[Advaita-l] Two outstanding Madhva Vidyarthis

[V Subrahmanian]

Here are some details about two Madhva vidyarthis, in their twenties, who
have achieved some great feats:

1.  Sri Bhimasena Guttal -   a student of the Purnaprajna Vidyapitha,
Bangalore.  Having studied Nyaya and Vedanta to advanced levels, he has
been participating in the 'shalAka parIkShaA' conducted by the Rashtriya
Samskrit Samsthan, New Delhi, for the past few years.  Earlier he won the
second place in the 'shaankara chatussUtrI bhashya' parIkShA.  Last year he
bagged the first prize in the second chapter of the ShAnkara Brahmasutra
bhashya at the National level.  That means he has committed to memory the
entire second adhyAya (avirodhAdhyAya) of the bhashya and has displayed
great ability in explaining the purport wherever asked to do so.


The test consists of three rounds under three Examiners.  In the first
round the examinee is asked to recite the bhashya pankti-s from any chosen
place at random.  A metallic scale is inserted into the specified book and
the line to which the scale points to when the book is opened on that page
is read out by the Examiner.  The participant has to commence rendering
from memory the bhashya vakyas from that point until asked to stop.  The
three examiners will do this in turns to satisfy themselves that the
participant is indeed thoroughly familiar with the entire portion.  In the
second round he will be asked, again at random, to explain a particular
sentence or portion or concept occurring in the portion, again by the three
examiners in turns.  In the third round the participant will be asked to
explain special aspects occurring in the selected portions, again by the
three examiners, individually. The participant has to identify what the
visheAmsha is in his own judgement. If he does well in all these tests only
then he gets the award.  This Bhima sena bagged the first prize of Rs.7000
and a golden shalaka by doing extremely well.  The entire test will be
conducted in the medium of Sanskrit.

2. Sri Srinidhi Pyati -  He is two years junior to the above vidyarthi.
 This boy bagged the first place in the Vivekachudamani  which was
prescribed in its entirety for the pariksha  this year. He has committed
the entire book of 581 verses to memory and  is quite thorough with the
commentary of HH Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati SwaminaH of Sringeri.  He too
has studied nyaya and dvaita vedanta and will be graduating to study the
'srimannyAyasudhaa' under the Pejawar Swamiji which is considered to be a
great honour and attainment.

Sri Bhima sena has graduated to this level already and is undergoing the
said classes under the Swamiji by touring with him.  His classes go on
wherever time and facility is available.

This year a boy from this school bagged the first prize in srimadbhagavatam
test; perhaps a portion of it was prescribed.

The next year's Advaita vedanta work to be prescribed for this test could
be the Vedanta paribhAsha, maybe a portion of it.  A final decision on this
is yet to be taken by the authorities.

Similar tests are conducted in pU.mImAmsA, nyAya and vyAkaraNa shastras
too.

I posted the above in this forum since the works involved are Advaitic.

Regards
subrahmanian.v