ramanuja sannadhi at thirumala - long mail

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srImathE rAmAnujAya namah.

 

dear maNi,

 

I was unable to do this yesterday due to work issues..

but here is some data along the lines that you had

requested.

 

The following are excerpts regarding svAmi rAmAnujA's

sannadhi in thirumala, taken from the book

"History of tirupati" - volume 1

Author: Sri. TKT Veeraraghavacharya

TTD Devasthanam publication. Further down

in the email, I have written my own conclusions from

what I see. Obviously, I am not imposing that

conclusion on anyone.

 

--begin excerpts from the book

------------------

srI rAmAnujA's shrine in tirupathi (keezh tirupathi):

 

An inscription on the west and the south bases of

sri ramanuja's temple in tirupathi states that in

the month of avaNi of the vikrama year, the fifteenth

regnal yeaar of vira narasinga yadavaraya, certain

srivaishnavas made an endowment for the lighting

and supply of flowers to the emperumanar shrine.

This corresponds to 1220 AD.

.....

 

We have shown that there are references to srI

rAmAnujA's shrine in Tirupati from 1220 AD; but

for the shrine in tirumala, the earliest one is

1476AD. The shrine abuts on the prakaram wall

which obviously came into existence in the

second quarter of the fifteenth century AD.

 

........

 

There is a tradition that the shrines of srI rAmAnuja

in Tirumala and Tirupati were constructed more or less

simultaneously soon after the death of rAmAnuja.

The guruparampara account (note from varadhan:

the author probably is referring to the 3000ppadi)

says that a shrine was constructed in srirangam by

thiru-k-kurugai-piran pillan, the gnyana putra of

sri ramanuja; that mudaliyandan constructed the

shrine at sriperumbudur; that kidAmbi AchchAn,

nallAn and some others constructed a shrine in

thirunarayanapuram and installed alvars also there;

that nadadur azhvar installed sri ramanuja's idol

in kanchipuram and that piLLai thirumalai nambi

installed one in keezh thirupathi, a second one

at the spot now called dOvabhasyakar sannidhi,

where thirumala prasadams of thiruvengadamudaiyan

were presented to him on the occasion of his

glorious visit and the third in the sannidhi of

thiruvengadamudaiyan.

 

Apart from this tradition and account we know that

anandAzhvAR and his son were devoted disciples

of srI rAmAnuja. The grand-son viz. anandAzhvAn

vEnkatatturaivan has left an inscription (which

stands as an incomplete one) on the north base

of the first gopuram in the tirumala temple. It

reads, translated into english..

 

...in the margazhi month of ___ year..

...tAzhvAn's grand son.....

.....offered for the kind acceptance...

.....for amudupadi, satupadi....

 

.... to the end of my life as udaiyavar

.... as emperumanar dharmam i shall carry on

.... anandalvan venkatattu

....may stand for

 

.....AchArya purusha in thirupathi

....AzhvAn piLLai vEnkatattu

....on hill thiru nandavanaththu

 

The author concludes as follows:

 

There are two other inscriptions in a similar

incomplete condition (note from varadhan - this

line he presents after the first translation

above.. in effect the above 3 are the inscriptions

available) which only go to show that anandAzhvAr

vEnkataththuraivAr took a pledge to carry

on the thirunandavanam and some other dharman

of srI rAmAnuja. This pledge might have been

given to his father when he was in his old

age or about to die.

 

There is nothing in these inscriptions which

could be constued as stating that there was

a shrine for srI rAmAnuja in thirumala on

that date which may be about 1170 or 1180 AD.

Inscription I-172 (note from varadhan: the first

one above) only

shows that the "amudupadi" and "sattupadi"

were meant for some (Deity) in the month of

margazhi when the inscription was made. It

might well have been for srI venkatesvara's

temple for dhanurmasa food offering.

 

The thirumala temple in those days had not

sufficent resources to carry on the daily

nimandanam (pooja including food offering)

and the stanaththar represented the matter

to thirukAlattidEva yAdavarAya when he was

camping in avilAli near tirupathi in his

19th regnal year (1209 AD). He then granted

with libations of water all the nanjai and

punjai lands situated within the four

boundaries of kudavUr together with taxes,

etc. for the nimandanam. So, at the time

vEnkataththuraivAr made his inscriptions

the temple stood in need for amudupadi

and sattuppadi. It is therefore reasonable

to assume that "amudupadi' and "satupadi"

should be supplied by his disciples

regularly to the temple of srI venkatEsvara.

There was no likelihood of a shrine having

been erected for srI rAmAnujA at that time.

The tradition, however is that his images

were installed simultaneously in tirupathi

and thirumala. In thirupathi, there was one

in 1220 AD. It is therefore not unlikely

that a small shrine was built in thirumala

also or at any rate that an idol was

installed in the temple. The idol might have

been subsequently shifted to the present

shrine after it was built sometime before

1476 AD. Since then, attention was paid to

the maintenance of the shrine. In fact it

needs no maintenance. We find that the food

offerings even when intended for srI

rAmAnuja were by stipulation of the donor

first offered to thiruvEngadamudaiyAn and

then brought to the shrine for being offered

to srI rAmAnuja. This has always been the

procedure in thirumala. It is inconceivable

that a shrine would have been built in

thirupathi when there was none in thirumala.

 

--------------

 

What follows is my (Varadhan's) comments

on the above:

 

The author's conclusions based on the evidence

presented by him seem to be not 100% strong.

 

1. In the case of the inscriptions, the first

one can be taken to mean amudupadi and sattupadi

for ramanuja shrine; The second and third

can be taken together and interpreted as a

pledge to continue the pushpa kainkaryam that

anantazhvan started.

2. The reasoning by the author to conclude that

amudupadi/sattupadi was for dhanurmasa offerings

to perumAL is not bulletproof either. From

the dates presented by him , there is a gap of atleast

 

29 years from the date of the inscription to the

endowment of the village for nitya kainkaryams

to the temple.

3. The guruparampara (3000-ppadi) excerpt quoted above

is not 100% verifiably accurate either. The older

6000ppadi mentions the names of all AchAryAs

at that time as collectively doing the yathi

samskAra vidhi for rAmAnuja. Some editions

of the 6000ppadi mention about rAmAnuja's

rites being performed inside the temple (i.e.

corroborates the current situation of ramanuja

sannadhi/thirumEni being inside the temple

at srirangam), and some do not. No mention is

made of "construction of a shrine" in the

6000ppadi. If somehas has a copy of kOvil

ozhugu and can find some data, it might be

helpful. Anyway, the above just means that

there can be doubts raised whether piLLai

thirumalai nambi installed the vigraham in

the temple at thirumalai.

 

4. From all the above, the following scenario -

that of anantAzhvAn establishing an idol

of rAmAnuja inside the temple, and his grandson

pledging to continue the pushpa kainkaryam

and the maintenance of the ramanuja sannadhi -

seems to be a plausible scenario. In 6000ppadi

it is mentioned that anantAzhvAn came with

his disciples to srIrangam to take part in

the carama kainkaryams to rAmAnuja.

 

5. The approx. date of rAmAnujA's attaining

paramapadam is 1137 AD. If one takes the

above inscriptions to be around 1170/1180 AD,

it does fall into the realm of possibility

that soem sort of a shrine existed before the

inscription.

 

6. In any case, the maximum gap between

rAmAnujA's attaining paramapadam and his

enshrining in thirumala/thirupathi seems

to be less than 100 years. Given that,

the other possibility is if there was any

other rAmAnuja follower in thirumalai,

other than anantAzhvAn, that had enough

stature to install the idol. Given the

traditional not-very-close relationship

between the vaikhAnasa priests and the

rAmAnuja followers (as mentioned/hinted

in many places in the book above, and

through other sources), it is improbable

that someone with a lesser stature than

anantAzhvAn could have managed to install

the vigraham. (stature in this case is

obviously "stature within thirumala"..

anantAzhvAn lived there for a major part

of his life, and hence it is only logical

to conclude that he probably had enough

stature among the temple management/

employees at that time).

 

7. There is little information about any

other AchAryA other than anantAzhvAn with

reference to thirupathi/thirumala during these time

periods. So, one can assume that there was

no other ramAnuja follower with the type

of influence that anantAzhvAn could have

had in thirumala.

 

8. All the above does point to a greater

likelihood of anantAzhvAn being the person

who installed rAmAnuja in the temple at

thirumala; The oral version passed by many

AchAryAs also tell that anantAzhvAn established

the sannadhi. Taking those two together,

one can conclude that there is a high

probability that it was indeed anantAzhvAn

that established the sannadhi.

 

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

varadhan

 

 

 

 

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