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Sri Vadirajatirtha 1480 - 1600,a Haridasa, is said to have been a Shivalli Tulu Brahmin and native of the village of Hoovinakere, near Kumbhashi in Kundapura taluk, Udupi District in Karnataka state. His parents were Ramacharya and Gauri.^[1] He is considered the second highest saint in the Madhva hierarchy, next only to Srimad Ananda Tîrtha, even though his guru was Sri Vyasatirtha. He is regarded as an incarnation of Latavya. He was not only a great poet but also very effective in the administration of the Udupi Matha system. He brought about many changes to the operational system of the Matha which by itself showed his high placing in the Madhva hierarchy.

He became a Sanyasi at the young age of 8. The pre-sanyasa name given to Sri Vadiraja was Bhuvaraha. He worshipped Lord Vishnu in the form of Haya Vadana.

It was Sri Vadiraja Theertha who changed the Paryaya system of Udupi to two years from the earlier practice of 2 months. This extension of each individual Paryaya enabled the Swamis to travel far and wide and spread the message of Madhva tradition. Another of Sri Vadiraja Theertha's achievements is that he lived a life of 120 years and performed Lord Krishna's Paryaya at Udupi 5 times.

In an age that comprised of great Sanskrit scholars and intellects, Sri Vadirajatirtha who himself was a great scholar, was able to accommodate the needs of the less scholarly, taking the haridasa tradition to the masses by translating many important works into the Kannada language. He was able to explain sophisticated concepts in the form of simple stotras. About the saint, Dr. B.N.K. Sharma writes "In this respect, his work marks a new and necessary phase in the history of Dvaita literature and breathes the spirit of a new age which produced other popular exponents of Madhva-Siddhânta, both in Sanskrit and in Kannada".

• Yukti-Mallika (work on logical analysis of different philosophical systems)
• Mahabharata-Prasthana (an independent view of Mahabharata by Veda Vyasa)
• Mahabharata-tatparya-Nirnaya (commentary on same work written by Srimad Ananda tirtha)with Kannada translation.
• Rukminisha-Vijaya (narrates encounter between Krishna and Shisupala)
• Svapna-Vrndavanakhyana
• Devotional songs in Kannada

Stotras

• Dashavatara-stuti
• Shri-Krishna stuti
• Hayagrîva-sampada-stotra
• Haryashtakam
• Nava-graha stotra
• Palayachuta stotra

Sri Vadirajatirtha's brindavana is in Sodhe, Karnataka.

1. ^ Sharma (1961), p414

• Sharma, B.N.K [1961] (1981,2000). History of Dvaita school of Vedanta and its Literature. Bombay: Motilal Banarasidass. ISBN 81-208-1575-0. 
• Sri Vadirajatirtha in Haridasas of Karnataka
• Latavya [1]

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