DhIkshidhar at kudanthai

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 3 Aug 1999, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:

> Dr. S.R.Marur <smarur at EASI.SOFT.NET> wrote:
>
> > The biography of HH SrI VijayIndhra ThIrtha, parama guru of HH SrI
> > RaghavEndra Swamy, describes, in great detail, the debates Sri
> > Appaya dhIkshidhar had with HH at KumbakOnam. HH is said to have
> > won over DhIkshidhar in all of them. (HH is known as Ajaya
> > VijayIndhrar). Impressed with His personality, DhIkshidhar chose to
> > stay at KumbakOnam for some time, resulting in deep friendship
> > between the two.
>
> Sorry for sounding rude, but frankly, this seems like a cooked up
> story to me. Appayya displays deep animosity towards the dvaita
> doctrines at various places and has even written a text called
> madhvatantramukhamardanam.

Whoa hold on a minute.  While he may not have approved of their doctrines,
there is no reason to believe Shri Dikshita showed such animosity to
the people themselves.

> All these hagiographic tales are not of
> any use.

I think it is significant that a latter day biographer thought to write
this even if it isn't completely historically accurate.

I have read N. Rameshans book and I'm inclined to trust it but a famous
scholar like Appaya Dikshita must have taken part in many debates.  Surely
opponents did not always come to him.  And he was a royal minister was he
not?  That must have involved travelling too.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>