Bhakti Acharya

• Born in Tamil Nadu and had influence in Kanchi and Shrirangam. Was a Vaishnav saint who believed in idol worship. He preached Visishtadvaita philosophy, belonged to Sri Vaishanava school and emphasized on Bhakti over knowledge to attain God.
• He provided an intellectual basis for practice of bhakti (devotional worship) in three major commentaries: Vedartha samgraha (on the Vedas, earliest scriptures of Hinduism), Shri-bhashya (on Brahma-sutras), and Bhagavadgita-bhashya (on the Bhagavadgita).
• Believed Brahma as Supreme and individual souls as modes or attributes of Brahma.
• Held that even Sudras and outcastes could attain salvation by completely surrendering to the will of guru.
• For marking the 1000th birth anniversary of Ramanuja, a gigantic structure, called Statue of Equality at Hyderabad has been erected.
• Absolute surrender known as prapatti to one’s personal god is easiest way of reaching the lord.

• He was a Vaishnav saint and believed in the philosophy of dualism or Dvaitaadvaita or Bhedaabheda (creator is different from creation). He worshipped Radha-Krishna and established his ashram in Vrindavana.
• Community of Nimbark’s followers came to be called Sanakadi Sampradaya in north India. Keshav Kashmiri Bhatta was the first important preceptor of this school in north India.
• He advocated for devotion which consists of prapatti or self-surrender to God which will help in attaining grace of God.

• Was a Vaishnavite and believed in dualism (dvaita).
• Was against the ideas of Shankara and Ramanuja. He established Brahma Samapradaya. Founded the Dvaita School of Vedanta which says that there is absolute distinction between God and who is the only independent entity, and all other realities are dependent.
• Summarized his doctrinal principles into 10 very brief treatises called the Dasaprakaranas.

Madhavas

• During the Vijayanagar period, Madhavas enjoyed royal patronage and they consolidated their philosophy and wrote several hagiographies and commentaries and developed their institution of Matha.
• Among the followers of Madhavas, Vyasaraya Tirtha was the most eminent and was highly regarded by Krishnadevaraya. Vyasraya also wrote a hagiography of Madhava.
• Krishnadevarya abdicated his throne for a short period in favour of Vyasaraya to avert a serious calamity that was predicted for Vijayanagar empire, if the emperor occupied the throne at a particular hour. Since the calamity was averted when Vyasaraya occupied the throne, Krishnadevaraya honoured him with the title of Karnataka-simhasaneshwari.

• Established Rudra Sampradaya and was a contemporary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
• Propagated Pushti Marga and his school was called Rudra sampradaya. He propagated Vatsalya Bhakti which focused on devotion of child Krishna.
• Developed Shuddha Advaita school of Vedanta which says that world is real, however, individual is imprisoned in his mental world. Individual can gain emancipation by Bhakti.
• Ashtachap poets including Sur das are related to his sect. Srinathji Temple at Nathdwara, Rajasthan is related to him.