A peep into thousand years of the history of Sri VaishNavam : Part I

[Guest guest]

SrI :

 

Dear Fellow Students of history of Sri VaishNavam :

 

Few days back , author Sriman V.Dhivakar was kind enough to send me

from India a copy of his recent Tamil monograph entitled " Thirumalai Thirudan "

( Thief of Thirumalai or The Thief at Thirumalai ) . We have heard of the Thief

of

Bagdad . I wondered which thief was at Thirumalai and what century that

theft took plce as well as what he or she stole at Thirumalai .

 

I learnt that Sri V.Dhivakar is a Member of our SaraNAgathy list and is devoted

to

Swamy NammAzhwAr's dhivya Prabhandhams .

 

I was intrigued and started to read his book . I could not put it down .

The 348 page book written in chaste Tamil is a literary feast built around

historical royal characters , their ministers, Commanders -in-chief and

Religious heads that strutted on the stage during the last 30 to 40 years of

AchArya RaamAnujA's life . This book is released by Narmada Publications

of T.Nagar , Chennai and is priced at Rs. 150 .

 

As I read the book ,the echos of Kalki's classical historical novels , "

Ponniyin Selvan " ,

" Sivakaamiyin Sabhadham " , " Parthipan Kanavu " flashed thru my memory .

The highly researched book is based on the difficult religious strifes during

AchArya

RaamAnujA's time . Some of the incidents that happened during this historically

important time are : the betrayal of the VaishNava darsanam by the opportunistic

NaalUrAn hailing from Tillai Thirucchitthirakootam , the power struggle between

fanatic and tolerant kings of Chola dynasty , the collision between Jainism ,

Saivam and VaishNavam for the minds of the people with the support of

the different members of the Chola and ChALukya royal household ,

the establishment of the identity of Thirumalai VenkatAchalapathy as

a Moorthy of Sriman Narayanan by AchArya Ramanuja .

 

The betrayal by a sishyan of Swamy KurEsar and the damage to the Darsnaam at

the hands of this sycophantic, turn-coat NaalUrAn and persecution of

the VaishNavAs by the fanatic ChOla king whom NaalUrAn tried to please

for money and position , AchAryA KaurEsA's compassion for his errant

sishyan , NaalUrAn --- all of these are woven in this sensitively crafted book

by Sri DhivAkar .

 

The central theme of this book is about the happenings at ThiruvengadamudayAn's

sannidhi , where AchArya RaamAnuja settled the dispute about the identity of

ArchA Moorthy and the establishment of His identity as Sriman Narayanan with

His charactrestric weapons of Chakram (Sudarsanam) and Sanghu(Paanchajanyam) .

 

As I completed this historical " epic " (VaralARRu Kaaviyam ) , It occured to me

that an overlay of the times of VaishNavite AchAryAs and the major historical

events of the times during which they lived would be of interest to the memebrs

of the e-lists that I serve . Historical data is hard to come by and is often

conflicting .

Hence one can not claim for precision in pinning the events with the times

when they were supposed to have happened . Through this brief series , I hope to

list

the dates of the AzhwArs and VaishNavite AchAryAs starting from Swamy

Naatha Muni to present day AchAryAs and the happenings of those times

very briefly to gain an appreciation of the environment that they had to

carry out their avathara mission .

 

May Sriman Narayana accept this humble offering and guide me !

 

Daasan , Oppiliappan Koil V.Sadagopan

 

 

P.S : I also learnt that Sri Dhivakar, who resides now at VisAkapattinam

is well known for his earlier historical work entitled " VamsatArA " and

this work has been highly praised by distinguished Tamil authors like

Dr.Prema NandhakumAr and Aanandh VikaDan's " SujAthA " .