Introduction to Tirtha Prabandha

दानतीर्थतपोयज्ञपूर्वाः सर्वेsपि सर्वदा |

अङ्गानि हरिसेवायां भक्तिस्त्वेका विमुक्तये ||

Sri Madhwacharya, in the very beginning of his mahabharata tatparya nirnaya, has declared, on the basis of the shlokas in the bhavishyat purana, that daana, tapas, yajna and tirthayatra are very important components in the life of a sadhaka in performing hariseva. These help him in improving his dhyana and increase bhakti in him – eventually leading to moksha.

Sri Madhwacharya himself undertook tirthyatras throughout his stay on earth. He visited uttara badari twice and also visited all the important kshetras in bharata. In keeping with this direction given by the venerable Acharya, numerous yatis who have come in the madhwa lineage have, by virtue of their personal examples and through their preachings, have reiterated the importance of tirthayatra in sadhana. Sri Jayatirtha, Sri Vyasaraja, Sri Raghavendra Tirtha and many others had also undertaken extensive teerthayatras.

Taking this one step further, Sri Vadiraja Tirtha went one step ahead and decided to bestow a great favor on all sadhakas by creating a compendium of the various vaishnava tirthakshetras in the four corners of bharata. The result of this effort is the excellent ‘Tirtha Prabandha‘.

This work of Sri Vadiraja, written in padya style, contains 235 shlokas and covers more than 100 kshetras. The kshetras covered include rivers such as Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari and Kaveri, the mahakshetras such as Udupi, Badarinatha, Tirupati, Srirangam and Dwaraka, and also numerous other vaishnava kshetras which have very high spiritual value, but perhaps are not well known in today’s times. The book contains four chapters or prabandhas – paschima prabandha, uttara prabandha, poorva prabandha and dakshina prabandha – thus covering the entire country in clockwise fashion – as if performing a ‘pradakshina’ to this sacred land of bharata khanda.

With the help of Sri R Rao (@Madhvahistory on social media), we are able to ascertain – from the records of the Sode Matha and a few publications – that Sri Vadiraja Tirtha undertook six major travels during his lifespan.

The yatras undertaken by Sri Vadirajaru – Image courtesy Sri @Madhvahistory

The shlokas on the numerous kshetras covered in this work were composed during these travels. The shlokas praise the kshetra and the main dieties of each of these kshetras. They give enormous information from a vedic, puranic and historic angle. For e.g. when describing the maha kshetra of Ayodhya, Sri Vadiraja Tirtha gives an important hint about the destruction of the Rama Janma Bhumi temple in the first half of the 16th Century. While describing the murthy of Sri Vittala at Hampi’s Vijaya Vittala temple, Sri Vadiraja Tirtha gives clues about how the murthy came into the acquisition of the Vijayanagara rulers. Similarly, while describing the kshetra of Kukke, he confirms that the practice of made-snana has been in vogue since centuries now. Thus, the entire composition is a treasure-house of valuable information from multiple angles.

As it gets increasingly difficult to undertake extensive tirthayatras due to lifestyle issues of people, Sri Vadiraja’s Tirtha Prabandha comes to our rescue. He declares at the end of the work that those who even merely chant or listen to the shlokas of this work get immense punya. It is no wonder then that many devout madhwas make it a point to chant this work regularly – to aid their spiritual progress and hariseva through ‘tirthayatra’.

Sri Narayanacharya, one of the direct disciples of Sri Vadiraja Tirtha, has written a commentary on Tirtha Prabandha called as Guru-Bhava-Prakashika. It gives lucid explanations of many of the shlokas. The author has declared that the explanations were personally give by Sri Vadiraja himself. Thus, this ‘vyakhyana‘ assumes a lot of significance in understanding and interpreting Tirtha Prabandha.

It is sincerely hoped that the present work – the English translation of the Tirtha Prabandha – will be of use to those pursuing spiritual progress – and will aid them in understanding the significance of the tirtha kshetras covered.

May hari vayu guru bless all!