TSS: SrI rAmAnuja

[Guest guest]

The second instalment of my write-up is submitted in all humility

to my fellow-seekers.

 

aDiyEn rAmAnujadAsan,

T.S. Sundara Rajan,

Memphis.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<SRI RAMANUJA'S ORDER>

(second instalment)

~ by T.S.Sundara Rajan.

 

The preparation for a neophyte.

 

5.1. It is evident that especially for a neophyte seeker of

spiritual life, a little knowledge is indeed a dangerous thing;

he should first of all seek a good guide's help to identify

what his genuine books are. This does not mean that one would

produce a list of 'approved' books for this purpose, since even

if one had the right title, one cannot be certain that one had

the right work in one's hands. It is important that even as he

searches for a guide, the learner has to equip himself gradually

with enough language skill, knowledge of world literatures and

history, the historical principles of textual analysis etc,

so that he stays alert for the beauty and excellence of what he

reads and equally vigilant about the crude and the spurious

(apramANika) stuff which gets planted into the vaishnava works,

practices, places and context.

 

Status of Srivaishnava book-publication.

 

6.1. There are some essential characteristics of a good book,

especially if it is an edition or reprint of an ancient work.

The lay-out and printing should be easy on the eye, the text

should be properly highlighted and ALSO STRIKINGLY authentic;

annotations/notes should be crisp in explanation, and cite the

sources unambiguously and verifiably, supported by dates,

contemporary references, epigraphic records etc; the introduction

should detail the contents of the work, its place in the totality

of the tradition to which it belongs, the special merits of the

work and external references to it, an account of the author and

his period etc.

 

6.2. To-day's DTP revolution offers immense possibilities for

easy reproduction of the srivaishnava classics. Speaking of

book-production standards, the 10-volume (1930) edition of the

'bhagavad-vishayam' by che.krshnamAchariAr remains unexcelled.

This might sound an hyperbole as applying to a time which by

to-day's facilities of printing technology would be considered

primitive; nevertheless, the miracle it remains. The same

adoration is also due for the Sanskrit versification-cum-gloss

of 'arulic-cheyal' (divya-prabandham) by Sri kAnchi prativAdi-

bhayankaram aNNangarAcharya svAmi of blessed memory, who could

be only referred to as the Leonardo da Vinci of our literatures.

 

6.3. Printing technology was of course not so advanced then as

now, but these precious editions gained from a surpassing

erudition and unrivalled devotion, a combination which is rare

to-day notwithstanding our technology strides. The DTPunit alone

cannot produce a good book to-day when the educational standards

in Tamil and Sanskrit no longer obtain. THE SRIVAISHNAVA

COMMUNITY SHOULD STRIVE TO RECOVER THIS. To-day's scenario of

'higher education' in humanities is just an expensive camouflage

for advanced illiteracy, especially, in Tamil and Sanskrit

languages; as such, it has become necessary that any text/work

in these languages needs to be introduced with a minimum of

translation/explanation in English as well. In respect of

preparing English-language annotations also, the srivaishnava

community finds itself to be predictably and piteously

unprepared; the few efforts that have been there to date

(including the widely popularised and highly unsatisfactory

paraphrasing of the bhagavad geeta by Annie Besant) are total

failures in communication.

 

7.1. Some of the ongoing efforts at srivaishnava publication

however indicate that the requisite skill and devotion are still

available in identifiable savants of the community. Two or three

instances of such effort could be cited. To-day's largest number

of scholarly srivaishnava 'sAmpradAyika' publications are from

Sri S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar

(3-B Puthur Agraharam,

Tiruchirappalli-620017).

He also edits the monthly periodical SRIVAISHNAVA SUDARSANAM

founded by his father, Sri Srinivasa aiyangar, whose centenary

is being celebrated in phases during 1997. Despite that his

printing press is old-time, he has maintained his ability to

produce bilingual (samskrt-tamizh) books without difficulty.

He has also proved to be an intense focal point of increasing

awareness among the youth to monitor recurring encroachments

into srivaishnava temples and media assaults on 'sampradAyam'.

His book conclusively upholding kamba-rAmAyanam as exclusively

vaishnava in spirit is rooted in proper authority (pramANam)

and forms very absorbing reading. This applies to his another

book highlighting the vaishnava influences on Tamizh Sangham

classics. His variorum editions of all the available

commentaries on tiruppAvai, and of the Bhagavad GeetA are a

crystallisation of a sound tradition of scholarship which is

declining. The GeetA edition contains ALavandAr's GeetArtha-

sangraham and uDaiyavar's bhAshyam, besides svAmi desikan's

tAtparya-chandrikA, and vAdikesari azhagia-maNavALa-jeeyar's

Bhagavad-geetai veNbA, all of these supplemented by a synoptic

commentary of Sri Krishnaswami Aiyangar. The unprecedented and

monumental Geeta edition was completed over 30 years in

Dec'96 and occupies some 3000 pages.

 

7.2. The vaishnava world is especially indebted to Sri K. for

again making available Sri PeriavAcchAn PiLLai's exegesis

(vyAkhyAnam) on the various books of the d.prabandham,

supplemented by his own comprehensive commentary for to-day's

reader. Pursuing the logical extension of this effort to

preserve the poorvAchArya vyAkhyAnam for aruLic-cheyal, Sri K.

has undertaken to bring out a photo-offset reprint of the

10-volume Bhagavad-vishayam edition published in 1930 by

che. Krishnamachariar. K. intends to add 2 more volumes

of his own 'pramANa tiraTTu' (references index), making up a

total of 12 volumes. {Five volumes have so far issued, and

the remainder of this project could really take special

donations or fund-raising, to the tune of, say, Rs.six lakhs.}

 

7.3. (Srivilliputtur) VidvAn Sri R. Kannan SvAmi

[91 Thulasinga Mudali Street,

Perambur, Chennai-600011.

PHONE 044-5371861]

 

has carved a niche for himself for his single-handed

achievement of publishing some important sampradAya works of

the post-vyAkhyAna period. He started with a one-volume

edition of nellaiappa aruLALa-dAsar's poetic work 'AzhvArgal

vaibhavam', followed by a separate volume on emperumAnAr,

both works with his own erudite introduction and paraphrase.

His outstanding work is the five-volume edition of the 15th

cent. verse-epic 'BhAgavata-purANam' of vaDivazhagia-nambi

dAsar, which starts with astonishingly beautiful verses on

each of the 108 divya-desam. Another significant service of

RK is his edition of the 15th cent. samskrt drama, 'yatirAja-

vijayam', in separate editions with translation in tamizh and

hindi; the hindi translation received the President of India

award in 1996.

 

7.4. Dr KKA Venkatachari, a 'svayam-AchArya-purusha' and the

younger brother of the late Sri TirumaNi appan svAmi, had

founded the anantAcharya institute in Bombay, and is presently

with the swAmi-nArAyaN outfit in (?)Ahmedabad. He had done his

doctorate in Harvard and must be reckoned as the first well-

equipped person to have introduced srivaishNava studies in USA.

Among the important publications he brought out while in

anantAcharya was the (first-ever) devanAgari edition of

garudavAhana paNdita's 'divyasoori charitam'.

 

7.5. The srivaishnava community of USA should be aware of the

correspondence education package ('srivaishnava-sri') offered by

Sri Krishnamacharya,

Ragam-Thanam-Pallavi Apartments,

East Adaiya-valaindan, SRIRANGAM-620006.

This has generated a considerable enthusiasm for a systematic

personal education in the modern context. K. has also been

organising excellent and largely-attended tutorial gatherings

at different places to supplement his package. He has already

set himself on a course of publishing reprints of rare editions;

the 3-volume peria-tirumozhi vyAkhyAnam of periavAcchAn piLLai

is a credible achievement, followed by periazhvAr tirumozhi

vyAkhyAnam, and the recent first-time issue of nampiLLai's

'EeDu' on tiruviruttam in tamizh script; the work had

originally issued years back in telugu script! This is

at once a discovery and dissemination, and this important event

was properly observed on the 'tirunakshatram' (kArttikai-yil

kArttikai) of nampiLLai, (Monday, Dec 25 1996), and in the

nampiLLai 'sannidhi' itself in Srirangam. It would be a gain

par excellence for the 'sampradAyam' if K. can eventually issue

reprints of PBA svAmi's works.

 

7.6. It would be difficult, in an article of this kind, to do

adequate justice to the 'sampradAya-kainkaryam' of

 

Prof. M.A. Lakshmi-tAtAchar,

Raja Veethi,

Melkote-571431, District Mandya, Karnataka,

(Phone: 08236-58742)

 

rendered through the agency of the ACADEMY OF SANSKRIT RESEARCH,

Melkote, which he founded in 1978. MAL personifies the true

spirit of tirunArAyaNapuram (Melkote): whatever of the sampradAyam

was lost or neglected elsewhere could be recovered on this blessed

'kshetram' so dear to uDaiyavar.

 

7.7. This is true even to-day. It was after all from the pilgrims

of Melkote (tirunArAyaNapuram) visiting kATTumannArkoil

(vIranArAyaNapuram) that SrI nAthamuni had received the 'key'

('ArAvamudE aDiyen uDalam ninpAl') to the entire corpus of AzhvAr

aruLiccheyal (divya prabandham). The great nanjIyar hailed from

Melkote, and so did Ay (jananyAchArya) who wrote TWO commentaries

on tiruppAvai, and on the great twin classics SrIvachanabhUshaNam

and AchAryahrdayam; and much later SrI rAmAnanda whom the northern

mystic ('sufi') kabIrdasa adopted as his guru.

 

7.8. The Academy is appointed in the most modern manner, and the

faculty most orthodoxly educated. The Academy's collection of books

and ancient manuscripts, all made possible through his single-handed

efforts (as the founder-director of the Academy), would be the

envy of many universities. What was a barren and thorny stretch

of land has been converted by him into an aromatic garden

of unchanging spring on the crest of Melkote hill in the close

proximity of the 'sannidhi' of tirunArAyaNa perumAL and

selvappiLLai-sampatkumAra. The Academy's president, M.A.Sriranga

Rajan (retired from the top bureaucracy level), has imported for

the Academy his own administrative insights enriched by his

instinctive respect for scholarly traditions. The Academy's

publications would enhance any university's intellectual stock and

research programme. The multivolume 'viSishtAdvaita-koSam' and

the definitive edition of 'sribhAshyam' are the major ones, with the

various upanishad-bhAshyam in close tow for special mention.

Three volumes of the KANNADA TRANSLATION OF BHAGAVAD-VISHAYAM have

already issued.

 

7.9. The younger generation is likely to despair that it could ever

have the intellectual or linguistic equipment or leisure to savour

of the expansive 'vyAkhyAna' literature available in srivaishnavam.

It is in consideration of this seemingly pessimistic scenario that

the book, 'nampiLLai urai-tiran' (the exegetic craft of nampiLLai)

acquires significance as a surpassing and systematic introduction

to the author of the unrivalled 'Idu' commentary on tiruvAimozhi.

The author of 'nampiLLai',

 

Dr R. arangarAjan

28 Palanganatham Agraharam

Madurai - 625003

Phone: 0452-601124

 

(retired from Madurai university) would still have earned his place

in the hall of fame even if (just like E.M. Forster) he had written

nothing else. His excellent trend-setting research work has

inspired others to take up his trail into studying other vyAkhyA,

like Dr M. Varadarajan's book on pannIrAyirappaDi (of vAdikEsari

azhagia maNavALa jIyar) and Dr BhUmA vEnkatakrishNan's book on

onpadinAyirappaDi (of nanjIyar).

 

7.9.1. In respect of publications, there are two things to do.

Firstly, it is important to get the core books available in print,

and in good edition. Secondly, it is equally important to produce

handy and reader-friendly publications which could present the basic

texts and data of religion as such, and supplement it with

explanation for the comprehension of the contemporary reader. The

slim and handy 'sandhyAvandanam' edition by sRI Krishnaswami Aiyangar

is the best example of the second category of publications.

 

/To continue....