shRngeri claim
Shringeri website (2025) claims mAdhava’s brother turned ascetic well before vijayanagara went underway; and he made mAdhava his brother yati after him.
The simple fact is that veda-bhAShya-s use the pUrvAshrama name - so this mAdhava’s “brother” can’t be sAyaNa. The shRngeri conclude thence that the ministers sAyaNa and mAdhava were different from the mAdhava vidyAraNya and his younger brother. (Simpler would be to question the assumed identity of the previous shRngeri AchArya.)
Shringeri website (2025)
Sri Bharati Tirtha (1333-1380 A.D
अज्ञानां जाह्नवी तीर्थं विद्यातीर्थं विवेकिनाम् ।
सर्वेषां सुखदं तीर्थं भारतीतीर्थमाश्रये ॥
That Ganga which is the sin-removing refuge to the ignorant,
That esoteric knowledge that is the refuge sought by the wise,
That refuge which is good for all who seek Bliss, Unto that Bharati Tirtha, I bow!
Sri Bharati Tirtha a native of Ekasilanagaram (present day Warangal, Andhra Pradesh) and younger brother of Sri Vidyaranya, in his purvashrama, ascended the throne of transcendental wisdom as the 11th Acharya by succeeding his Guru Sri Vidyatirtha. He occupied the throne for 47 years until 1380. The Acharya’s reign was one of the most momentous periods in the history of India. It was under the guidance of his successor-designate, Sri Vidyaranya, that the great Hindu Empire of Vijayanagar was founded in 1336. The Acharya knew that the sacred religion of the land could be preserved only if the temporal powers were retained by the Hindu rulers. In order to prevent the minds of the public from drifting away from spiritual goals and also to retain the influence of the Mutt on the common man for spiritual good, he consecrated a golden image of Sri Sharada in the place of the sandalwood image installed during the time of Sri Adi Shankaracharya. He took up the task of renovating the temple and Mutt buildings.
During the time of founding of the Vijayanagar Kingdom, the Vidya Shankara temple also was built. King Harihara’s brother Marappa and son-in-law Ballapa went to Sringeri in 1346 under the direction of the King to present nine villages to His Holiness for the undisturbed performance of His tapas and the support of forty Brahmin attendants. On the occasion of the consecration of Sri Vidyashankara temple, the Jagadguru divided lands yielding 600 pagodas into 120 vrittis of five pagodas each and gave them away to 120 learned Brahmins who thus settled near the Mutt. This was the beginning of the present town of Sringeri. Scholars proficient in the Vedas and Sastras were honoured with titles and gifts. The Acharya is noted to have endowed one hundred and twenty scholars proficient in the Vedas and Sastras with vrittis or small holdings of land.
Source: TW: