Vyasatirtha

Who was Vyasatirtha?

Vyasatirtha, also called Vyasaraja or Vyasaraya or Vyasaraja swamin or Chandrikacharya, was acclaimed as one of the three spiritual lights or munitrayam of dvaita Vedanta, i.e., Sri Madhvacharya, Sri Jayatirtha and Sri Vyasatirtha. He was a scholar of very high order with a judicious defence of the Dvaita Vedanta against all rival schools of thought. He also brought the Haridasa cult, historically believed to be propagated by Sri Narahari Tirtha, into limelight. He belonged to the Dvaita school of Madhvacharya. He, along with Jayatirtha, helped systematize Dvaita into an established school of Vedic thought. Vyasatirtha's genius lay in his clear understanding and exposition of all his opposing schools of thought, for which even his opponents admired him. He was a master at debate and dialogue in logic and philosophy. Till the publication of the Vyasayogicharita of the poet Somanatha, the world had no idea of the part played by Vyasatirtha in the history of the Vijayanagara empire.