The New International Encyclopædia/Mādhava, Mādhavachārya

MĀDHAVA, mäd′hȧ-vȧ, MĀDHAVACHĀRYA, mäd′hȧ-vȧ-chä′ryȧ. An eminent Hindu scholar, royal counselor and divine, who lived in the fourteenth century of our era. He was elder brother of the famous Vedic commentator Sāyana (q.v.), and flourished under King Bukka I. (A.D. 1350-79), whom he served as Prime Minister and spiritual adviser. This ruler belonged to the dynasty of Vijaya-nagara, ‘City of Victory,’ now Hampi, in the District of Bellary, South Central India, which is said to have been Mādhava's birthplace. He was associated with the Monastery of Sringiri, of which he became abbot. The list of his works on philosophical, religious, and technical subjects is a long one. Consult Klemm, "“Mādhava, seine Lehre und seine Werke,” in the Gurupūjākammudī, Festgabe zum Doctorjubiläum Albrecht Weber (Leipzig, 1896). The name Mādhava is frequently found earlier in Sanskrit literature and Hindu mythology as an appellation of the god Vishnu (q.v.) or his incarnation, Krishna.