A note on the 500 years old Thenkalai Vadakalai wars of Southern India A Substack blog post on “Amaruvi Aphorisms“ is copied here below ⬇️ Sudarshan Madabushi https://mylapore.substack.com/p/tamil-iyengarss-quixotic-squabbles AMARUVI DEVANATHAN MAY 23, 2026 Subscriber Note Let me begin with a personal note. I belong to the Vadakalai school of thought. When I had sought toContinue reading “Tamil Iyengars’s Quixotic squabbles “
Tag Archives: kovil ozhukku
Bhakti’s triumph over plunder and mayhem: revisiting the legend of Sri Rangam “thulaka naachiyaar” with “Eepa”
This morning “Eepa” — a doyen of Tamil literature known for his Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novels and plays — Indira Parthasarathy sent me a sharp question as a WhatsApp message. It tested my familarity if not knowledge, as a Sri Vaishnava (albeit an “Unknown and Unusual” one!), of age-old temple customs and traditions in theContinue reading “Bhakti’s triumph over plunder and mayhem: revisiting the legend of Sri Rangam “thulaka naachiyaar” with “Eepa””
Sri Vaishnava Tenkalai-Vadakalai: Sectarian Fault-lines
SYNOPSIS Of the book, “A Tale of Two Cities: The Decline and Fall of the “ubhaya-Vedantins” – An Outline of the History of Sri Vaishnavas of Tamil Nadu that was never written” M.K.Sudarshan(2023) WESTWOOD BOOK PUBLISHING ATLANTA, Ga, USA) ___________________________________________________________________________ PREAMBLE: Thus, it can be said that Ramanuja’s Sri Vaishnavism was a religious system ofContinue reading “Sri Vaishnava Tenkalai-Vadakalai: Sectarian Fault-lines”
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantin-s”: Part 33
Fifty long years after Warren Hastings was sought to be impeached by the British Parliament in 1788 CE, the Royal Decree of 1833 of Queen Victoria in England, was passed to cut the East India Company to size. In the interregnum, the Napoleonic wars in Europe and the wars in India between the British andContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantin-s”: Part 33″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantin-s”: Part 19
The well-known Sri Vaishnava scholar-historian (late) Sri. T.S.Parthasarathy (1913-2006, also Carnatic musicologist, and Expert Committee Member of the Madras Music Academy https://srutimag.blogspot.com/2018/09/ts-parthasarathy.html ) was a family friend of my parents. One day, when we visited him at his house, having learnt I was avidly interested in Sri Vaishnavite history as a serious student, he wasContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantin-s”: Part 19″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantin-s”: Part 17
From a reading of the “Sri Rangam Koil ozhukku”, it is possible to glean quite a few snippets of 15th to 18th century CE history during which the enormous and legendary contributions successive generations of the noble “Utthama Nambi” family made to the expansion, care, maintenance and development of the Sri Rangam temple thanks inContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantin-s”: Part 17″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantins”: Part 15
Throughout the 16th-17th century CE, there always persisted an undercurrent of tension and conflict in Kanchipuram amongst the “ubaya-vedaantins“. It kept simmering beneath the surface and rarely erupted in any serious external clashes or skirmishes of the ugly sort being witnessed today between Tenkalai and Vadakalai not only inside the precincts of the Kanchi SriContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantins”: Part 15″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantins”: Part 13
“SrIranga-mangaLa-nidhim karuNAnivAsam SrIvenkaTAdri-SikharAlaya-kAlamegham | SrIhastiSaila-Sikharojjvala-pArijAtam SrISam-namAmi SirasA yaduSaila-dIpam || It is an observable fact of history that at three of the above four great capital temple-towns of Sri Vaishnavas the above shloka names — viz. Tirumala, Sri Rangam and Melkote –Sri Ramanujacharya, personally undertook the responsibility for reforming the then prevailing and later institutionalizing aContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantins”: Part 13″