Edmund Burke, the 18th century CE British Parliamentarian once made a statement echoing a dictum made at least 3000 years before him by Sage Manu in India.
Burke said: “People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors”.
And Sage Manu had pronounced the very same truth but differently: (Manu-neethi from IV.178):
“yenasya pitaro yaathaah: yena yaathaaha pithaamahaah: I
tena yaayaat sathaam maargam tena gacchan na nisyate II
“The path by which one’s fathers have gone, and that by which
grandfathers have gone, by following it, one moves forward on the path of
the virtue, and by following it one does not fall into folly nor perish.”
The Sri Vaishnava sects of Tenkalai and Vadakalai today have both either forgotten or forsworn the great legacy their ancestors had left behind for them — the legacy called “ubaya vedaantam”. What is that historical legacy? And why does it seem today as though it is at peril?
To answer that question it is important to first take a look at the history of the Sri Vaishnavas from a panoramic, 360-degee, 3000-feet-above sea-level grand vantage-point in a general sort of survey. Thereafter, it is equally important to climb down to earth and take a good look at the history of what the “ubaya vedaantins” did to themselves in the ancient temple of Sri Devarajaswamy Perumal at Kanchipuram.
So let’s begin with the first mentioned task.
The ancestors of today’s Sri Vaishnava community in Tamil Nadu, long before the separate identities of either Tenkalai or Vadakalai was ever even conceived, were known as “ubaya vedaantins“. They regarded themselves as proud legatees of the Sri Vaishnavite Bhakthi tradition of the Azhwaars (c. 3rd century through 8th century CE) and the Visishtaadvaitic school of theology first propounded by Sri Ramanujacharya in the 11th century CE .
Later by the 14th-15th century CE, thanks to Sri Vedanta Desika, an illustrious “ubaya vedanta” philosopher and preceptor, the theology also came to be firmly established as a distinct and distinguished school of thought standing even taller than rival Buddhist and Advaitic schools of those times…. It did so, certainly, at least in the eyes of the Sri Vaishnavas themselves.
Very soon, both the philosophy and the theology of “ubaya vedanta” became institutionalized as a unique testament of faith of the Sri Vaishnava community all over South India. It began to even rival the predecessor Saivite Bhakthi traditions that throughout the period of history, from around the Tamizh Sangam-era until the post-Adi Sankara-era, had held great sway over the hearts and minds of the people of the Tamil country.
The great kings of the Vijayanagar Empire (14th through 16th century CE) were ardent patrons and followers of the “ubaya vedanta” tradition. Thanks to their munificent contributions to the construction and upkeep of many Hindu temples all across South India — i.e. greater Andhra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states today — the temples of Vishnu enjoyed a “golden period” in history … of flourishing growth and prosperity.
In those ages, one of the ways Emperors and Chieftains sought to mark the territories under their sovereignty was to build great temples across the landscape. They also sought to sponsor and project the image of temples as being magnificent symbols, institutions and agencies of their imperial sway. Temples were integral parts of imperial design of the great and ancient monarchic empires of South India and the Deccan — be they Pallavaas, Rashtrakutaas, Guptaas, Satavahanaas, Chalukyaas, Cholaas, Hoysaalaas or Paandavaas.
It was during the reign of the Vijayanagar Kings –– Sangama (1336-1485), Saluva 1485-1505), Tuluva (1505-1565)–and their later vassal kingdoms, the Madurai and Tanjore Nayak kings, that both the Sri Vaishnava faith and its temples became the popular alternate to the much older theology, religious establishment and practice of Saivite theism in South India.
It was during the very same historical period too that the “ubaya vedanta” efflorescence bloomed in full glory as a unique tradition. It manifested itself in a formal religious system of iconographic worship and Agamic ritualism in all the principal temples of Vishnu, most of which had been founded in Tamil Nadu and neighboring Kerala, a few in Andhra Pradesh and a few more in North India as well. These temples of the ‘ubyaya vedantins‘ are all today popularly known as the “106 Divya Desam kshetra-s” where the Deity Vishnu is believed to reside upon earth.
Now, it may be asked what was so unique and outstanding about the “ubayava vedanta” tradition that it gained such a strong and vast following in Tamil country?
For the sake of brevity, nothing more need be said other than that it came to represent a more “inclusive” and “pluralistic” system of faith, belief and customs than most other branches and offshoots of Vedic Sanaatana Dharma.
Sri Vaishnava “ubaya vedantins” held both the ageless Vedas (Sanskrit) and the later, dated mystic outpourings (Tamizh) known as the “naalaayira divya prabhahdham” (the “4000 sacred hymns“) of the twelve Holy Azhwaars (2nd to 8th century CE) in equal veneration. They did not find any reason to exclude one language to embrace another since they believed that the Sanskrit Vedas and the Dravida Tamizh Veda reflected and resembled each other, like for like.
For example, as pure scripture, Nammaazhwaar’s “tiruvoimozhi” to the “ubaya vedantins” was as valid scripture as the Brahma-Sutra of MahaRishi Vyaasa. The Tamizh hyms were held to be authoritative revelation (Pramana) weightier in some respects than even the Sanskrit “Prastana Traya” (i.e. the Vedas-Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita). The Azhwaars’ work in the vernacular gained a little more exaltation than the Sanskrit Veda since it was able to harness and meld together the emotions of the heart with the cerebrations of the head. The Dravida Veda blended the intellectual loftiness of Upanishadic thought with the more earthy, heart-melting element of sublime human emotion of devotion, called Bhakthi–bhaava, to a personal God.
Thus, the very reason why they called themselves Ubhaya Vedantins was that they considered themselves practitioners of Veda maarga (path) seen through the twin eyes of Sanskrit and Tamil in perfect 20/20 vision, so to say. Such was their unique and proud “linguistic inclusiveness” which embraced both Pan-Indian and Dravidian language and thought.
It was the same “pluralism” of “ubaya vedantins” too that made them hold in special esteem those Azhwaars who were even outside the Brahmin fold in the ancient Vedic social order of “varnaashrama” (viz. Nammaazhwaar, Tirupaanazhwaar, Tirumazhisai Azhwaar). Caste considerations had no place in the Sri Vaishnava ethos of the “ubaya-vedantins”. Every man or woman who underwent the sacrament of “pancha samkskaara” administered by an anointed Acharya of the fold became a Sri Vaishnava and immediately cast off his or her caste-identity. Thereafter what could possibly differentiate him or her from another Sri Vaishnava was perhaps only the degree of fidelity or religious punctiliousness maintained by each individual to the core tenets of “saastra“, “sampradaaya” and “anushtaana” of the fold — i.e. to the values, traditions and discipline of “ubaya vedanta”.
It was, further, again the same “pluralistic” or catholic outlook in life that made the “ubyaya vedantins” embrace gender sensitivity too.
They placed upon a very high pedestal, and cloyingly idolized, the only lady mystic-devotee in the pantheon of the 12 holy Azhwaars viz.: Andal of Sri Villiputthur. They even attributed to her the rank of an avatar — as Consort of the Lord Vishnu himself! They consecrated Andal’s famous Tamizh hymn “Tiruppaavai” as “upanishad saaram” — the very essence of the Vedic Upanishads — and had it incorporated into the daily litany and rituals conducted inside the sanctum of all “divya desam” temples (known as “mangalaasaasanam” and “saatrumarai” rites).
This was truly exceptional “pluralism” indeed…. especially if one were to contrast it with that of the Saivite temple traditions by which the Tamizh devotional hymns of the mystic saints, the “63 Naayanmaars”, are sung even today only outside the sanctum or in the outer precincts of the Shiva temples. And amongst the Naayanmaars there is no woman saint to be found either. (The Naayanmaars are the Saivite counterparts of the Sri Vaishnava Azhwaars both of whom contributed enormously to the spread of the Bhakthi tradition in Tamil Nadu. They belonged to various orders of caste.)
For centuries after the times of the Azhwaars, and for hundreds of years after Sri Ramanujacharya’s lifetime, the “ubaya vedanta” tradition was indeed the distinguishing identity of all Sri Vaishnavas. It was their ancestral legacy.
The legacy was a fund of cultural commonwealth and opulence handed down from one generation to another throughout Tamil history, from the times of Mughal rule, of British colonialism and right up to post-Independence modern era. That great fund of bequeathed wealth was to be found in the vast and rich scriptural, literary and philosophical works of the community written in Sanskrit, Tamizh and Manipravalam; it was found also in their piety and ethical ways of life; in their social deportment and graces; in their deep scholasticism; in the way their dedication and efforts helped nurture Vishnu temples as true centers of spiritual excellence and architectural marvel. Sri Vaishnava temples simply dazzled with cultural accomplishments in various fields of arts, sciences and craftsmanship.
In his sterling work of history titled “A History of South India”, K.A. Nilakanta Sastri wrote this about the Vijayanagar Kings:
“Under Vijayanagar, South Indian art attained a certain fulness and freedom of rich expression in keeping with the general consciousness of the great task of empire, namely the preservation and development of all that remained of Hinduism against the onslaught of Islam. In this period, temples became very elaborate, both in structure and organization; even old temples were amplified by the addition of pillared halls, pavilions and other subordinate structures” . (page 434-435)
“Vaishnavism continued to be, in general, a noble and sweet influence on life. The Raayaa-s of Vijayanagar were great patrons of Vaishnavism; in 1556 Sadashiva (a great chieftain in the South) at the request of Rama Raya gave thirty-one villages to maintain the temple of Ramanuja and the institutions attached to it at Sri Perumbudur”. (page 391)
The halcyon days of “ubaya-vedantins” however did not, alas, last long. They could not survive the ravages caused by a string of Muslim invasions into Tamil country between the 14th to 16th centuries CE. Thereafter the economic, social and cultural degeneration caused within the ranks of the community by British colonialism between the 17th to first-half of the 20th centuries CE led to their gradual and general decline.
By the end of the 19th century under British Rule in Tamil Nadu, the great ancestral legacy of the “ubhaya vedantins” began to fray at its seams. Eventually it was forsworn by the Sri Vaishnavas themselves as they began to rapidly plunge into disunity and sectarian fragmentation. And then too, of course, began their never ending battle for power, legitimacy and control over the wealth — and commonwealth — or whatever remained of it in their great temples.
Thus, began the decline of the “ubaya vedantins” …..
(to be continued)