madhva's

Updated: May 7, 2025

The Madhvas are equally violent in denouncing Śankara and his followers. Up. Compare Bhag.-g. Madhva says it is so-called because it bears some reduced similitude to the Lord, though quite distinct from him. Madhva's exegesis is supported by a system of tantric or cabalistic interpretation in which every letter has a special meaning. Thus in the passage of the Chând.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2

The Old Testament and the Koran have been so treated by Kabbalists and Sufis. But in Madhva's commentaries we see the opposite and probably rarer method. Pantheistic texts are twisted until they are made to express uncompromising monotheism.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2

Madhva's sect is still important but even more important is another branch of the spiritual family of Râmânuja, starting from Râmânand who probably flourished in the fourteenth century . Râmânuja, while in some ways accepting innovations, insisted on the strict observance of caste. Râmânand abandoned this, separated from his sect and removed to Benares.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1

Madhva though educated as a Śaiva became a Vaishṇava. He denied absolutely the identity of the Supreme Being with the individual soul and held that the world is not a modification of the Lord but that he is like a father who begets a son. Yet in practice, rigid monotheism is not more prevalent among Madhva's followers than in other sects.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2