sAyaNAcharya

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 24 Feb 1998, Ravi Mayavaram wrote:

> namaskAram  Anand
>
> Recently in nArAyaNa gAyatri thread you mentioned about shrI
> sAyaNAcharya. Can you write more details about him. Recently I learnt
> that he is a great vedic scholar and he established the importance of
> atharva veda.
>

Shayanacharya is _the_ Vedic scholar.  He has written the authoritative
Bhashyas on all the Vedas.  (Though on Shuklayajurveda he wrote on Kanva
shakha.  Uvatacharya wrote on the Madhyandina shakha.) He was instrumental
in helping create the Vijayanagar empire along with his brother
Madhavacharya, also a famous writer on Mimamsa and Vedanta topics who
became after sannyasa the famous Swami Vidyaranya.  There is some
historical debate as to whether these three were different or all the same
person.

I have heard that the tradition of Atharvaveda was weak in the South and
so perhaps Shayanacharyas Bhashya helped revitalize it? In any case this
wasn't a problem in Gujarat.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>