RAMANUJACHARYA

 Ramanuja propounded the “Visihtadvaita” as opposed to “Advaita” of Sankaracharya and “Dvaita” of Madhvacharya.

Ramanuja was born to Kanthimati and Asuri Kesava Somayaji at Sriperambudur in Tamilnadu. His original name was Ilaya Perumal. His date of life is stated as 1017-1137 or 120 years. Modern scholars say that evidence suggests that he may have lived between 1077-1157 AD.

Ramanuja got married and moved to Kanchipuram. He studied in an Advaita monastery as the Advaitin Yadava Prakasa as his guru.  Ramanuja and his guru frequently differed on the interpretation of the Vedic texts, particularly the Upanishads. Thereafter they separated and Ramanuja continued his studies on his own.

Then Ramanuja became a priest in the Varadaraja Perumal temple at Kanchipuram, where he began to teach that moksha can be attained not through Nirguna Brahman but through a personal god Vishnu. Although he married Rakshakambal, he gave up married life at the age of 30. 

Prior to Ramanuja, the Vaishnava tradition was already established under Yamunacharya and Bhakti songs and devotional culture was already a part of Tamil culture on account of the 12 Alwars. Ramanuja became famous because he challenged the Advaita system, which was very influential then and offered an alternative interpretation of Vedic scriptures.    

Yamunacharya, who was the head of the Vaishnava temple at Srirangam was following Ramanuja from a very young age. When it was time for Yamunacharya to pass on the legacy, Yamunacharya summoned Ramanuja through his close disciple Sri Mahapurna. But, by the time Ramanuja and his disciple could reach Srirangam, Yamunacharya passed away.

Ramanuja was heart broken and left for Kanchi and refused to worship Ranganatha for taking away Yamunacharya from this world. Yamunacharyas son took over the management of the Sri Ranaganatha temple at Srirangam. But after sometime he and the elders of the Vaishnavaite order felt that there is a vacuum after the demise of Yamunacharya the temple required a person who can interpret the Vedas and Sastras like Yamunacharya. So they decided to send Sri Mahapurna again to invite Ramanujacharya to Srirangam.

In the meantime at Kanchi, Ramanuja met Kanchipurna and decided to be his devotee but Kanchipurna refused as Ramanuja is from a different caste and told Ramanuja that he would get a more appropriate guru. After that Kanchipurna left for Tirupati to worship Lord Venkateswara and came back only after 6 months when he advised Ramanuja that the Lord wishes him to proceed to Srirangam. Ramanuja then started for Srirangam. From the other side Mahapurna started along with his wife to Kanchi for inviting Ramanuja. Both met at Madhurantakam and both found each other. Ramanuja immediately wanted to be initiated as a Vaishnavaite and Ramanuja received the Pancha Samskarams for entering into Vaishnavism from Mahapurna.

Even before Ramanuja the Vaishnavas are not averse to accepting castes other than Brahmins into their fold. In fact both Mahapurna and Kanchipurna were non Brahmins. Ramanuja carried this tradition forward. He also allowed the untouchables to be initiated into Vaishnavism. Accordingly at Srirangam he reorganized the rituals and the involvement of non Brahmin people in Vaishnava worship.

After the death of Ramanuja the Vaishnavaites split into Vadakalai( Northern and Sanskritic) and Thenkalai ( Southern and Tamil) sects.Both believe in initiation into Vaishnavism through the Pancha Samskaras. While The Vadakalai used Sanskrit systems, the Thenkalai used the Tamil systems. While Vadakalai was dominant at Kanchi and the surrounding areas, the Thenkalai was dominant around Srirnagm.

There were several attempts to kill Ramanuja but he escaped all of them. The first attempt was by his guru Yadavaprakasa. He made Ramanuja join him on a pilgrimage to Varanashi along with his other pupils and plotted to kill him. However, a cousin who was accompanying Ramanuja came to know of the plot and warned Ramanuja and helped him to escape. Yadava Parakas made another attempt to kill Ramanujacharya. Yadavaprakasa tried to get Ramanuja murdered once more but he escaped again. The head priest of the Ranganatha temple at Srirangam did not like Ramanuja and tried to murder with poisoned food first and later with poisoned teertham but Ramanujacharya escaped that attempt as well.

Ramanuja remained at Srirangam and he undertook a long 20 year pilgrimage all over India. On his return, the king of the Chola dynasty who was a fanatical follower of Shiva persecuted him. Ramanuja fled to Mysore where he converted a lot of people to Vaishnavism. He converted the Hoysala king Bittideva to Vaishnavism. Finally he died in the year 1157 AD.

Vaishnava tradition attributes 9 texts to Ramanuja but the principal among them are 3. They are 1. Sri Bhashya(Commentary on the Brahma Sutras), 2. Bhagavadgita Bahshya, 3. Vedartahasangraha (meaning the essence of the Vedas)