Debatable information in Sapthagiri Magazine

[Guest guest]

Pranams,

 

In the website www.tirumala.org where the sapthagiri

magazine's online version is seen, Adiyen happened to

go through an article about the "History of Tirupati"

in the April 2002 and the May 2002 issues. Some

of the informations in this article really put me into

a state of shock. I would like to put forward some

of the sentences of the author to the members of the

group. May the learned members of the group please

comment on the same.

 

1. "It is worth pointing out here that neither

Sri Alavandar, Tirumali nambi, Sri Ramanuja nor his

cousin and disciple Embar contributed a taniyan for

the thiruvaymoli nor was a commentary written by any

one of the above. These acharyas were not perhaps

great tamil scholars for one thing. IT IS EVEN DOUBTFUL

IF SRI RAMANUJA STUDIED CLOSELY ALL THE VERSES OF THE

THIRUVAYMOLI. The thiruvoymoli alone came to be

well known as the standard form of devotional literature

,..........

The works of other alvars were obviously not known,

or less known and could not have been classed as

philosophical, but only devotional...............

 

Nammazhvar's tiruvoymoli makes no reference to and

does not attempt to refute the Advaita philosophy".

 

2. "The natural inference is that a section of the

srivaishnavas felt that thirukurukai-piran pillan's

commentary though it had the approval of Sri Ramanuja

and was considered the standard one, did not do full

justice to Nammazhvar's Tiruvaymoli, or that it was

not illuminative".

 

3. "Ramanuja has not quoted a single tamil verse from

thiruvaimozhi as authority..............

So it could not with justification or in fairness be

said that his philosophy was to any extent inspired by

the teachings of the thiruvaimozhi".

 

May 2002

 

1. "The tanians prefixed to the other three works of

Sri Nammazhvar and to the other works of the prabhandam

show that these works were discovered by later acharyas."

 

2. "One Tiruvaimozhi pillai alias tirumalai alvan born

in 1325 A.d wrote a commentary on periya alvar's Tirumoli.

He is the son of Pillai Lokacharya."

 

3. "Whether the thiruvaimozhi was seriously studied before

the appearance of the commentary by pillan and whether

the other twenty three works which make up the prabhandam

were known to and were studied by Sri Ramanuja are matters

open to doubt"

 

4. " pillan does not say anywhere therein that he executed

the work in obedience to Sri Ramanuja's command and that

it had the seal of his approval".

 

 

The author has in many places contradicted his own

statements but then there are many things the author

has said which will shock all of us. Adiyen would

like the learned members to go through the article

and throw light on the authority of the author's words.

 

Adiyen Ramanuja Dasyai

Sumithra Varadarajan

azhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyAr thiruvadigalE saranam

[Guest guest]

asmad gurubhyO nama:

 

Things like these are matters of *faith* on tradition/guru .

Evidently such historical things of the past are diffcult to verify

or prove or disprove one way or the other.

 

For that matter, any philosophy or theology could be fundamentally

either "shaken" or "established" through clever arguments.

 

I personally tend to believe that ultimately one's own karma

influences the the type of Guru one gets and the degree of faith ones

places on Guru/tradition.

 

I would like to parrot my beloved svAmi SrI dESikan for the benefit

of SrI-vaishNava-s here:

 

"Surudhi ninaivu ivai aRiyum thuNivuDaiyAr thoomozhigaL

paridhi-madhi-aasiriyar pAsuram SErndhu arukkaNangaL

karudhi oru theli-vALAl kalakkam aRuththu aththigiri

paridi-madi nayanam udai-p paraman aDi paNindhEnE"

-- aDaikkala-paththu

 

" Through the guidance of the flawless works of the intellectually

bright AzvArs & AcArya-s like SrI rAmAnuja, who with their strong

determination thorougly investigated the vEda-s and allied smRti-s,

I clearly understand all the subtleties of the vEdAnta without any

doubts and I surrender to the Lord at aththigiri. "

 

Thanks to the excellent commentary on dESika-prabandham by SrI SrI-

rAmA-dESikAcArya svAmi.

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja-dAsan