Nava Vrindavana Dispute

 As a practicing Madhva with due respect to all our 24 or 25 Mathas, which were formed to propagate teachings of Acharya Madhva, I am watching  each year there will be some dispute or the other, earlier Mula Rama and now with 9 Vrindavanas at Anegondi. It was a very low key affair in olden days when river Tungabhadra sometimes was flooding with the place immersed under water for a couple of days, even after a dam was built near Kampli. 

Our great teachers from Sri Padmanabha tirtha to Sri Rama Tirtha have been interred here as they might have preferred to spend their last days near monuments of earlier Gurus, or on their entourage covering Vijayanagar province, for which Sri Vyasarajaru was a principal adviser to 3 generations of rulers here. As far I know there was no dispute before 150 years or so, when hardly any pontiff visited this place, except on few occasions. 

Now that a dispute has been raised by disciples of 2 Mathas, about Vrundavan of Sri Jayatirtharu, a great commentator on Sri Madhvacharya's works, whether it is at Anegondi or Malakhed near Kalaburagi. Generally, unless there is a land grant by a ruler, we fail to have any historical proofs for such tombs of saints. Traditional texts are always unclear or confused about such events, since the saints themselves were great men who discouraged publicity or fanfare by their successors or followers to celebrate their Aradhanas. 

The great Commentator on Madhva texts popularly called Tikacharya, the master commentator was a recluse living in a cave composing tikas to Sri Madhvacharya, answering later objections by other schools of Vedanta. He was away from public life, blessing those who occasionally visited him for knowledge or blessings. 

After the advent of IT industry, when neo- Madhvas' economical status improved, several youngsters turned towards learning Madhva texts, which even some of their forefathers  were unable to learn. They started visiting unvisited places of Madhva interest from Udupi to Rameshvaram, or even North of India to trace the final resting places of earlier Gurus. by way of this, disputes began about these monuments, of whom many are lost for ever, like the celebrated Sri Vidyadheesha Tirtharu. 

While Samadhi places of Sripadaraja, Vyasaraja, Vadiraja, Vijayeendra Swamijis are popular places of visit, some even go to farway Malkheda, on the banks of a cranky annual river Kagini/Kagina to have darshan of Sri Jayatirtha Guru. Several overzealous Shishyas, pestered the Swamijs to prove their either original/ supreme place among Madhva institutions, which our great saints never had! 

Even Courts of law were approached, and judgements were passed not to hurt either of the parties. The Swamiji of Sripadaraja Matha, after trying to compromise other Mathas, finally consecrated Sri Padmanabha Tirtha's Brindavan, near Sripadaraja's Vrundavan to avoid the never-ending dispute. 

Finally, all swamijis are learned and enlightened to take a stand which is right, but disciples seem not to allow them to settle disputes without annual or occasional fight with words as swords!!! each one of them argue on their social media post about arguments of other Matha, and try to prove their point in a dialectic manner.