So true indeed …. But let the community also know that to raise strong children, firstly we need adults who are not broken … In the picture below two Sri Vaishnava children are seen holding up and carrying the palanquin of the Deity. From the “urdhvapundhram” they are seen to be wearing on their foreheadContinue reading “Broken adults raising strong children”
Tag Archives: Tenkalai
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-56
The animus that has been existing between the two Sri Vaishnava sects for more than half a century shows little sign of abating even today i.e. in the first two decades of the 21st century CE… and most certainly not at all in the principal Tenkalai and Vadakalai temples of Tamil Nadu viz. Sri RangamContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-56″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-55
In this section in the little-known c.1960s pamphlet titled “Ramanuja and Sri Vaishnavas” the subject dealt with by Doraiswami Iyengar is the rather delicate and controversial question of Idolatry which according to him has become almost a defining characteristic of the modern Sri Vaishnava identity. Once again a brief explanatory note is being penned belowContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-55″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-54
Failing to effectively repel hostile calumny and criticisms by other schools of Hindu religion against Sri Vaishnavism. In this section of Doraiswamy Iyengar’s pamphlet titled “Ramanuja and Sri Vaishnavas”, another facet of “ubaya-vedanta” in the post-Indian Independence era gets critically examined. Lest the passages written by Doraiswamy Iyengar are misunderstood or misinterpreted, I offer belowContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-54″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-53
Concoction of undesirable biography of Ramanujacharya. The harshest criticism against Sri Vaishnavas found in the Doraiswamy Iyengar-pamphlet has been reserved for vast body of the community’s canonical literature developed and written over half-a-century since the time of Ramanujacharya, Vedanta Desika and Manavaala Maamuni. The literature is available even today in Sanskrit, Mani Pravalam and TamilContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-53″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-52
While the editorial published in the May 2022 issue of “The Voice of Sri Vaishnavas” (“vainavan kural“) dealt with the question of present-day Sri Vaishnava identity in polite, gingerly, and rather very general and superficial terms, the c. 1960s pamphlet of M.A Doraiswamy Iyengar titled “Sri Ramanuja and Sri Vaishnavas” was far more nuanced, forthrightContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-52″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-51
To any modern student of sociology interested in an academic study of the community of Sri Vaishnavas in India, it is very likely that it would appear as though the question of their identity — i.e. “who are we really?”, “where did we come from?”, “how have we changed and adapted”?… and, “where are weContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-51″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-50
By the end of the 20th century CE, and after more than 200+ years of colonial and post-Independence history in India when the community of “ubaya-vedantins” in Tamil Nadu experienced wrenching social tumult and developments that occurred and swept through the land, the Sri Vaishnava identity itself underwent significant transformation. The “ubaya-vedantin‘s first language, SanskritContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-50″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-49
C. The deliberate assault on the most sacred institution of Hindu personal law: the wedding ritual solemnized by Brahmin priest If the father and Party patriarch, M.Karunanidhi, towards the fag end of his lifetime attempted “salami-slicing” the Sri Vaishnava cultural identity by subtly glorifying Ramanujacharya with the chief aim of appropriating the great 11th centuryContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-49″
The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-48
The most daring effort at “salami slicing” the Sri Vaishnava identity was carried out by none other than the octogenarian patriarch of the DMK Party, the man the Dravidianists worshipped as “Kalaignar Karunanidhi”. In April 2015 he decided to move to appropriate the most venerated icon of the Sri Vaishnavas and assimilate it into theContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedantins”: Part-48″