MADHVAS IN MY MEMORY

 

I lived in my hometown Mulabagilu, Kolar district, till 1979, later shifted to Bengaluru. It was very painl to leave the place where I lived more than two decades. By then many of my friends and school mates had migrated either to the nearby Kolar Gold Fields or Bengaluru. Like many other small towns, our town had minimum facilities, no water resources except underground water during rainy season. Our lands were sold for a pittance for a neighbouring farmer.
Education and employment were only our life’s goals, settling down elsewhere was inevitable. Brahmins here with social groups of Smartas and Madhvas, with floating polulation of Iyengars, numbered about 50 houses, of which many youngsters had already migrated.
In a town where 500 Madhva families lived, by 1970s it was reduced to about 55. Surprisingly and shamelessly I would confess we never felt what is poverty, as we thought struggling for two square meals a day might be that! In the Agrahara where we lived, we had several stories to share and boast of. Ghosts well dressed speaking Telugu would dole away with some gift like a bronze vessel or a copper pot, two with me now.
We spoke about greats like Sripadarajaru, Vyasarajaru walking in our streets about 400 years ago speaking in chaste Sanskrit. Among Madhva Brahmanas, we had more of Shastikas ( Aruvattoklu) than Deshastas. While there is no clear cut differences, we Deshastas, once Marathi or to be specific Maharashtra was spoken in houses, had a misnomer of selling Bharat Khanda for few lumps of Shrikhand!!
Though there was Sripadaraja Matha, direct lineage of Padmanabha Tirtha, direct disciple of Acharya Madhva existed, many here were affiliated to either Vyasaraja Matha or Uttaradi Matha, as their Pontiffs frequently visited the town. Apart from regular schooling some of us, went to have Patha on basic Madhva texts, like Stotras and Sandhyavandane, after Upanayana. Since the scholars of Sripadaraja Mutt were not available, we had to depend on Uttaradi Matha scholars only, very puffed up, foul speaking men of either Tamil Nadu or Dharwad area, who gave compliments like … Magane… affixed by all sorts of equivalents to a widow’s son.
However, I never received any compliment like this as a quick learner! For reasons well known to my ancestors, we belonged to the dreaded U Matha! The lean, sharp looking Swamiji would invariably arrive at our town, on his way to either Madras/ Tirumala. We had to assemble there and chant what we knew. He was highly short tempered. I along with others, was taken to the Swamiji like goats for Bali, by our Guru Vattangad Hayagrivacharya, a great soft spoken scholar, but poor when he came to our town.
The Swamiji looked at me, and asked to chant what I knew, I had memorised easily entire Madhva Vijaya of 10006 slokas, Vayustuti, and more. He was looking somewhere, when I recited some shlokas from Madhva Vijaya, and asked my Guru who I was, and my father’s name made known to him. His facial expression changed and he reluctantly thrust a .050 coin in my hand and moved to the next aspirant, who was son of a person, later turning a Swamiji. The boy muttered something which none of us could hear, he was given a silver rupee and an angavastram. I returned home crying for the insult which others did not make out.

However, I never forget those Gurus who taught Samskrit Grammar, Shlokas and Kavyas before I studied them at school. Sri Vyasacharya, disciple of Satyadhyana Tirtharu, Vattangadu Hayagrivacharya, Subbu Narasimha Shastry, and other scholars who came in my life thereafter.