In Search of Sri Jayatirtha’s Brindavana An Independent Exploration & Review of the books ‘Sri Jayatirthara Mulabrindavana – Gajagahvara’ & ‘Sri Jayatirthara Mulabrindavana – Malkheda’ C. Raghothama Rao Founder Editor, MadhvaHistory.com Contents Sri Jayatirthara Mula Brindavana – An Independent Review ....................................................................... 4 Foreword: ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 The controversy of Sri Jayatirtha’s Mula Brindavanam: ............................................................................... 4 History Never Lies ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Political Conditions between 14 th – 15 th Century: ................................................................................... 6 The religious tolerance during Muslim rule: ........................................................................................... 7 Timelines of Sri Rajaru & Sri Raghuvaryaru .................................................................................................. 8 Extrapolation of Sri Vadiraja’s Tirtha Prabandha Shlokas ........................................................................... 10 Analysis of Shlokas 17 & 18 from Purva Prabandha ................................................................................... 11 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 11 Brindavana of Sri Jayatirtha in Nava Brindavana – An Interesting Exploration: ......................................... 14 Online Arguments & The Realities .............................................................................................................. 15 Detailed Summary for the scrutiny ........................................................................................................ 17 i. The Dream Poem ............................................................................................................................ 17 ii. Shloka on Ashta Yatis of Udupi ...................................................................................................... 18 The Pros & Cons .......................................................................................................................................... 20 Another Clue to Arrive at Right Conclusion .......................................................................................... 20 ಗಜಗಹೇ ಜಯೕಥ ಂ ವಣ ಯ or ಯತ ಗಜಗಹೇ ಯಃ ಜಯಮುಃ ............................................................ 21 Sri Narayanacharya’s Vyakhyana – An Analysis: ......................................................................................... 22 The Discussion, Distortion & Dereliction: ................................................................................................... 24 The Fall-off: ................................................................................................................................................. 29 Closing Remarks for this chapter: ............................................................................................................... 30 A Review of Sri V.P. Acharya’s Rejoinder to SJMBG ................................................................................... 31 Critical Exploration of Anegundi, Hampi & Madhva Brindavanas .......................................................... 31 Anegundi & Hampi – Is Interchangeable Usage acceptable? ............................................................... 31 Sri Narahari Tirtha Brindavana – Is it in Hampi or Anegundi? .............................................................. 36 The Episode of Brindavanas & Their Count ........................................................................................... 39 Exploration of Tirtha Prabandha Shloka 17 ................................................................................................ 42 Historical Accounts Of Anegondi & Yaragola ........................................................................................ 42 Further Exploration of Shloka 17 of Purva Prabandha ............................................................................... 65 Sri Narayana Tirtha Hand-written Manuscripts .......................................................................................... 71 Sri Narayana Thirtha’s Hand written Manuscripts - Some Additional Inputs ............................................. 96 An Earnest Appeal to All ........................................................................................................................... 122 Sri Jayatirthara Mula Brindavana – An Independent Review Foreword: “History is a fable agreed upon” – is what S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, a renowned historian of early 20 th century, writes in the introductory chapter of his much acclaimed work “ The Beginning of South India History ” (published in 1918 by the Modern Printing Works, Madras). In its preliminary sense, history is an unchecked and unverified pool of information that has been gathered from various quarters. History takes its shape from both genuine and false sources whose originality was never known to us (men of the modern times). Manipulation is the only constant in the narrations of the historical accounts and this may be due to the presence ‘man’ in the spelling of that word. Learned people know that a lifeless object like a carved stone, inscription, a correspondence and the literature can’t manipulate the history on its own but the men who use them can do the damage. After all, most of the humans are driven by emotions than enlightenment and those emotions, when run higher than needed, make the men to become corrupt and force them to manipulate everything that they can lay their hands. In such cases where imaginative paradoxes are overwhelmingly superimposed over the facts and figures there arises a ‘controversy.’ A controversy can only become ugly when the imagination transforms in to an overdrive of belief/sentiment. The relentless emotions drive the fruitful discussions to stop. False emotions nourish vehement outbursts that go unabatedly only to distort the vision further. Such sham feelings find their death till such time arrives when the ironies are properly ironed out by the warring camps with mutual understanding and respect. The controversy of Sri Jayatirtha’s Mula Brindavanam: At a personal level, I got introduced to this topic back in 1997 when I bought a Telugu Teertha Prabandha published by Sri Syamasundar, Adoni with financial aid from TTD. In his Telugu translation for Shloka 18 of Teertha Prabandha, Sri Syamasundar gave an account of the controversy on the location of Sri Jayatirtha’s brindavana. In his concluding note, he had supported Anegundi (Nava Brindavana). At that time i.e. in 1997 I did not attach much interest to the controversy but in 2002 when I have purchased Teertha Prabandha Kannada translation by Sri V. Prabhanjanacharya and saw a lengthy note on the same Shloka 18 of Purva Prabandha refuting Anegundi assertion. Again, I did or rather could not devout much time to dig deeper in to this topic till 2014 i.e. till I read the 480 page book called “Sri Jayatirthara Mula Brindavana Gajagahvara” (SJMBG ) in May 2014. This latest development of releasing “Sri Jayatirthara Mula Brindavana Gajagahvara” has caused the eruption of a sleeping volcano and the warring camps have quickly made their arrangements for attacks and counter-attacks. At this juncture, I told to myself that the topic must be explored to its logical end. This zeal has resulted in to the analytical studies of the sources that are available to me. This write-up is an outcome of that keenness to understand the issue from a neutral standpoint. Hence readers are requested to treat this write-up as the one that lies within the limits of my reasoning and understanding. The chief objective of this write-up is to present an independent scrutiny of the arguments presented by Anegundi supporters & Malakheda supporters. This write-up is an attempt to bring-in a rational synthesis of the views. I have tried my level best to collect, piece together, assimilate, analyse and record those sources. It is my humble submission to all the readers to forgive me for the lapses, errors & shortcomings, if any and accommodate this write-up in its best spirits. History Never Lies If I look at the said controversy from the perspective of ‘history’ as outlined in the “Foreword” section of this article, I can see a sheer lack of understanding and acceptability of the truth by many. In other words, there are few online activists who claim to have ‘critically’ analysed and ‘refuted’ the assertions made in the new book are the frontrunners in not accepting the bitter historical facts. In their hurry to refute the Anegundi theory they have neglected the actual socio, politico, religious conditions of that bygone era. Any conclusion on a dispute, particularly on those issues that have strong historical connections, can’t withstand the scrutiny when it neglects the real-time facts. Thus, some of the Malakheda supporters have erred in their conclusion by completely neglecting the historical data. On the other hand the Editors of SJMBG have shown considerable respect for historical studies and have tried to incorporate some such studies. They