ಮಧ್ವ ಜಯಂತಿ | Madhva Jayanti

Madhva Jayanti is the birthday of Madhvacharya, the teacher of Dvaita Vedanta. The Madhva tradition keeps it on Vijayadashami, the tenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Ashwayuja, the day that closes Navaratri. Madhva mathas and households keep it wherever they are, and at Udupi, near which he was born, the day is both Vijayadashami and the jayanti of the acharya whose mathas tend the Krishna temple.

The birth

Madhvacharya was born at Pajaka, a village a few miles from Udupi, to Madhyageha Bhatta and Vedavati, and was named Vasudeva. The Madhva accounts give the day as Vijayadashami and the year most often as 1238; another dating, also in print, places his life about forty years earlier, from 1199.

He took sannyasa as a boy under Achyutapreksha and was named Purnaprajna, and later Anandatirtha. His commentaries on the Brahma Sutras, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita set out Dvaita, the teaching that the Lord, the souls and the world are real and distinct, the Lord alone being independent. He installed the image of Krishna at Udupi and gave its worship to eight disciples, the first heads of the eight mathas.

How it is kept

In the mathas the image of Madhvacharya is worshipped and decorated with flowers, tulasi and sandal paste, and his works and his life are recited: the Dvadasha Stotra, his own hymns; the Sumadhva Vijaya, the sixteen-canto account of his life by Narayana Panditacharya; and the Hari Vayu Stuti. There are discourses on his teaching, processions of his image, particularly at Udupi and at Mulbagal, and the feeding of those who come.

Because the day is also Vijayadashami, it shares its morning with the rest of the festival. The books and tools set before the goddess on Mahanavami are taken up again, children are given their first letters, and the shami is worshipped.

Which day Anudina gives

Anudina gives Madhva Jayanti on the same day as Vijayadashami, and by the same rule: the day on which the dashami of Ashwayuja shukla paksha is running in the aparahna, the fourth of the five equal parts of the daytime. In its Surya Siddhanta mode it takes the dashami at sunrise instead, as the Sringeri panchangam does for Vijayadashami. The bright fortnight has the same month name in the amanta and purnimanta calendars. The row is shown when the Tradition setting is Madhva, in every regional custom. In 2026 Anudina gives 20 October.

The two rules part in a year when the dashami begins around midday, and 2026 is such a year: the dashami begins shortly after midday on 20 October and is still running at sunrise the next morning. Calendars that list Madhva Jayanti by the tithi at sunrise therefore give the following day. Neither is a mistake. A Madhva household keeps the day its own matha’s panchanga prints, and the matha’s calendar is the one to follow for the observances there.

Madhvacharya’s withdrawal from sight is kept in Magha, on Madhva Navami. For the festival as a whole, see Navaratri.