tenkalai/vadakalai

[Guest guest]

Thengalai/Vadagalai: about some historical settings related

to the concepts as heard from elders.

 

Note: Sorry for the silence. My age and condition only permits this kind of

intervention. Apologies. vvr

 

Part 4, contd. from part-3

 

In the period of over 5 centuries after the untimely disappearance of

Sankaracharya and before the advent of Ramanujacharya, the emotionally

based Vaishnavism meekly evolved slowly but surely as a counter-weight to

the 'logically' overweighted but powerful Advaitha. All shades of spiritual

activities in this period, underwent considerable changes in the ritualistic

and ontological concepts since the Vedic period. The important ones related to

the sociological structures and their need for harmony in functions and

hierarchy and power and politics. The rulers and the ruling class

exerted great influence over this. The wise ones constructed LESS than

the damage caused by the self-centered ones, with the result that the entropy

in the field registered a steady increase. When Ramanujacharya came on the

scene, he was great enough to realize what went wrong and how to pull things

in the right direction. He was also schrewed enough to estimate the extent of

opposition and the power behind it. He attributed most of the ills that have

arisen to two fundamental causes, the disappearing HUMANITARIANISM and the

vanishing DIGNITY of MAN (note: here expression 'man' surely includes

WOMAN). He set about to initiate a socio-religious reform of

rectification.

 

Ramanujacharya was an extra-ordinarily bold and profound scholar with an

eqally extra-ordinary sense of justice, charged with the ability to

reform society NON-DESTRUCTIVELY. He went about this task with an

un-parallelled determination, vigor and hope, for which he fully relied on

divine assistance. He was totally aware of the immediate consequences over

his efforts and his personal safety. The historical incidents that followed

fully justify his care, concern and caution.

 

When he started the reform, he had the royal support which did not last

long. He had to rely on his own initiatives which were largely negated

by traditionalists and a sizeable section of powerful and selfish Brahmins.

The other sections of society following the pristine southern culture and

the Dravidian brand of Bhakthi largely supported his revolutionary ideas

and saw in these ideas, the kind of emancipation long overdue but

deliberately withheld thus-far.

 

To be continued... venkat v.rao,

Oct.26, 1994