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Re: udayavar sannidhi

From the Bhakti List Archives

Mani Varadarajan • April 20, 1999 


An addendum to my previous note on the 'tAn Ana tirumEni',
the image of Sri Ramanuja that is in the Srirangam temple
complex.

Sri Koyil Tirumanjanam S. Sundararajan, a longtime resident
of Srirangam and an informal Vaishnava historian, had this
to say about this image and its unusual appearance:

   SrI rAmAnuja was the only personage whose remains were 
   interred inside the Great Temple precincts. The mUla image of 
   the AchArya was fashioned over his relics and hence it is known 
   as the Image per se, tAm Ana tirumEni.  (This image receives, 
   twice a year, a coat of  camphor mixed with saffron, and this 
   special observance had continued for the last eight centuries 
   and a half.)

(see http://www.best.com/~mani/sv/bhakti/archives/jun97/0056.html)

Mani