Place · Madhva matha · India
Mantrālayam
The samadhi of Raghavendra Tirtha (1595-1671) at Mantralayam on the Tungabhadra river in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh — the brindavana (tomb-shrine) of the Madhva Dvaita acharya who entered sanjeevan samadhi (living entombment) at Mantralayam on 2 August 1671. The Nawab of Adoni, Siddi Masud Khan, is said to have granted the land for the brindavana. The shrine is a major Dvaita centre, drawing pilgrims of every Hindu sect including Shaivas and Shaktas despite its Dvaita Vaishnava origins. The Raghavendra Swamy brindavana is one of the chief South Indian Dvaita pilgrimages alongside Udupi; the Aradhana festival each August draws hundreds of thousands.
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 15.940, 77.510
Connections (3)
- Teaching lineageMadhvāchārya
Mantrālayam holds the samādhi of Rāghavendra Swāmi, the best-known figure of the Dvaita line Madhva began, who entered it alive in 1671. The school runs from Udupi on the west coast to the Tungabhadrā in Andhra, and these are its two great pilgrim destinations. Rāghavendra's brindāvana at Mantrālayam draws Muslims as well as Hindus, because the land it stands on is said in the shrine's own account to have been given by the local nawab.
- Samadhi atRāghavendra Tīrtha
Rāghavendra is said to have entered the brindāvana alive at Mantrālayam in 1671 and to be present in it for seven hundred years, which makes the shrine a residence rather than a memorial in its own tradition's terms. The stone was brought from Madhyārjuna, where Rāma is said to have sat on it.
- Teaching lineageUdupi
Mantrālayam and Udupi are the two great pilgrim destinations of the Madhva line, four hundred kilometres apart on the Tungabhadrā and the Tulu coast. One holds the founder's temple and its eight-maṭha rotation; the other holds the brindāvana of the scholar who became the tradition's most visited figure. Rāghavendra is said to have declared he would remain in the brindāvana seven hundred years, which means the shrine is administered as a residence rather than as a grave.
On these journeys
Sources
Hindu pilgrimage sites in India — Wikipedia
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