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Mādhava (d. 1386)

DOI
10.4324/9780415249126-F026-1
DOI: 10.4324/9780415249126-F026-1
Version: v1,  Published online: 1998
Retrieved March 28, 2024, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/madhava-d-1386/v-1

Article Summary

Mādhava was a minister, scholar and philosopher in India in the fourteenth century. He gave support and advice at the founding of the Vijayanagara Empire in southern India, which lasted 300 years. He is best known for his Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha (Survey of the Major Philosophical Systems). In it, he presented sixteen systems of philosophy, starting with the materialists, discussing the Buddhists, Jainas, several Hindu schools and the school of Logic (Nyāya), and ending with Advaita Vedānta. To him and to many scholars at that time, Advaita Vedānta was the most complete and sophisticated philosophy. Mādhava is often identified with other people, especially Vidyāraṇya, the saint and abbot of a monastery in Śṛṅgeri. The general view now is that Mādhava may have become a monk, receiving as a religious name that of Vidyāraṇya. This Vidyāraṇya was also an accomplished philosopher. His Pañcadaśī (Fifteen Chapters), a digest of Advaita Vedānta, is still popular today.

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Citing this article:
Clear, Edeltraud Harzer. Mādhava (d. 1386), 1998, doi:10.4324/9780415249126-F026-1. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/madhava-d-1386/v-1.
Copyright © 1998-2024 Routledge.

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