Re: Accusations
From the Bhakti List Archives
• March 21, 1997
At 01:18 PM 3/21/97 -0700, Sri Varadhan wrote: > > >Here are the actual tamizh words of PBA: > >'srivaishnavaachaaryakaLin sampradaayaththiRkE thennaachaarya >sampradaayamenRu peyar. How is the above interpreted? With due respects to Sri. PBA, is he including both Vadakalai and Thenkalai in 'thennaachaarya sampradaayam'? Do vadakalai acharyaas agree with Sri PBA in this regard? > srutikaL paanYcharaatra samhithaikaL, >smrithikaL, ithihaasa puraaNankaL, aazhwaar aruLichcheyalkaL >enRa palavakaippatta pramaaNankaLuL aazhwaar aruLicheyaLkaLaana >divyap prabhandhankaLukkE adhisayiththa praamaaNyamuLLathenRu >koLLupavarkaLE sri vaishnavarkaLenpaar. The above says only those who consider "aazhwaar aruLicheyaL" to be "adhisayiththa praamaaNam" relative to, among other things, srutis are Sri vaishnavaas. Now, whether vadakalis are included in this group depends upon how "adhisiyithththa pramaaNam" is interpreted. Thus, simply qouting the above does not answer the questions raised. Azhvaar aruLichcheyalkaL are sacred and very special to all Sri Vasihnavas, vadakalai and thenkalai. AzhvaarkaL aruLichcheyalkaL are special because of the sweetness, understandability, athikaaram, etc. But when it comes to what is pramaaNaa, Sruti and AruLichceyalkaL are of equal importance. It is my understanding that in vadakalai sampradayam, one is not above the other for what is pramaaNa, i.e. there are no inconsistencies between the two (learned members, please correct me if I am wrong.) Does thenkalai sampradayam consider aazhvaarkaL aruLichcheyalkaL to be of higher pramaaNa than sruthi? If aazhvaargaL aruLichceyalgal should be considered to have higher pramaaNa than sruti to be Sri Vasihnavas, then would that not exclude vadakalais from being Sri Vaishnavas? I am not saying this what Sri PBA had in his mind with this statement. But this needs to clarified further. Even if (i) "adhisiayiththa" is intereted as simply special and not higher, and (ii) the phrase "thenaazhaarya sampradayam" is meant to include both thenkalai and vadakalai, the chances for misunderstanding are so great that it is not unreasonable to characterise the use of these phrases as "unfortunate". Obviously lot of explanation of the usage and the context was required. Just quoting Sri PBA's words only raises more questions. > annavarkaLayE ikkaaraNam paRRiyE thennaachaaryarkaLenpadhu.' Again, how is 'thennaachaaryarkaL' interpreted? Are vadakalai achaaryarkaL included in this terminology? Is this characterization accepted by Vadakalai sampradayam? If cooperation and mutual respect while adhering to our own samradayams is to be achieved, we need to avoid ambiguous statements that can reasonably be interpreted in several different ways. > >Based on the above words of PBA, my understanding is that the word >'thennachaarya sampradaayam' is a term referring to the SV sampradaayam >itself. Therefore there is no question of 'trying to deny the existence >of the vadakalai school' or 'claiming to be the only SV sampradaayam'. -- Thanks, dileepan p.s. 1: Sri Varadhan, please forgive me if I upset you with my posts. p.s. 2: Sri Varadhan, kindly identify me when you offer your criticisms, not "some members of the group". Thank you.
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