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Re: Non-Brahmin origin of some Iyengars?

From the Bhakti List Archives

TV Venkatesh/FXSLF/SEC/SANMAR • November 13, 2001 


srImathE rAmAnujAya namaha
srImadh varavara munayE namaha

Dear Sri Shastri,

First of all who said that Swamy emberumAnAr converted non-brahmins into
brahmins. No where there is proof to substantiate this claim. The fact is
only that he converted many to Sri Vaishnavites. As known to everybody, not
all the Sri Vaishnavites are brahmins. As you have stated yourself, it is
only a belief, long held by some people of a particular sect to degrade the
Sri Vaishnavites of the other sect. There is no historic evidence for this.

Also all the sAthAdha mudalis of temples like Srirangam, remain to date as
sAthAdha mudalis. Nobody was taken into the brahmin fold. Srirangam
SthalathArs in this list can verify this very much.

Regarding the lesser importance given by the Thenkalais towards sanskrit,
the reason is different. They just follow their AchAryA, the Sri Vaishnava
sArvabhouman, swAmi maNavALa mAmuni, who inturn was instructed by his
illustrious achArya , Sri ThiruvAzimozhip piLLai, to uplift the drAvida
vEdham "Divya prabhandham", out of the fear that not many are following it.
Even in this case, he instructed swAmi maNavALa mAmuni to do the
kAlakshEpam of Sri Bhashyam and other sanskrit related krithis, for a
period of one year (only to prove that he is Ubhaya vEdhAnthAchAriar) and
then continue with only the tamizh prabhandams.

Nevertheless, these tamizh prabhandhams are the ones, which made swAmi
maNavALa mAmuni attain the post and pride which not even, swAmi emberumAnAr
could receive. Being "jagadhAchAryan".

YES HE IS THE ACHARYA SARVABHOUMAN, as he is the AchAryA for emberumAn
Himself. It is a well know fact to every body in the world that it is only
after hearing to swAmi maNavALa mAmuni's upanyAsam on thiruvAimozhi, based
on eedu muppatthARAyirap padi and others, the Supreme godhead Sriman
Narayanan in the form of  Sri Ranganathan, the emberumAn of the No.1 divya
desam in this bhoolOkam, acclaimed him as His AchArya and gave, the famous
thaniyAn "srIsailEsa dayA pAtram..." to this world. He not only gave it to
the world, but also made the entire world recite that thaniyan in each and
every divya dEsam, before any aruLicheyal ghOshti, by appearing in the
dreams of all the archakas of all the divya desams and ordering them to do
so. As the recitation of Sanskrit krithis start with "Hari: Om", the
thamizh krithis start todate with "Sri sailEsa dayA pAthram".

Now it is no wonder the Thenkalais give more importance to the tamizh
prabhandams, which made the anthimAchArya in the AchArya lineage, the
AchArya of emberumAn himself. Hope, it is now clear that the thenkalais not
giving importance to sanskrit works is not related to, the long held
TOTALLY WRONG belief that most of them are converted from non-brahmins.

Finally, on the whole, there is no proof that Sri rAmAnuja did any caste
conversions, though he respected all Sri Vaishnavites for just being a Sri
Vaishnavite and not by caste. The proof of this can be had from the fact
that Sri Thirukkacchi Nambi, who actually belong to  vaishya caste, was one
of the proud AchAryAs of emberumAnAr himself and every guruparamparai talks
about this. This is more based on the pAsuram in thiruvAimozhi "kulam
thAngu sAdigaL nAlilum keezh izhindu, etthanai nalamthAnilAdha saNdALa
saNdALargaLAgilum, valam thAngu sakkarathaNNal maNivaNNarkkALenRu uL
kalandhAr, adiyAr, tham adiyAr, em adigaLE" ( swAmy nammAzhwAr here states
that he is a slave of even those who are born in the most worst caste,
which does not even fall within the varNas, if they are all slaves of
Sriman Narayanan).


AzhwAr emberumAnAr jeeyar thiruvadigaLE saraNam
adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh

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