The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c31.67

v1.c31.67

8. The example of the Emperors of Vijayanagara in protecting learned people was followed by many of their feudatory chiefs. From Sevvappa Nayaka, the founder of the dynasty, all the Nayaks of Tanjore were most prominent as patrons of philosophers and poets. Sevvappa's greatest protégé seems to have been the famous Madhva *acharya* Vijayaindra Tirtha. He was the disciple, first of Vyasaraya Tirtha of the Vyasaraya *matha*, and then of Surendra Tirtha of the Sumatindra *matha*, from whom he received the robes of *sannyasi*, and whom he succeeded as the thirteenth guru and swami of the *matha*. He spent the last days of his life at Kumbhakonam. He earnestly defended the Madhva philosophy against the accusations of Apaiya Dikshita. He also wrote many commentaries on all the important Madhva works. His main books are the following: The Chakra-Mimansa, the Chandrikodahrita-Nyaya-Vivarana, Nyayamrita-Vyakhya, and the Appayyakapola-chepetika ¹. In 1576 Sevvapa Nayaka of Tanjore requested and obtained from Ranga I the village of Arivilimangalam as a grant to Vijayindra Tirtha. In the grant Vijayindra is said to be ‘like a peacock roaming about the garden called the school of Madhvacharya’; he is said moreover to be ‘a bee delighting in the scent, the inner meaning, of the flowers called the Sastras’ ².