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Re:Kalai .......

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Mani Varadarajan • January 7, 1999 


Sriram wrote:
>> Sri Ramanuja Daya Patram Gnana Vairaghya Bushanam Srimad Venkata
>> Natharyam Vande Vedanta Desikam 

[Please note that this taniyan should not have the word "Sri"
 prepended to it. The sloka correctly begins only with "Ramanuja ..." 
 This only furthers my plea to not take anything written on the
 Bhakti List is authoritative unless confirmed by a traditional
 acharya (NOT someone living in the West), or confirmed by historical
 research. ] 

> Could Sri. Mani / others explain this in more detail and the basis for
> concluding that it is indeed Kidambi Apullar and not Sri Ramanujacharya ?

Sriram,

It is a common misunderstanding that the sloka refers to Ramanujacharya
the bhAshyakAra.  The best evidence for this is in the Vadagalai saaRRumuRai
itself.

The first sloka after the salutations to Sri Ramanuja and Srirangam is

	namo rAmAnujAryAya vedAntArtha-pradAyine
	Atreya padmanAbhAryasutAya guNaSAline

This sloka clearly is in honor Ramanuja of Atreya gotra, i.e.,
Kidaambi Appullaar. Immediately following this, we have

	rAmAnuja dayA pAtram ...

Thus Desika is the recipient (as he himself attested to so
many times) of the divya-kaTAksham of Atreya Ramanuja, Kidaambi
Appullaar.

For further evidence, we only need look at the "dayA-pAtram"
slokams for Manavala Maamuni and Adi Van Sathakopa Jiyar. 
Both of these refer only to the direct acharya of the subject
of the sloka.  Clearly all three slokas were written in the
same vein.

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.

Mani