The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantin-s”: Part-27

In 1732 CE, the Persian marauder, Nadir Shah, invaded the Mughal capital of Delhi and carried out sheer unspeakably barbarian-scale mayhem, slaughter, loot and plunder for 57 days! The historian William Dalrymple writes (in his book, “The Anarchy”) that at the end of his expedition, the value of the loot that Nadir Shah took backContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantin-s”: Part-27″

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″

The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantins”: Part 12

The second of the major dissonances amongst the Tenkalai and Vadakalai versions of the history of the Kanchi Sri Varadaraja Perumal temple is related to “POWER AND LEGITIMACY” and how each sect reacts to both. It is going to need explication at quite some length because it is perhaps the chief reason why the manyContinue reading “The Decline and Fall of the “ubaya-vedaantins”: Part 12″