Madhva (Madhvācārya)

Madhva, born Vāsudeva near Udupi on the Karnataka coast, founded Dvaita Vedānta (also called Tattvavāda), the most thoroughgoing realist and theistic of the Vedānta schools. Against Śaṅkara's Advaita, he taught a fivefold eternal difference — between God and soul, God and matter, soul and soul, soul and matter, and matter and matter — with Viṣṇu as the supreme, independent reality on whom all dependent beings rely; liberation comes through devotion and the grace of God. He wrote commentaries on the Brahma-sūtra, the Upaniṣads, the Gītā, and other works, and is traditionally credited with establishing the Kṛṣṇa temple at Udupi and the eight maṭhas (the aṣṭa-maṭha) that still administer its worship in rotation. His traditional dates are 1238–1317, though an alternative scholarly reckoning gives 1199–1278; his hagiography (the 'Madhva-vijaya' of Nārāyaṇa Paṇḍitācārya) contains much miraculous material that should be read as tradition.