Digest Number 2075

[Guest guest]

Sri Sreeram,In response to your questions - 1. What is an Agama?An Agama are a set of scriptural works that describe all of the details of temple worship, including the size and shape of vigrahams, the directions that they should face and where they should be located, as well as the sculptures that should be placed on gopurams and vimanams. They also go into great detail about the daily ritualistic worship of the deities.

They are not part of the Vedas, and most indologists would attribute them to the of Chera and Chozha era, where the kings granted massive sums of money to construction and maintenance of temples in South India. Consequently, the Agamas are not part of North Indian temple worship.

2.

Is it correct that there are only two Agamas namely pAncharAthram and

vaikAnasam in srI vaishnava sampradAyam, or are there more to add to

the list?Yes. However, they are not just limited to Sri Vaishnavam, but apply to all temples in South India where Vishnu or one of His Avatharas serves as the primary deity. 3. What are the differences between these Agamas?

In a nutshell, the Vaikhanasa Agama is in the spirit that we are there for the Lord. The Pancharatra - the one that the Sri Vaishnavas adhere to in home and temple worship - suggests that the Lord is there for us.

4. What is the thAthparyam behind these two Agamas, meaning why do we have more than one Agama?Basically because these two agamas were written at different times by different people. The Vaikhanasa Agama is attributed to one Vaikhanasa Mahamuni, who serves as the principal Acharyan of the Vaikhanasa Vaishnava Sampradayam. When he lived on this earth is unknown, but he was not a Sri Vaishnava by practice.

The Pancharatra Agama is attributed to the Supreme Being Himself, who is said to have brought forth this method of worship over five days and five nights - hence the name pAncha rAtra. Again the time that it was written is unknown, but we do know that it was promoted as a valid practice by our Purvacharyans, particularly Sri Alavandar.