Re: Kalai .......

From the Bhakti List Archives

• January 8, 1999


Sri:
Srimate Sri Lakshminrusimha Parabrahmane namaha

Dear Sri Mani,
namO nArAyaNA.

Mani Varadarajan wrote:

> It is a common misunderstanding that the sloka refers to Ramanujacharya
> the bhAshyakAra.  The best evidence for this is in the Vadagalai saaRRumuRai
> itself.
> ---- cut ---
> Of course Desika was also a pAtram for the grace of Bhagavad
> Ramanuja -- but he was not unique in that respect, and from
> what I have read and feel, this is not the intention of the
> sloka.
>

   To state it in a different way, the word "ramanuja" in this taniyan
primarily    refers to Atreya ramanujar and then in a secondary sense refers to
    Yatirajar. We can't say that the intention of the taniyan is to exclude the
    meaning that  swami desikan is "yatirajar's" dayA pAtram. This taniyan is
    so composed that it gives such "double" meaning. Taniyan could have been
    "AtrEya rAmAnuja dayA pAtram ....". But since it is "rAmAnuja dayA pAtram..
",
    the thiru uLLam of Brahmatantra svatantra Jeeyar might have been to
    employ the double meaning. This is adiyEn's guess. One might come up with
    another interpretation for "rAmAnujA" and relate that with the taniyan. But,
they
    are not the primary intention. As Sri Mani stated, the primary intention is
to
    refer to KidAmbi AppuLLAr ie. AtrEya rAmAnujar.

    adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan
    ananthapadmanAbha dAsan
     krishNArpanam