(Fwd) Sri Ramanujar's exodus

[Guest guest]

indictraditions, naga_ganesan@h... wrote:

 

Mr. Tirumala mentioned Sri Ramanujar's exodus to Karnataka,

and tried to connect it with the second half of 20th century

antibrahminism of Tamil Nadu.

 

These two are entirely two different things. The economy

was doing pretty well in Chola times, preceding after a

growth in Pallava regime. India, esp. East & South was interacting

with South East Asia, trade was flourishing. The prosperous

times led to relaxing caste stangholds. Sri Ramanujar pioneered

those movements - he called his vedanta as ubhaya vedanta

and raised Alvars' pAsurams on par with Vedas. He coined a

new name, TirukkulattAr (people of shri-kula) for Harijans.

In the 11th century!

 

The Smarta Brahmins were traditional landlords and worked

with Saiva Vellalas who were called sat-shuudras. The Smarta

orthodoxy in the dominant Shaivaism did not allow Tamil Tevaram,

OTOH Srivaishnavas treated all castes equally, gave importance

to Alvars, etc., This led to a conflict, the Orthodoxy

made royal edicts to get Ramanujar out. For the smarta-king-vellala

alliance, pl. read Burton Stein's works.

 

If you read PeriyapurANam or any Tamil bhakti work, the

alliance between Brahmins and Vellala-Landlords is striking.

Indeed, the antibrahminism is found Veerashaivaite Basava

purANamu in Telugu, Kannada. Pl. read Velcheru Narayanarao,

Warriors of Shiva, (translation of Basavapuranamu) for its

antibrahminical content, in Tamil none exists in those times.

 

In the late 20th century, Maharashtrian Aryanisms, see:

INDOLOGY/message/947

produced a reaction in Madras. The Dravidian movement

ideologues were Sir P. T. Chetty, a Telugu & Dr. Nayar

& of course, Periyar EVR, whose mothertongue was Kannada.

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan

--- End forwarded message ---