I was randomly thinking on who could be the ‘Yugpurush’ the ‘Man of the Millennium’ for the past millennium. It would have to be someone who had an unparalleled impact on humanity, on the spiritual and material levels. 

For the first millennium BC, this would be obviously Acharya Chanakya. And for the first millennium AD again it is easy, this would be Swami Adishankaracharya.

But for the second millennium AD, there are two such extraordinary visionary men, two brothers who between them have such incomparable achievements! And as Vaishakh Shukla Saptami is considered as the Jayanti, birth celebration of the older brother, I thought of writing this small post in gratitude.

The brothers are the Swami Vidyaranya (he was named Shri Madhvacharya before he took Sanyas) and Shri Saayanacharya. They are towering giants who can never be equalled in the future by any one, such is their immense contribution to humanity.

The two brothers were born in the 13^th century in the Southern part of India, during very turbulent times. This was when the Islamic invasions had begun and the Dharmic society in Bharat was feeling the strain. Shri Madhvacharya and Shri Saayanacharya understood the danger of the Islamic invasions and they decided that the only solution was to establish a Dharmic kingdom. A ‘Hindu rashtra’ which would fight the Adharmic invaders and bring the disturbed society back to its Dharmic roots.

So they chose two brothers, Harihar and Bukka, whom they felt had the qualities needed to lead such a new Dharmic kingdom and they guided them every step of the way. The kingdom was named Vijaynagar and Harihar and Bukka became great Kings, first King Harihar and then later King Bukka. Interestingly they were regular people, originally from a cowherd family. Shri Madhvacharya and Shri Saayanacharya founded the Vijaynagar empire on meritocracy. And this Vijaynagar empire fought the Islamic invaders and secured Bharat for over 3 centuries.

And later these same Dharmic ideas of Shri Madhvacharya and Shri Saayanacharya became the foundation of Chhatrapati Shivaji Raje’s Hindavi Swaraj (wrongly called the ‘Maratha empire’.) The Marathas under Raje always fought for a kingdom of the Hindus. Raje always thought beyond the limited ‘Maratha’ tag, he fought for all Hindus. And thus his ‘Hindavi Swaraj’ which at its peak extended from Attok (in current Pakistan) to beyond Thanjavur in the Dakshin. Thus it was the idea, the motivation and the determination of these two extraordinary brothers which strongly secured Dharma in Bharat for over 5 centuries.

Shri Madhvacharya and Shri Saayanacharya both served as Ministers and Chief Ministers of the Vijaynagar empire. They were experts in every aspect of nation building and ensured that the newly established kingdom prospered. Both were experts with weapons and in the art of war. They worked tirelessly to ensure that Dharma was defended on the physical levels and that the Adharmic invaders were defeated. This took a few decades of their lives. The Vijaynagar kings fought wars and threw out all the Islamic invaders from this part of Bharat. At its peak, the Vijaynagar empire extended upto the current states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Telengana, Andhra pradesh, Odisha and half of Chhattisgadh.

Then once their vision of a Hindu empire was secure, and the Vijaynagar empire was sufficiently strong, both brothers took up another equally difficult and incredible task. They made it a point to secure the Books of Dharma, this to protect the people of India forever on the spiritual levels. They did not think that their life work was done with the Vijaynagar empire. They must have been in their old age but incredibly they still continued to work for Dharma.

Shri Madhvacharya, took sanyas and the name ‘Swami Vidyaranya’. And he became the Jagadguru of the Shrungeri Sharada Peeth! He initiated several social reforms, the most important was creating the Prayaschitta system to bring back the Hindus of Bharat who were forcibly converted into Islam. He wrote several books on Dharma, Ayurved, Purushartha etc on so many topics, so many of them and all so important. For eg, the Panchadashi, is a required reading for every advanced student of Dharma. As the Jagadguru, his words had a different power and this helped consolidate Dharma in the daily lives of the people.

And Shri Saayanacharya, the younger brother, did something equally extraordinary. He wrote commentaries on all the 4 Veds, a mind-blowing extraordinary effort! These – Vedaartha Prakash – are the only real commentaries on the Ved which are available to us at this point of time. And he made a list of all the books, all the texts, all the commentaries by all the real Maharishis, collected all these books in the physical form and then incredibly, he wrote detailed commentaries on each one of them! I cannot even imagine how this was even humanly possible! Today we have only his work to guide us in our studies on the Ved. And this book writing effort came after they had already spent a major portion of their lives in nation building!

These two brothers defended Dharma in every way possible. They preserved the land of Dharma and the books of Dharma. Without their efforts we would have neither the land nor the books with us today. I cannot even imagine how crazy our lives would be if these two incredible giants had not done all this work.

The legacy of Swami Vidyaranya and Shri Saayanacharya is incomparable. Their dedication preserved the soul of Bharat and Vedic Dharma. They worked tirelessly. They had the vision and the courage to act on that vision. And that is why we are here today. We are able to live our life as per Vedic Dharma because of them. If you feel inspired, do read more about them, about the Vijaynagar empire and the Hindu kings of Bharat who protected Dharma. And more importantly read the books which they have written and preserved for us.

If Bharat has 50 million followers of Vedic Dharma today, then it is only because of these two extraordinary ‘Men of the Millennium’. If humanity has access to the Ved and the Vedic literature today then it is only because of Shri Madhvacharya/Swami Vidyranya and Shri Saayanacharya. We owe them.

Dr. Tejaswini Arvind Patil.