The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantins” – Part 7

The Tenkalai narrative about how the Kanchipuram Sri Devarajaswamy Perumal temple in the 15th century came to be owned and protected by members of their sect begins with the introduction of one of their most venerated Acharyas. His name was Sri Azhagiya Manavaala Jiyar.

Who was he?

A website http://koyil.org/index.php/vadhikesariazhagiyamanavalajiyarmutt/ provides a brief hagiography of this Acharya. Below are select excerpts highlighting the role which the Tenkalai narrative of Kanchi portrays him to have played during the 15th-16th century in the overall affairs of this Sri Vaishnavite temple and thereafter what his long lineage of successor Acharyas too carried out as services — i.e. “kainkaryam”

Sri MaNavaaLa Maamuni is the foremost among the Acharyas worshipped in the lineage of the Tenkalai pantheon of preceptors. He lived between 1370–1450 CE. He was a Sri Vaishnava religious leader, who during the 15th century in Tamil Nadu, with the help of eight principal disciples, helped spread Sri Vaishnavism in large parts of the Tamil region.

Sri Manavaala Maamuni visited kAnchipuram in 1420 A.D. after taking to sanyaasam (anchorite). While camping in Kanchi, for the edification of his group of disciples, he wanted to discourse on the pre-eminently seminal work of Visishtaadvaita written by Sri Ramanujacharya, the “Sri Bhaashyam“. For that purpose he was in need of a conducive premise and forum– i.e. a proper “muttam” — to stay in and deliver his sermons and epistles. His disciples got together and procured for him a suitable premise and that is when a muttam — an hermitage — was built and inaugurated in the temple town of Kanchipuram.

Later, Sri ManavaaLa Maamuni appointed one of his prashishyas (i.e. a disciple of his disciple… a “grand-disciple“) as the caretaker of the mutt, who was later came to be designated as the “kELviyappan”, a sort of the Chief Custodian and Executive Officer of “PerumaaL Koyil” which is how the Varadaraja Perumal temple is known even today to all Sri Vaishnavas. That first “kelviyappan” happened to be Sri Azhagiya Manavaala Jiyar (whom in the rest of these pages is going to be denoted with the initials “AMJ” just for the sake of convenience).

The personal antecedents of AMJ are not fully known. The Vadakalais believe his nativity was in the region of Melkote in present day State of Karnataka, but it is stated by the Tenkalais that AMJ was the disciple of Sri Paravaasthu Bhattarpiraan jIyar, one of the eight principal disciples of Sri Manavaala Maamuni.

AMJ who presided as head of this Muttam in Kanchipuram was later awarded with the title ‘VaadhikEsari’ (probably due to the formidable skills in debating he is said to have possessed). After his time, all heads of this hermitage who have succeeded him, generation after generation, by tradition, also have assumed the same honorific to themselves after their respective names.

The Tenkalai narrative is that ever since this hermitage of AMJ was established in Kanchipuram sometime in the middle of the 15th century CE , its long lineage of Acharyas have all rendered outstanding yeoman service as “kelviyappan-s” to the temple of the “Varadaraaja pEraruLAlan”. They have (quote) “thence continued till date, beginning right from the 1st “jIyar swami”, who built the third prakAram (concourse) wall inside the kAnchi temple about 500 years ago, up to the 19th (now) “pattam jIyar swAmi” who renovated the eastern “rajagOpuram” (main temple tower) as recently as about 5-10 years back”. (unquote)

The Acharyas in the lineage of AMJ Muttam have done tremendous kainkaryams (service) to the Deities, “dEvaperumAL and perundEvi thAyAr” of Kanchipuram. Historians have also shown that some jIyar swamis in this lineage have, in fact, contributed liberally for the development of other divyadhEsams too (holy Sri Vaishnavtie temples and shrines) in and around Kanchipuram as well (counted as 18 in number).

The Tenkalai narrative states that the great wall on the third prakAram of perumAL kOyil was built by AMJ. In addition to it, many more structures and infrastructure within the temple such as “100 pillared maNtapam”, the “maNtapam” in front of “thAyAr sannidhi” (called ‘mahAnavami maNtapam’), the extension on the western side of “abhishEka maNtapam”, etc. are also said to have been built by AMJ. To commemorate such great service and contributions made by him to the temple, a statue of AMJ swAmi has been carved on pillars in the temple in various places such as in mahAnavami maNtapam, thAyAr sannidhi (Unjal maNtapam), 100 pillared maNtapam, etc.

Historic records show that the jIyar swAmis in this AMJ lineage have donated many lands/villages for the income of the temple in order to conduct the various religious festivals or uthsavams regularly, as early as in the 14th to 16th centuries. One such village that was donated to the temple was in the name of the AMJ himself, called ‘azhagiya maNavALa jIyar puram’ in those days. Nowadays it seems to be called ‘pogaipakkam’ (near Arakkonam).

Temple inscriptions in Kanchi also show that the disciples of AMJ, through the centuries after him, have built certain maNtapams and prakArAs in “DeepapraAasar sannidhi” and “Maragadhaavalli thAyAr sannidhi” at the nearby village of Thoopul and Tiruputkuzhi respectively at the behest of the AMJ SwAmi.

The head of the AMJ Muttam during the 16th century is also said to have donated a certain ornament to the Kanchi deity of dEvapperumAL, called ‘neela vandu padhakkam’. Also, a person by name ‘vEngatAdhvari’, an AMJ disciple, seems to have donated a diamond studded crown called ‘vEngAtadri (vEngatAdhvari) koNdai’ to the Deity. The Tenkalai narrative further goes on to say that “even to this day, one can see the room where he lived within dEvaperumAL temple to conduct his kainkaryams (right next to sEnai mudaliyar sannidhi)“.

It was somewhere around the late 15th or early 16th century CE that the AMJ Muttam swamis in his lineage are said to have been successively and formally appointed as ‘kOyil kELvi’s’ for perumAL kOyil.

A certain stone inscription from the 16th century CE seems to indicate that the chariot (juggernaut) of Sri Varadaraja PerumAL was donated to the temple by the famous ruler Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara Empire. There the Emperor is said to have consulted AMJ for his opinions and suggestions on the route that was to have been taken by the great festive juggernaut.

The disciples of the AMJ muttam thus, as the Tenkalai narratives claim, seem to have served in various capacities in the courts of Vijayanagar (Raaya) and Mysore (Wodeyar) kingdoms. The jiyar swamis themselves are also said to have guided those rulers as their ‘rAjagurus” (Principal Advisor or Mentor to the King) for some time.

The jIyar swAmis in the lineage of AMJ muttam are said to have been highly learned scholars in both Sanskrit and Tamil Vedanta.

One jIyar swAmi in this lineage is said to have compared the similarities in the tenets expounded in “Sri Bhaashyam” of Sri Ramanuja and the first two “tiruvAimozhis“, the hymns in Tamil of Sri Nammaazhwaar (the “uyarvaRa” and “vIdumin dashakams” or decads), and composed a treatise named “SrIbhAshya-dramidaugha-aadya-dashakadvaya-aikakanthyam”.

Some of the well-known jIyar swAmis in this lineage (as chronicled in a book, in Tamil, of hagiography called ‘SrI kAnchi azhagiya maNavALa jIyar madaththin varalARu’) are: EchchambAdi rAmAnuja jIyar swAmi – who is said to have given 18 temples in and around kAnchi magnificent facelifts; ThirunArAyaNapuram AnantanpiLLai; AkkArakkani rAmAnuja jIyar SwAmi, Chinna vinjimUr swAmi – who is said to have envisioned ubhaya vEdAntham as a personification in a dream of his — and Shashti jIyar swAmi – a scholar par excellence and the grandfather of one of the most outstanding and redoubtable religious scholars of Kanchipuram in modern times, SrI Prativaadibhayankara Annagaraachariar swAmi (1891-1983 CE).

Thus, in very brief summary, is how the Tenkalai historical narrative has been constructed over the centuries since the 15th century CE.

Against this narrative, the Vadakalai sect has constructed its own counter-narrative which hotly contradicts many of the averments made by their Tenkalai brethren.

(to be continued)

Sudarshan Madabushi