Vadakalai and Tenkalai and other questions

[Guest guest]

Sugantha Jagannthan wrote:

> respected sir I would like to know when the

> iyengar sect got split into vadagali and

> tengalai.What is the major difference betweenthe

> two other than the thiruman.I would also like to

> know about the history and the hereditery of

> iyengars fromsrimathy

 

 

For the sake of Srimathy and all other newcomers

to this forum, I thought that I would share a

brief layman's synopsis of this complex

discussion. I would suggest that those wanting

more details to please check the archives of

Bhakti for postings from more erudite members of

this group.

 

First of all, the term "Iyengar" really does not

refer to a religious sect at all, but rather to a

subset of Brahmins who, by tradition, are

heriditary heirs to the religion of

SriVaishnavam. While the Iyengar Community is

most certainly directly linked to this religion,

SriVaishnavam is, in its essence, completely

independent of the idea of caste, and has

followers hailing from all communities. And, with

increasing awarenes in the west, I am happy to

say, has started to include all races as well.

So, when we speak of such things as Vadakalai or

Tenkalai, we should note that these belong to

SriVaishnavam as as a religion, and not to

Iyengars as a caste. And, we must also be very

careful to not consider the two terms

(SriVaishnava and Iyengar) as being

interchangable.

 

However, with regards to Iyengars in particular,

we can probably surmise that all of them can trace

their ancestral roots or disciplic succession

(paramparai) back to the foremost achAryan of our

tradition, Sri Ramanuja, or one of his disciples.

 

The formal division of the tradition into the two

schools of thought known as Vadakalai or Tenkalai

seems to have a fairly recent history, but it

seems that scholars cannot really agree as to

specifically when references to SriVaishnavam as

having two schools became established. However the

philosophical differences that have created this

division can generally be traced back to two 14th

century philosophers, Swamy Vedanta Desika

(reputed to be the founder of the Vadakalai view),

and Swamy Pillai Lokacharyar (who, along with Sri

Manavalamamunigal, is reputed to be the founder of

the Tenkalai view).

 

Officially, there are 18 fundamental differences

between the two schools of thought (not including

the shape of the thiruman). But, the one

difference that is perhaps most significant is how

the two schools interpret prapatti/saranAgathi,

the Path of Self-Surrender to the Lord. Of

crucial concern are: what constitutes prapatti,

what are the qualifications for performing

prapatti, and whether or not prapatti

necessitates a formal act on the part of the

individual. The details of these issues are

rather complex, and indeed are only meant to be

taught by scholars. So, I will not attempt to

address these further.

 

While it cannot be denied that the kalai

differences form a big part of SriVaishnava

discussion and debate, I feel that it is important

to note that most AchAryans, and many lay

followers, see these differences as being

relatively unimportant in comparison to the spirit

of devotion to Sriman Narayana and dedication to

Ramanuja's Vision (emperumAnAr darshanam) that all

SriVaishnavas share.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

 

Mohan