Critique and Catharsis: Jain-Vaiṣṇava Polemics in Early Modern Karnataka

Abstract

Abstract The popularization of Madhva’s realist Vedānta was accompanied by forceful critiques of its alleged enemies. Although the movement’s challenges to other Vedāntas has been well studied, its sustained engagement with Jainism has not. The anti-Jain writings of Madhva’s followers offer an important but neglected perspective on the early history of Mādhva Vedānta and its rise to power. This article examines the anti-Jain polemics of an influential intellectual named Vādirāja Tīrtha (c. 1520–1600). By situating Vādirāja and his writings in the vibrant and volatile world of post-Vijayanagara coastal Karnataka, this paper treats the archive of anti-Jain polemics not as a record of timeless doctrinal disagreement, but as a repository of local struggles over patronage, livelihood, and influence. Reading interreligious disputes with an eye to local context allows me to make a larger point about polemics and community formation. Work on polemics has tended to focus on ideas of verbal warfare and destructive debate; this paper suggests, however, that acts of polemical othering in early modern South Asia were productive forms of boundary keeping and community formation. This paper argues that Vādirāja constructed and ridiculed the Jain other as a way to galvanize a coterie of beleaguered Brahmans in a moment of duress. Vādirāja’s anti-Jain writings, in other words, were condemnation as catharsis and community-building.