Vangipuram Navaneetham Sri Srirama DesikaachAr

[Guest guest]

Dear Members of the Prapatthi Group :

 

Here are my " musings " on the subject

of Vangipuram and Navaneetham .

 

For some time now , I was interested

to know the location of the geographical location of

Vangipuram and the reason why the Middle name of

Navaneetham has been aded to this Acharya Paramparai.

 

For Background , Vangipuram Navaneetham Swamigal

is a neighbor of mine in the sannithi street in Oppiliappan Koil

and this family has been involved with Ubhaya Vedantha Kaimkaryam

for The Divya Dampathis at this Kshethram for many generations .

 

The son of Sri Srirama DesikAchAr is Sri Vangipuram Navaneetham

Gopala Desikan , a class mate of mine and a retired official of the

Southern Railway . He has taken the seat of his father and

grand father at the lotus feet of the Lord of ThiruviNNagaram and

performs today Thiruvaimozhi Kaimkaryam and writes regularly in

Nrusimha PriyA . His contributions on Srivaishnavism in the form

of Q&A s as well as his monographs on Sri Bhagavadh GitA

are great contributions fitting the tradition of this illustrious

family. His cousin is Dr. Vangipuram Navaneetham Vedantha Desikan,

who was my senior at Annamalai University in the Chemistry Department

and is the author of the most informative and scholarly book

published by VishitAdvaitha Research center under the title of

"AzhwAr ThiruvuLLam " , a comparative study of the many

commentaries of our PurvAcharyArs on Thiruvaimozhi .

 

Coming back to the Names , Vangipuram Nambi and Navaneetham ,

this is what my class mate Sri V.N.Gopala Desikan passed on to me

on this subject :

 

Vangipuram is the name derived from a village called

VEngipuram near VizhagapattiNam . Vangipuram Nambi ,

one of the 74 SimhAsanAdhipathis(?) appointed by Acharya RamAnujA

came from here. My class mate's family is connected to that

of Vangipuram Nambi.

 

Navaneetham was a name given by Sarabhoji Raja of Tanjore ,

when the great , great , grand father of Sri V.N.Gopala Desikan

had kalakshepams at the royal court on ChAndhogya Upanishad.

The Maratta King was so moved by the clarity and sweetnes of the

presentation that he compard the lectures to Navaneetham ( Butter mixed with

sugar ) , a favorite food of Lord KrishNA. The king Conferred the title

of Navaneetham on the Scholar and that title is carried even today

by the male members of the family.

 

I recall that Srimathi Manjula Sriram asked me about the origin

of the name "Vangipuram " many weeks ago , since she has the prename

of Vangipuram . I recall also that her mother tongue is Telegu ,

the language spoken in VizhagapattiNam .

 

During the unsettling times of Muslim invasion of the south,

many AndhrA families left for the safety of villages in Cauvery

DeltA or Kanchipuram area. Saint ThyagarAja "s family ,

is a classic example of such migration . Sri Mutthuswami

Dikshithar's family came from Virichipuram ,

a village enar Kanchipuram. Ultimately they settled down

in ThiruvAroor in Cauvery delta . It is amazing to not ehow all

the thre eof our KarnAtic Music trinity were born

In ThiruvAroor around the middle of the 18th century.

The families of NaarayaNa Theetha , Kshethrakj~na

also hailed from Andhra Desam and they as NaadhOpasakAs

have deep connection to the cauvery delata .

 

Coming back to the subject of Vangipuram , Nambi must have moved from

his home town to Srirangam during the time of Acharya RamAnujA

and settled down in Tamil country. Our Vangipuram navaneetham

Family descends from this illustrious MahAn.

 

ShyAmA sastrigaL's family had moved to Kanchipuram earlier .

A Member of the Shyama Sastrigal's family

was hand picked by Adi SankarA to perform pujA for Sri KamAkshi

Devi of Kanchi after the Acharya had reduced the Ugra Kalai

of the Devi , had Sri Chakra Prathishtai and made Her

appropriate for worship in the SowmyA form

celebrated in the many verses of His Sowndarya Lahari .

 

Adi SankarA chose the ancestor of ShayAmA saastrigaL

because of his devoutness and Yajur Vedic scholarship.

Even to day , Andhra Desam is the seat of many Yajur

Vedic Scholars. Since that time , the eldest son of this family

became KamAkshi Bhattar . During one of the Muslim invasions,

the descendants of the KamAkshi Paramparai Archakar and his

relatives carried the Svarna Vigrahm of KamAkshi at the Kaanchi temple

and hid the AabharaNams of AmbhAL in the koil drum

(MatthaLam ) and travelled at night to deflect attention and

finally settled in Tanjore after years of wandering towards

choLa desam that took them to many cities of Tamil Naadu

including UdayAr PaaLayam .

 

That is how , ShyamA SastrigaL , the first son of the Archakar

of BangAru kamAkshi at Tanjore's west raja Veedhi

became the archakar of BangAru KaamAkshi at Tanjore. BangAru

KaamAkshi is made of pure gold (Aparanji Thangam ) like KallAzhagar

and Thiruvananthapuram PadmanAbha Swamy uthsavar . SaastrigAL

composed his immortal krithis on AmbhAL at this BangAru kamAkshi

Amman Temple at Tanjore. Even today , it is a delight to see a member of this

family do archanA for Sri KamAkshi and to hear the Vedam being recitted

by little boys , who are members of the neighboring Veda PatasaalA .

As in Thirumalai , you can hear this Veda recitation

in the prakAram of the AmbhAL's temple at Tanjore .

 

V.Sadagopan