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Re: Dispute about the God at Tirumala

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vinjamoorvenkat • August 30, 2001 


Dear Sri Bala Sundaram,

You are right. The claims by the saivaites only based on the 
iconographic details. However, some clever people interpreted our own 
AzhwArs pAsurams to concoct a story as to the deity there is a 
combination of VishNu and Siva. They take the reference to the 3rd 
ThiruvandhAdhi pAsuram, " thAzh sadaiyum, neeN mudiyum, oN mazhuvum, 
chakkaramum......". Their claim is because of the reference to the 
sadai and mazhu, which are considered as attributes to Siva. While 
actually the meaning of the pAsuram is different. I request members 
to give the correct meaning as I am not confident about my 
translation skills for this pAsuram.

No where in any saivaite literature, to my knowledge, there is a 
reference to this deity as Siva. Some also claim that it is Sakthi 
and not Siva or VishNu. 

As you very correctly pointed out, SilappadhikAram, which was written 
even before the time of AzhwArs and nAyanmArs, very clearly indicates 
this deity as not only VishNu, but THE SUPREME GOD Sriman nArAyaNan.

AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam
adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh
---- Begin Original Message ----

From: "D Bala Sundaram" 
Sent: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 23:30:31 -0700
To: "Bhakti-List NG" 
Subject: Dispute about the God at Tirumala


We are aware of the dispute raised about the God at Tirumala and the 
role played by Swami Ramanuja in establishing it as the archa of 
Sriman Narayana. I am intrigued about this dispute.

The Tamil kappiyam Silappathikaram mentions  Tirumala as a temple of 
Thirumal. There are copius references to the temple in Nalayira Divya 
Prabhandam. Surely those who raised the dispute shoud be aware of 
these references during Swami Ramanuja's time. Are there any 
references in other literature to the contrary?

Is the claim of those who dispute rests only on the iconograhic 
details?

I am also intrigued by another remark attributed to famous Tamil 
scholar Mahavidwan Tirisirapuram Meenakshisundaram Pillai who also 
claimed that the god at Tirumala was Sri Subramanya. This remark is 
in the biography of Sri U Ve Swaminatha Iyer, "En Charitram". I am 
sure that Sri Pillai was aware of the references in Silappathikaram 
and Prabandham.

Can the scholars in the group comment?

adiyen Ramanuja dasan

D Bala sundaram


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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