Birth and childhood

Birth and childhood

Madhva was born on Vijayadashami day of 1238 CE at Pajaka, a tiny hamlet near Udupi. Narayana Panditacharya who later wrote Madhva's biography has recorded the names of Acharya's parents as Madhyageha Bhatta (Naduilaya in Tulu) as name of the father and Vedavati as Acharya's mother. They named him Vasudeva at birth. Later he became famous by the names Purnaprajna, Anandatirtha and Madhvacharya.
Even as a child, Vasudeva exhibited precocious talent for grasping all things spiritual. He was drawn to the path of renunciation and even as a young boy of eleven years, he chose initiation into the monastic order from Achyuta-Pragna, a reputed ascetic of the time, near Udupi, in the year Saumya (1249 CE). The preceptor Achyuta-Pragna gave the boy Vasudeva the name of 'Purnaprajna' at the time of his initiation into sanyasa.
A little over a month later, little Purnaprajna is said to have defeated a group of expert scholars of Tarka(logic) headed by Vasudeva-pandita. Overjoyed at his precocious talent, Achyuta Preksha consecrated him as the head of the empire of Vedanta and conferred upon him the title of Ananda Tirtha.
Thus Purna-prajna is the Acharya's name given to him at the time of Sanyasa (renunciation). The name conferred on him at the time of consecration as the Master of Vedanta is 'Ananda-tirtha'. Madhva, a name traceable to the vedas (Balittha Suktham), was the nom-de-plume assumed by the Acharya to author all his works. Madhva showed that Vedas talk about him as "Madhva" and utilized that name for himself. However, he used Ananda Tirtha or Suka Tirtha also to author his works. Madhva was the name by which he was to later be revered as the founders of Tattva-vada or Dvaita-mata.