Literature in 20th Century

[Guest guest]

I read Sh BKR Rao's article with interest. There were a few more

stalwarts in this area. One major person who lived in early 20th

century was Shri T R Krishnacharya, a Madhva Deshastha scholar in

Kumbakonam. To him we owe printed and carefully edited versions of

Acharya's works. He also published the southern versions of

Mahabharatha and Ramayana. He had the foresight to raise funds and

get them published thro Nirnaya Sagar Press, Mumbai and was honoured

across the country. His achievements are summarised in Dvaita

Foundation news letter. Sedam Subbarao published the first English

translation of Bhagavad Gita (1902) as per Madhva thought. C R

Krishna Rao (someone told me that he was father of well known

management scholar Prof C K Prahalad) has published English versions

of some chapters of MBT Nirnaya.

A pioneering contribution was the Madhvamitran, a magazine that was

published in Tamil that consisted of translations of Yathi pranava

kalpa, Yukti mallika, Sarasa Bharathi vilasa, Narasimha stuti, Shiva

stuti etc. It also had Kannada compositions of a women dasa(Ammalu)

in Tamilnadu who lived in this century. This magazine is a good

introduction to social history of the community those days.

The editor of the magazine which was published from 1926 or so till

1940s was Bhagavatha 'Adya' Rangacharya, a disciple of Sri Sathya

dhyana. The magazine has early speeches and columns regularly written

by Sri Vidyamanya Sripada(an excellent eg is clarification of

Sarabheswara mythology)

to be contd......

Suresh M R

[Guest guest]

In addition to my earlier writing, there were several other

contributions. R Nagaraja Sarma's Reign of realism in Indian

Philosophy is a Ph D thesis in Univ of Madras. Dr P Nagaraja Rao's

contribution is also immense particularly his comparative writings. A

noted book by him is Epistemology of Dvaita Vedanta published by

Adyar Library. He has also translated Hari Vayu Stuti in English

published by Dharma prakash. A translation of Dvadasa stotra in

English by " Vaisnavacaran " (a pseudonym) by Dharmaprakash Trust is a

good example. A very meaningful contribution was made by M Ramarao

who published puja methods/different vrathas with accurate meanings

based on Madhva tradition. If today in Tamilnadu, proper methods are

practiced in Madhva homes the credit should go to him. An important

publication is the translation of Sri Raghuttama stotra, life

history, Mangalashtaka into Tamil in 1970s by noted Vedic scholar Pt

Nagaraja Sarma of Chennai (this contributed to popularity of the

stotra in TN) Devarnama Bhajana Sangha's contribution has already

been mentioned by others. A minor publication is Madhva Makaranda in

Tamil which apart from summarising lives of various saints,

identifies different mula brindavans of various Madhva saints in TN

(roughly 30- 35) Hence has historical value.

Adya Ranganathacharya I referred is different (from the playwright)

The former was a student of Sri Sathyadhyana.

To be contd

Suresh