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Mani Varadarajan • November 11, 1999 


Anand wrote:
> As far as adiyEn's knowledge goes, thennAchArya 
> sampradAyam counts the 4000 pAsurams, without the
> inclusion of SrI amudhanAr's "rAmAnuja nootrandAdi".

> But, adiyEn knows for sure that the vadagalai-AchArya 
> sampradAyam counts the 4000 pAsurams with its inclusion.
>
> adiyEn requests for clarification in this issue, with
> respect to the count recognized by thennAchArya sampradAyam.

You are correct. According to Appillai, a disciple of Sri
Manavaala Maamunigal, the "iraamanusa nooRRandhaadhi" of Amudanaar
is stricly not part of the enumerated 4000 verses of the 
Divya Prabandham.  This is because of an alternate way
of counting the verses of Siriya Thirumadal and Periya Thirumadal.
Strictly speaking, as per Tamil poetics they should be
counted as one verse each. However, our acharyas have
ingeniously counted them in other ways as well. Sri Vedanta 
Desika enumerates these as 40 and 78 "songs" respectively in his 
Prabandha Saaram.  In the other "school" of counting, they are 
counted in terms of couplets, in which case it is 77.5 and 148.5 
couplets respectively. 

If we follow Desika and take them as 40 and 78 songs each,
we have to add the 108 songs of iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi 
to make a round 4000 songs. This is what Desika does, and
this is why the Vadagalai tradition considers the iraamaanusa
nooRRandhaadhi part of the Iyarpa.

If we follow Appillai and count couplets, we can arrive at
4000 without the iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi, and consequently
this poem is considered an appendix to the entire 4000, and
not part of the Iyarpa.

If we count the madals as one song each, as Puttur Krishnaswamy Iyengar
does in a recent publication, we arrive short of the count of
4000. However, traditionally, such counts need not be exact,
just as the 1102 songs of Nammalvar are regularly declared
to by "aayiram" or 1000. So even though we fall short of 4000,
calling them the "4000 songs" is still acceptable.

When Sri Sadagopan writes that

> MM however ruled that the centum devoted to his dear AchArya
> RaamAnujA should be part of the 4000 count and followed the
> adhyayana niyamam for this prabhandham in line with the practise
> for the other Prabhandhams .

it should be understood that the "iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi",
while perhaps not in the *count* of the 4000, is treated on an
equal level.  All Sri Vaishnavas recite the iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi
immediately following the "periya thirumadal", on the last day
of the adhyayana series.  In addition, during the "an-adhyayana"
period, just as the paasurams of the Alvars are not recited,
iraamaanusa nooRRandhaadhi is also not recited.

So the difference between Desika's and Appillai's traditions are
merely enumerations, and nothing else. This is the point of Maamunigal.

Mani