Shri Raghavendra Math, better known as Rayara Math (popularly known as Shri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt, formerly known as Kumbakonam Math, Dakshinadi Mutt[1] or Vijayendra Math) is one of the three premier Dvaita Vedanta monasteries (matha) descended from Madhvacharya through Vibudhendra Tirtha (a disciple of Ramchandra Tirtha) and their disciples based in Mantralayam. Raghavendra Matha is located on the bank of Tungabhadra River in Mantralayam in Adoni taluk of Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh, India .[2][3]
Raghavendra Math, along with Uttaradi Math and Vyasaraja Math are considered to be the three premier apostolic institutions of Dvaita Vedanta and are jointly referred as Mathatraya .[4][5][6] It is the pontiffs and pandits of the Mathatraya that have been the principle architects of post-Madhva Dvaita Vedanta through the centuries.[7]
Raghavendra Math is one of three mathas descended from Jagadguru Shri Madhvacharya through Jayatirtha, the other two being Uttaradi Math and Vyasaraja Math. Earlier the mutt was known as Kumbhakonam Matha. Later the name of this matha was changed to Sri Vijayendra Mutt after Vijayendra Tirtha by Sudhindra Tirtha, a disciple and successor to the pontificate of Kumbakonam Matha after Vijayindra Tirtha. After Sudhindra Tirtha his disciple, the most venerated dvaita saint Raghavendra Tirtha continued in the pontifical lineage as the pontiff of the matha. After small stay at Kumbakonam, he seems to have gone on a pilgrimage tour visiting Rameshwaram, Ramnad, Srirangam, and Mathura then he moved westwards to Udupi and Subramanya, and then to Pandharpur, Kolhapur and Bijapur. At Kolhapur, he is said to have made long stay and at Bijapur, he made many converts.[8] After that he returned Ultimately to Kumbakonam. By 1663 he left to Mysore where he got grant from Dodda Devaraya Odeyar. Later he moved to further north and finally settled down at Mantralayam, a village on bank of river Tungabhadra in Adoni taluk in Andhra Pradesh. There on the sacred river he took Samadhi in 1671.[9]
The matha was later named after Raghavendra Tirtha as Raghavendra Matha.
Original source: https://en.wikipedia.orghttps://handwiki.org/wiki/ Raghavendra Math (Mantralayam).
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