Madhavacharya: Encyclopedia - Madhavacharya

Madhavacharya

Madhavacharya (also transliterated as Madhava Acharya and Madhavaacharya fl. C. 1380) was an exponent of the Advaita school of philosophy in Hinduism. He was elected, in 1331 CE, the head of the Smarta order in the Math of Sringeri in Mysore territory, founded by Sankaracharya, the great Vedantist teacher of eighth century. He was a Hindu statesman and philosopher who lived at the court of Vijayanagar (the modern Hampi in the district of Bellary), the Southern Hindu kingdom that withstood Muslim influence and aggression. He is believed to have served as a minister under King Bukka of Vijayanagara empire. His younger brother Shyapa (d. 1387) was associated with him in the administration and was a famous commentator on the Rigveda. Shyapa's commentaries were influenced by and dedicated to Madhava.

Madhavacharya - Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha

Madhavacharya's most famous work is Sarva-darsana-sangraha (Compendium of Speculations - a compendium of all the known Indian schools of philosophy)(1380) which was written in Telugu script. It, to quote Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, “sketches sixteen systems of thought so as to exhibit a gradually ascending series, culminating in the Advaita Vedanta (or non-dualism).” The Sixteen systems of philosophy expounded by him are:

1. The Carvaka System
2. The Buddha System
3. The Arhata or Jaina System
4. The purna-prajna System
5. The Nakulisa-Pasupata System
6. The Saiva System
7. The Pratyabhijna System
8. The Rasesvara System
9. The Vaiseshika or Aulukya System
10. The Akshapada or Nyaya System
11. The Jaiminiya System
12. The Paniniya System
13. The Sankhya System
14. The Patanjala or Yoga System
15. The Vedanta or System of Sankaracharya

It is to be point out here that Sarva-darsana-sangraha itself doesn’t contain the 16th chapter (Advaita Vedanta or the System of Sankara), absence of which is explained by a paragraph at the end of the 15th chapter (The Patanjali-Darsana). It says: “The system of Sankara, which comes next in succession, and which is the crest-gem of all systems, has been explained by us elsewhere, it is therefore left untouched here”

Madhavacharya - Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha and Lokayata System of Thought

Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha is one of the few available sources of information about Lokayata, the materialist system of philosophy in ancient India. To propound his own system of philosophy, he tries to refute, chapter by chapter, the other systems of thought prominent in his day. However, it also has to be added that in this work, with remarkable mental detachment, he places himself in the position of an adherent of sixteen distinct philosophical systems. In the very first chapter, The Carvaka System, of the book he critiques the arguments of Lokayatikas. While doing so he quotes extensively from Carvaka works. It is possible that some of these arguments put forward as Lokayata point of view may be a mere caricature of Lokayata philosophy. Yet in the absence of any original work of Lokayatikas (all of which seems to have been destroyed by their opponents) these are the only very few sources of information available today on materialist philosophy in ancient India. Madhava also wrote a commentary on the Mimalps Sutras. He died as abbot of the monastery of Sringeri.

Madhavacharya - Reference

1. The Sarva-darsana-sangraha: Madhavacharya, Motilal Banarasidas Publishers, Delhi
2. Indian Philosophy - a Popular Introduction: Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, People's Publishing House, New Delhi, 7th edition 1993
3. Indian Philosophy-Volume I: Dr.S.Radhakrishnan- Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 11th impression, 2004

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.

Categories: 1911 Britannica | Hindu religious figures | Indian philosophers | Telugu people

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