SherleneGirardi: slightly cleaned up intro for consistency for clarity

2025-10-19T05:35:40Z

slightly cleaned up intro for consistency for clarity

>Prajjwal3959: image add up #WPWP

2021-07-02T04:50:08Z

image add up #WPWP

New page

{{Multiple issues|
{{Cleanup rewrite|date=May 2009}}
{{No footnotes|date=May 2020}}
{{Fanpov|date=January 2021}}
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2020}}
{{Hindu philosophy}}
'''Appayya Dikshita''' ([[IAST]] ''{{IAST|Appayya Dīkṣita}}'', often "Dikshitar"), 1520–1593 [[Current Era|CE]], was a performer of [[yajna|yajñas]] as well as an expositor and practitioner of the [[Advaita Vedanta]] school of [[Hindu philosophy]] but with a focus on [[Shiva]] or [[Shiva Advaita]].

==Life==
[[File:Appayya Dikshitar samadhi.jpg|thumb|Appayya Dikshitar samadhi]]
Appayya Dikshitar was born as Vinayaka Subramanian in [[Adayapalam]], near Arani in the [[Tiruvannamalai]] district, in the Krishna Paksha of the Kanya month of Pramateecha Varsha under the Uttara Proushthapada constellation of the [[Hindu calendar]]. His father’s name was Rangarajadhwari. Appaya had the name Vinayaka Subramanya after the [[Namakarana]] or naming ceremony took place. Acharya Dikshitar or Acchan Dikshitar was the younger brother of Appayya. Appayya studied the [[Hindu scriptures]] under his [[Guru]], Rama Kavi. He completed the fourteen [[Vidya (Knowledge)|Vidya]]s at his young age.

Dikshitar travelled widely, entering into philosophical disputations and controversies in many centers of learning. He had the rare good fortune of being revered and patronized in his own lifetime by kings of [[Vellore]], [[Tanjore]], [[Vijayanagara]], and [[Venkatagiri]].

===Mission against attacks on Shaivism===

Dikshitar threw himself, heart and soul, into this mission for several years and often had to face grave personal danger, which he did with courage and faith.{{cn|date=May 2020}} He preached, organized, and wrote incessantly, enlisting the cooperation of several enlightened monarchs.{{cn|date=May 2020}} He undertook frequent travels and challenged his adversaries to open disputation, as was the custom of those days.{{cn|date=May 2020}} He brought to bear on his widespread activities, his resourceful personality, and created an atmosphere of tolerance and goodwill in the place of the prevailing antipathies and narrow-mindedness.{{cn|date=May 2020}}

===The Great Yogi===

In addition to his poetic skills and achievements on the philosophical propagations and Saivite missionary work, Dikshitar was a great Siddha-yogi.{{cn|date=May 2020}} One of his yogic experiments was as great as it was thrilling.{{cn|date=May 2020}} In the later years of his life, he was subject to attacks of colic pain.{{cn|date=May 2020}} He was convinced that it was due to his Prarabdha and past karma.{{cn|date=May 2020}} Whenever he wanted to meditate deeply or worship the Almighty, he made a bundle of his towel and put it in front of him. By his yogic power, he transferred his malady to the towel and sat in meditation. His disciples watched the towel jumping about the place.{{cn|date=May 2020}} To them, he explained later that he transferred his ailment, which was in the form of an evil spirit, to the cloth and then took it back soon after his meditation was over.{{cn|date=May 2020}}

===Voluntary adoption of inebriation===

About his mystic devotion, there is another story that is related to his work called ''Atmarpana-stuti''.{{cn|date=May 2020}} In this small work of fifty stanzas, he makes the inner self melt as it were by his exquisite mystic poetry.{{cn|date=May 2020}} We can see here the profound maturity of true devotion to the Supreme.{{cn|date=May 2020}} It reflects the inner mental state of
a great devotee, in whom the ego has become fully extinct.{{cn|date=May 2020}} There is a traditional account of how this work came to be written.{{cn|date=May 2020}} It appears once he wanted to test the maturity of his own devotion to the Lord. Hence he swallowed the juice of the `datura' fruit, which introduces intoxication, and told his disciples that they should write down whatever he says, during the stage when his consciousness was disturbed.{{cn|date=May 2020}} In the stage of inebriation, generally all suppressed ideas would find release and come out into the open. And in his case, it was the Atmarpana-stuti that came out. It is, therefore, also called ''Unmatta-panchasati''.{{cn|date=May 2020}}

==Works==
{{more citations needed section|date=May 2020}}
{{Saivism}}
He was well-read in every branch of [[Sanskrit]] learning and wrote as many works, large and small. Only 60 of them are, however, extant now. These include works on [[Vedanta]], [[Shiva Advaita]], [[Mimamsa]], [[Vyakarana]], [[Kavya vyakhyana]], [[Alankara]], and devotional poetry. By conviction, he was an advaitin, and true worship of Lord [[Shiva|Siva]] was the religion of his heart.{{cn|date=May 2020}} Though the followers of the Siva-advaita school claim him as belonging to their school, it is not so easy to determine whether he was more inclined to Sivadavaita or advaita.{{cn|date=May 2020}} Sivadvaita is very much akin to [[Vishishtadvaita]] of Ramanuja, except for the role of [[Vishnu]] being taken by Shiva.{{cn|date=May 2020}}

He wrote the ''Chatur-mata-sara'' to illustrate the philosophical thoughts of the four prominent schools of interpretation of ''Brahma sutras''. The ''Naya-manjari'' deals with advaita, the ''Naya-mani-mala'' with ''Srikanta mata'', the ''Naya-mayukha-malika'' with [[Ramanuja]]'s philosophy, and the ''Naya-muktavali'' with [[Madhvacharya|Madhva]]'s philosophy.

===Siddhanta lesha-sangraha===
(Multi-faceted Vedanta)
Among the Vedantic works of Appayya Dikshitar, the Siddhanta-lesha-sangraha is most famous. In this elaborate and original treatise, he brings together in one place, all different dialectical thinking belonging to the advaitic school. Traditional students of Vedanta begin their study of Vedantic commentaries only after studying this Siddhanta Lesha sangraha. All the different views of different subschools of advaita, like those of `eka-jiva-vada', `nana-jiva-vada', `bimba-pratibimba vada' `sakshitva-vada' etc. are all discussed and the
contrary views properly explained in this work with Appayya Dikshitar's masterly touch.

===''Parimala''===

It is a Vedantic work, an extremely readable commentary on the very difficult commentary called Kalpataru by an advaitic teacher named [[Amalananda]]. That Kalpataru is itself a commentary on ''[[Bhāmatī]]'' by [[Vācaspati Miśra]], which in turn is the famous commentary on the ''Sutra-Bhashya'' of [[Adi Shankara]]. While the ''Parimala'' follows the advaitic approach, Dikshitar has written another commentary ''Sivaarka-mani-deepika'' on the [[Brahma Sutras|Brahmasutras]]. But this is written from the point of view of Siva-visishtadvaita.. These two works – ''Sivaarka-mani-deepika'' and ''Parimala'' – are his magnum opus both in bulk and importance. Though both are commentaries on the Brahma sutra, ''Parimala'' aligns itself to the advaitic interpretation while the other work expounds on the Sivadvaita philosophy of [[Srikanta Shivacharya]]. Dikshitar's patron, King Chinna Bomma Nayak of Vellore, made endowments for the maintenance of a college of 500 scholars who studied ''Sivaarka maniDipika''
under Sri Dikshitar himself, thus equipping themselves for the Saivite propaganda work, which had been organized with a view to stemming the tide of Vaishnavite attacks and encroachments.{{cn|date=May 2020}}

===Other schools as approximations to advaita===

Dikshitar graphically describes Shivadvaita and Advaita, which are very close to each other as the highest steps. He makes it clear in his work that Srikantha-Bhashya on the Brahmasutra has been written in very close approximation to the trend of thought of Adi
Sankara in his own bhashya. Srikanta, according to Dikshitar, propagated his cult on the understanding that ''sagunopasana'' (Worship of name and form) is only the first step to ''nirgunopasana'' (Propitiation of the nameless and formless), and that it was the real intention of Srikanta that the final truth lies only in [[Advaita Vedanta|Advaita]]. Dikshitar's great dialectical skill is fully reflected in the work called 'Anandalahari chandrika', where he tries to narrow down the differences between the apparently divergent schools of thought.

==Sources==
Special issue of ''[[Journal of Indian Philosophy]]'' (March 2016, edited by [[Christopher Minkowski]]):
*{{cite journal |last1=Minkowski |first1=Christopher |author-link1=Christopher Minkowski |title=Apūrvaṃ Pāṇḍityam: On Appayya Dīkṣita's Singular Life |journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy |date=2016 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1007/s10781-014-9230-y|s2cid=170955384 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Bronner |first1=Yigal |title=A Renaissance Man in Memory: Appayya Dīkṣita Through the Ages |journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy |date=2016 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=11–39 |doi=10.1007/s10781-014-9251-6|s2cid=153827853 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Rao |first1=Ajay K. |title=The Vaiṣṇava Writings of a Śaiva Intellectual |journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy |date=2016 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=41–65 |doi=10.1007/s10781-014-9260-5|s2cid=170181275 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Duquette |first1=Jonathan |title=Reading Non-Dualism in Śivādvaita Vedānta: An Argument from the Śivādvaitanirṇaya in Light of the Śivārkamaṇidīpikā |journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy |date=2016 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=67–79 |doi=10.1007/s10781-014-9231-x|s2cid=171076332 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=McCrea |first1=Lawrence |title=Appayyadīkṣita's Invention of Śrīkaṇṭha's Vedānta |journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy |date=2016 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=81–94 |doi=10.1007/s10781-014-9229-4|s2cid=170783184 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Minkowski |first1=Christopher |author-link1=Christopher Minkowski |title=Appayya's Vedānta and Nīlakaṇṭha's Vedāntakataka |journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy |date=2016 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=95–114 |doi=10.1007/s10781-014-9252-5|s2cid=170190119 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Deshpande |first1=Madhav M. |title=Appayya Dīkṣita and the Lineage of Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita |journal=Journal of Indian Philosophy |date=2016 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=115–124 |doi=10.1007/s10781-014-9254-3|s2cid=170146119 }}

Other (scholarly journal articles):
*{{cite journal |last1=Bronner |first1=Yigal |title=Singing to God, Educating the People: Appayya Dīkṣita and the Function of Stotras |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |date=2007 |volume=127 |issue=2 |pages=113–130 |jstor=20297244 }}
*{{cite journal |last1=Bronner |first1=Yigal |title=South meets North: Banaras from the perspective of Appayya Dīkṣita |journal=South Asian History and Culture |date=2014 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=10–31 |doi=10.1080/19472498.2014.969008|s2cid=143713505 }}

Still other:
*N. Ramesan, ''Sri Appayya Dikshita'' (1972; Srimad Appayya Dikshitendra Granthavaliu Prakashana Samithi, Hyderabad, India)
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070111220640/http://www.shaivam.org/adappayya_works.htm

==See also==

==External links==
*[http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/saints/appayya.htm Swami Sivananda on Appayya Dikshitar]
*[http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/s/i/v/Pattamadai-K-Sivaswami-6/index.html By Descendant of Appayya, Palamadai Nilakanta Dikshitar]
*[http://hara-hara-mahadev.blogspot.com/2010/02/appayya-dixitar-hero-who-stood-against.html A brief history of Apayya Dikshitar]

{{Authority control}}
{{Indian Philosophy}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dikshitar, Appayya}}
[[Category:1520 births]]
[[Category:1593 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century Hindu religious leaders]]
[[Category:Advaitin philosophers]]
[[Category:Indian Hindus]]
[[Category:People from Tiruvannamalai district]]
[[Category:16th-century Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:Indian male philosophers]]
[[Category:Scholars from Tamil Nadu]]

Appayya Dikshita - Revision history

SherleneGirardi: slightly cleaned up intro for consistency for clarity

>Prajjwal3959: image add up #WPWP