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Vedānta Deśika

Vedānta Deśika

1268 CE1369 CE · Thūppul (Thiruthanka), Kāñcīpuram

1268–1369 CE (traditional; a ~101-year lifespan — treat with mild caution)

Vedānta Deśika (Veṅkaṭanātha), born at Thūppul near Kāñcīpuram, was the most encyclopedic Śrī Vaiṣṇava thinker after Rāmānuja — at once a rigorous philosopher, a master Sanskrit and Tamil poet, and a logician. His vast output includes the Nyāya-pariśuddhi and Tattvamuktākalāpa (epistemology and metaphysics), the Rahasyatraya-sāra (on the esoteric three mantras), the Śrīmad Rahasyatraya, and devotional poems such as the Pādukāsahasram. He defended Viśiṣṭādvaita against Advaita and other rivals and became the founding authority of the Vaḍakalai sub-tradition, which differs from the Teṉkalai school (associated with Piḷḷai Lokācārya) on the relative roles of effort and grace in salvation. His traditional dates are 1268–1369.

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Thūppul (Thiruthanka), Kāñcīpuram

What they did here

Traditional birthplace of Vedānta Deśika.

About Thūppul (Thiruthanka), Kāñcīpuram

Thūppul (Thiruthanka) is a quarter of Kāñcīpuram in northern Tamil Nadu, south India. It is the birthplace of Vedānta Deśika (1268–1369), the Śrī Vaiṣṇava philosopher-poet and leading systematiser of the Vaṭakalai school.

See other sages who lived in Thūppul (Thiruthanka), Kāñcīpuram

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Vedānta Deśika’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

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