Srimad Ananda Tirtha’s works, though his works are rarely read in the present day, because the later commentaries of Sri Jayatirtha are considered easier to understand. He is eulogized by Sri Jayatirtha as the pioneer commentator of Tatvavada.
He is thus given the honorific title ‘ Tikaakaara’. Sri Padmanabha Thirtha was known as Shobhana Bhatta, and was a great scholar of Advaita, before he became Srimad Ananda Tirtha’s disciple. Shobhana Bhatta, who was an accomplished logician (Tarkikashikhamani), was defeated by Srimad Ananda Tirtha after a debate that took place during the latter’s return from his first tour of the North. This is supposed to have taken place around 1265.
He was a native of a region close to the river Godavari. Sri Padmanabha Tirtha was Srimad Ananda Tirtha’s seniormost disciple, and the first successor to the pitha. He was thus the. He headed the then-unified Madhva Matha for about seven years before departing. His Brndavana is in Navabrndavana, near Hampi, along with those of eight other eminent saints including Sri Vyasa Tirtha, in whose company he continues to perform his sadhana.
Works by Sri Padmanabha Tirtha
Commentaries on the ten Prakaranas including Nyayaratnavali
(commentary on the Vishnu Tattva Vinirnaya)
Sutra Prasthana
Sattarkadipavali (Commentary on Srimad Ananda Tirtha’s Brahma-Sutra
Bhashya
Sannyayaratnavali
Works relating to the Bhagavad Gita
Gitabhashya-Bhavadipika
Gitatatparya-Nirnaya-Prakashika
References: “History of the Dvaita School of Vedanta and its
Literature”, Dr. B. N. K. Sharma, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1981.
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