Accusations

[Guest guest]

It is rather unfortunate that some members of the group chose to

interpret my words in a totally biased & sectarian manner.

 

Neither do I have the intention of denying the existence of the

vadakalai

school, nor did I 'carefully choose' words to do the same.

All I was doing was translating PB Annangaraachaariyaar's words.

 

Here are the actual tamizh words of PBA:

 

'srivaishnavaachaaryakaLin sampradaayaththiRkE thennaachaarya

sampradaayamenRu peyar. srutikaL paanYcharaatra samhithaikaL,

smrithikaL, ithihaasa puraaNankaL, aazhwaar aruLichcheyalkaL

enRa palavakaippatta pramaaNankaLuL aazhwaar aruLicheyaLkaLaana

divyap prabhandhankaLukkE adhisayiththa praamaaNyamuLLathenRu

koLLupavarkaLE sri vaishnavarkaLenpaar. annavarkaLayE ikkaaraNam

paRRiyE thennaachaaryarkaLenpadhu.'

 

Based on the above words of PBA, my understanding is that the word

'thennachaarya sampradaayam' is a term referring to the SV sampradaayam

itself. Therefore there is no question of 'trying to deny the existence

of the vadakalai school' or 'claiming to be the only SV sampradaayam'.

 

Let me give you an example. I hope Sri. Sadagopan will forgive me

for using his postings as an example. Sri. Sadagopan normally ends

most of his postings with salutations to the person whose works he

is describing, for example if he writes about thondaradippodi

aazhwaar's works, he ends his postings with

thondaradippodi aazhwaar thiruvadigaLE saranam.

Now he is writing about Yatiraaja Vimsati. He is ending his postings

with 'Aazhwaar, aachaaryan thiruvadigaLE saranam'.Should I interpret

this to mean that he is not paying respect to MaNavaaLa MaamunigaL

because he did not end his posting with 'MaNavaaLa maamunigaL

thiruvadigaLE saranam'? Obviously not. But if I were to apply a similar

logic to what some members of the group applied to my posting, and try

to read between the words with some bias, I might have to think that

Sri.Sadagopan is not paying his respect to MaNavaaLa maamunigaL. Before

someone jumps at me saying that I am trying to accuse Sri.Sadagopan of

disrespect to MaNavaaLa MaamunigaL, let me say this - I am not in any

way trying to cast aspersions on Sri.Sadagopan. I am just using the

above situation as an example.

 

I request the members of the group not to arrive at some conclusions

based on a skewed interpretation of what is said. The first thing that

I would do is to ask the person who wrote the article for a

clarification before accusing him/her with 'trying to deny the existence

of the vadakalai tradition' or 'claiming to be the only SV traditon',

etc..

 

Varadhan

[Guest guest]

At 01:18 PM 3/21/97 -0700, Sri Varadhan wrote:

>

>

>Here are the actual tamizh words of PBA:

>

>'srivaishnavaachaaryakaLin sampradaayaththiRkE thennaachaarya

>sampradaayamenRu peyar.

 

How is the above interpreted? With due respects to Sri. PBA,

is he including both Vadakalai and Thenkalai in 'thennaachaarya

sampradaayam'? Do vadakalai acharyaas agree with Sri PBA

in this regard?

 

> srutikaL paanYcharaatra samhithaikaL,

>smrithikaL, ithihaasa puraaNankaL, aazhwaar aruLichcheyalkaL

>enRa palavakaippatta pramaaNankaLuL aazhwaar aruLicheyaLkaLaana

>divyap prabhandhankaLukkE adhisayiththa praamaaNyamuLLathenRu

>koLLupavarkaLE sri vaishnavarkaLenpaar.

 

The above says only those who consider "aazhwaar aruLicheyaL" to

be "adhisayiththa praamaaNam" relative to, among other things,

srutis are Sri vaishnavaas. Now, whether vadakalis are included

in this group depends upon how "adhisiyithththa pramaaNam" is

interpreted. Thus, simply qouting the above does not answer

the questions raised.

 

Azhvaar aruLichcheyalkaL are sacred and very special to all

Sri Vasihnavas, vadakalai and thenkalai. AzhvaarkaL

aruLichcheyalkaL are special because of the sweetness,

understandability, athikaaram, etc. But when it comes to

what is pramaaNaa, Sruti and AruLichceyalkaL are of equal

importance. It is my understanding that in vadakalai

sampradayam, one is not above the other for what is pramaaNa,

i.e. there are no inconsistencies between the two (learned

members, please correct me if I am wrong.) Does thenkalai

sampradayam consider aazhvaarkaL aruLichcheyalkaL to be of

higher pramaaNa than sruthi?

 

If aazhvaargaL aruLichceyalgal should be considered to have

higher pramaaNa than sruti to be Sri Vasihnavas, then would

that not exclude vadakalais from being Sri Vaishnavas? I

am not saying this what Sri PBA had in his mind with

this statement. But this needs to clarified further.

 

Even if (i) "adhisiayiththa" is intereted as simply special and not

higher, and (ii) the phrase "thenaazhaarya sampradayam" is meant to

include both thenkalai and vadakalai, the chances for misunderstanding

are so great that it is not unreasonable to characterise the use of

these phrases as "unfortunate". Obviously lot of explanation

of the usage and the context was required. Just quoting Sri PBA's

words only raises more questions.

 

 

> annavarkaLayE ikkaaraNam paRRiyE thennaachaaryarkaLenpadhu.'

 

Again, how is 'thennaachaaryarkaL' interpreted? Are vadakalai

achaaryarkaL included in this terminology? Is this

characterization accepted by Vadakalai sampradayam?

 

If cooperation and mutual respect while adhering to our

own samradayams is to be achieved, we need to avoid

ambiguous statements that can reasonably be interpreted

in several different ways.

 

 

>

>Based on the above words of PBA, my understanding is that the word

>'thennachaarya sampradaayam' is a term referring to the SV sampradaayam

>itself. Therefore there is no question of 'trying to deny the existence

>of the vadakalai school' or 'claiming to be the only SV sampradaayam'.

 

 

 

-- Thanks, dileepan

 

 

p.s. 1: Sri Varadhan, please forgive me if I upset you with my posts.

 

p.s. 2: Sri Varadhan, kindly identify me when you offer your criticisms,

not "some members of the group". Thank you.

[Guest guest]

Hello Bhagavathothamas:

 

A couple of weeks ago, I had inquired about the significance of the recently

observed "KARGALADAI" also known as "Charadu Pandige". I didn't get any help

from this group but I did get an answer from a simple minded mom and I would

like to share with you the significance of KARGALADAI.

 

Kargaladai or Charadu Pandige is celebrated every year on March 14 of the

English calendar which by some strange coincidence or by calculation perhaps, is

always Meena sankramanam on that date. The festival is also known for hallowing

of Mangala sootra. The festival is of tremendous importance to women folk

married or unmarried. The focus is on the husband of a married woman or the

future husband of an unmarried woman. The married women will be invoking the

grace of the Lord for the longevity of their husbands whereas the unmarried

women will seek to have their wishes for begetting well deserving husbands

granted.

 

The protocol of the day goes like this: Following a shower and the daily

worship, the family members will gather around the family deity to offer special

prayers and offer a "CHARADU", a yellow thread to Lakshmi Thayar. The husband or

if he is not nearby, the mother-in-law will then tie a Charadu around the necks

of all the married women in the family. Unmarried young daughters will be

helped with their Charadu by their mothers or other married women. The charadu

is symbolic of "Sowbhagyavati" status of women and is supposed to be renewed

every year just like the sacred thread worn by men. Following the Charadu tying

ceremony, the recipients of the Charadu will seek the blessings of the elders

and the Lord.

 

The festival dish is called "Adai". Adai is a sandwich of sweet porridge called

"poorna" and two pancakes. The pancakes signify the husband and wife and the

sandwiched sweet porridge represents the affection and sweet like relationship

between the two.

 

Simple as it may seem, the event stands for the need for love and faithfulness

between husbands and wives to be asserted and reasserted which is a good thing

in this changing world. The theme is universally applicable no matter what

man-made distinctions that one assigns oneself to, though I know of this

festival to be prevalent among Srivaishnavas in Karnataka. The concept though

simplistic in nature, stands tall among some petty quabbles that have persisted

over the years such as the "Vadagalai" - "Thengalai" arguments. Life on this

earth is short; We have to make best use of that time to prepare our souls for

future births. We can not just afford to waste the precious time in affairs of

no consequence. If our ancestors seemingly made some mistakes, there is no

reason why we can not acknowledge those mistakes, try and correct them for the

betterment of our present lives and move on. If we can find peace and happiness

to ourselves and those who coexist with us by simplifying some of the codes by

which humans can identify themselves, it should be more power to us. Let us

save our energy for more important things like how best we can preserve some of

the real treasures of our heritage for our progeny.

 

Adiyen.

 

Keshava Prasad.