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Ramanuja Tamil: ராமானுஜர், Rāmānujar [?] (traditionally 1017–1137) was a theologian, philosopher, and scriptural exegete. He is seen by Śrīvaiṣṇavas as the third and most important
teacher (ācārya) of their tradition, and by Hindus as the leading expounder of Viśiṣṭādvaita, one of the classical interpretations of the dominant Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy (Bartley 2002, p. 1) (Carman 1974, p.
24).
Establishing dates
The traditional biographies of Ramanuja place his life in the period of 1017–1137, yielding a lifespan of 120 years. However, the unusual length and roundness of this lifetime has led scholars
to propose that Ramanuja was born 20–60 years later, and died as many as 20 years later than the traditional dates. Any
chronology depends crucially on the major historical event mentioned in the traditional biographies: the persecution of
Vaishnavas under the Chola king Kulothunga and Ramanuja's subsequent 12-year exile in
Melkote, in Karnataka.
In 1917, T. A. Gopinatha Rao proposed a chronology based on the traditional lifetime of 1017–1137. He identified the Chola
king with Kulothunga Chola I (reigned 1070-1120), and dated the exile to Melkote from
1079 to 1126 CE (Rao 1923 cited in Carman 1974:45). However,
this would extend the period of exile to 47 years, and in any case, Kulothunga I was not known for being an intolerate
Shaivite.
A different chronology was proposed by T. N. Subramanian, an official in the Madras government (Subramanian 1957 cited in Carman 1974:45). This chronology identifies the
Chola King with Kulothunga Chola II, who
reigned from 1133–50 and was known for his persecution of Vaisnavites. It puts Ramanuja's exile from c. 1137 to 1148.
Subramanian's hypothesis is aided by a fragment from the late Tamil biography Rāmānujārya Divya Caritai, which states that
Ramanuja completed his most important work, the Śrībhāṣya, in 1155–56. Nevertheless, temple inscriptions in Karnataka
indicate the presence of Ramanuja and his disciples before 1137. Carman (1974:45) hypothesizes
that the traditional biographers conflated two different visits to Mysore into one. This later chronology has been accepted by
several scholars, yielding a tentative lifetime of 1077–1157.
Whatever the precise dates of Ramanuja's lifetime, it seems clear that all three of the great Śrīvaiṣṇava ācāryas lived
under the relatively stable and ecumenical climate of the Chola empire, before its decline in the late 12th and 13th centuries
(Carman 1974, p. 27).
Historical background
By the 5th century, the South Indian religious scene
was diverse, with popular religion existing alongside Vedic sacrifice and non-Vedic traditions like Buddhism and Jainism. Indeed, the title character of the sixth century Tamil Buddhist epic Manimekalai is advised at one point
to study the various Hindu schools of philosophy, such as Sankhya and Vaisheshika as well as Buddhism, Ajivika,
Carvaka, and Jainism. It was in this context that fears of a
Buddhist or Jain takeover spurred a large Hindu revival that reached its peak in the 7th
century and continued nearly into the 2nd millennium.
The popular aspects of this revival took the shape of several mystical and passionate bhakti
movements, represented on the Vaishnavite side by the twelve alvars. The alvars came from a variety of social strata; their ranks include
shudras and one woman. The intense devotionalism of their poetry and insistence that caste and
sex are no barrier to a relationship with the Divine is uncharacteristic of classical Vedic thought, which laid a strong emphasis
on the performance of the social and religious duties proper to one's place in the social structure. Some of these were collected
into a definitive canon known as the Nālāyira Divya Prabandha, or "Four Thousand"
Divine Composition, by Nathamuni in the 10th century, and
came to be seen as a source of revelation equal in authority to the Vedas in the Śrīvaiṣṇava
community.
On the philosophical side, this period saw the rise of the Vedanta school of philosophy,
which focused on the elucidation and exegesis of the speculative and philosophical Vedic commentaries known as the
Upanishads. The Advaita, or non-dualist
interpretation of Vedanta was developed in this time by Adi Shankara and later by
Mandana Mishra. It argued that the Brahman presented in
the Upanishads is the static and undifferentiated absolute reality, and that the ultimately false perception of difference is due
to avidya, or ignorance. While Shankara regarded himself as an intellectual opponent of Buddhism,
he founded mathas and reorganized the ascetic order on Buddhist models, and Advaitin metaphysics
derive much from Mahayana Buddhist schools in the Tamil country, such as Madhyamaka. (Indeed, he was often accused of being a crypto-Buddhist by later philosophers, especially
Madhvacharya.) Furthermore, though his philosophy was rigorously consistent, its
essentially gnostic conclusions were difficult to reconcile with the strong theism and devotionalism that characterized the bhakti cult, making it unpalatable to many.
The goal of proving the Vedantic legitimacy of the popular conception of a personal deity and a genuine personal identity
essentially characterizes Ramanuja's project, and the Advaitin school presents a natural object for his polemics. It is this
synthesis between the classical Sanskrit writings and the popular Tamil poetry that is the source of one of the names of
Ramanuja's system: Ubhaya Vedānta, or "Vedanta of both kinds."
Evaluating sources
In dealing with the lives of the Vedantic teachers, there is little in the way of actual history, and it is thus necessary to
make reference to the many hagiographical works—both in verse and prose—that form a major genre in both Sanskrit and South Indian
vernaculars.[1]
The earliest such hagiographies in prose is the Ārāyirappaṭi Guruparamparāprabhāva, or "Six Thousand" Splendor of the
Succession of Teachers (not to be confused with the well-known commentary on the Divya Prabandha of the same length, also
commonly referred to as the "Six Thousand").[2] This was
written by Piṉpaḻakiya Perumāḷ Jīyar in the 13th century in a highly Sanskritized dialect of Tamil known as Maṇipravāla. Perhaps earlier was a Sanskrit work of poetry, the Divya Sūri Carita or Acts of the
Divine Sages, probably written in the 12th century by Garuḍavāhaṇa Paṇḍita, a contemporary disciple of Ramanuja's.[3]
In later times, a number of traditional biographies proliferated, such as the 16th or 17th century Sanskrit work
Prapannāmṛta and, following the split of the Śrīvaiṣṇava community into the Vaṭakalais and
Teṉkalais, various sectarian works. The Muvāyirappaṭi Guruparamparāprabhāva or the "Three
Thousand" Splendor of the Succession of Teachers by Brahmatantra Svatantra Jīyar represents the earliest Vaṭakalai biography, and
reflects the Vaṭakalai view of the succession following Ramanuja. Ārāyirappaṭi Guruparamparāprabhāva, or "Six Thousand"
Splendor of the Succession of Teachers referred in the previous paragraph represents the Tenkalai biography.
The various biographies differ in emphasis, facts, and sometimes even entire episodes. In general, the later biographies tend
to be more fanciful and elaborate, and the Vaṭakalai and Teṉkalai biographies reflect their sectarian outlook: for instance, the
Teṉkalai biographies tend to emphasize episodes that reflect more liberal attitudes toward caste on Ramanuja's part, while the
Vaṭakalai biographies generally minimize them. These generalizations are often inaccurate, but the differences in the biographies
do at any rate reflect the difficulty of coming up with a single historical narrative. Nonetheless, the traditional biographies
agree in most of the facts of Ramanuja's life, and thus an outline of Ramanuja's life and achievements can be sketched.
Formative years
Ramanuja was born Ilaya Perumal in a Hindu family in the village of Perumbudur, Tamil
Nadu, India in 1017 CE. His father was Keshava Somayaji Deekshitar and mother was Kanthimathi in sect of Vadama. To quote from Shyam Ranganathan's article on Ramanuja at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "From a young age he is reputed to have
displayed a prodigious intellect and liberal attitudes towards caste. At this time he became friendly with a local, saintly Sudra
(member of the servile caste) by the name of Kancipurna, whose occupation it was to perform services for the local temple idol of
the Hindu deity Vishnu. Ramanuja admired Kancipurna's piety and devotion to Vishnu and sought Kancipurna as his guru-much to the
horror of Kancipurna who regarded Ramanuja's humility before him as an affront to caste propriety."
Shortly after being married in his teenage years, and after his father passed away, Ramanuja and his family moved to the
neighboring city of Kancipuram. There Ramanuja found his first formal teacher, Yadavaprakasha, who was an accomplished professor
of the form of the Vedanta philosophy that was in vogue at the time-a form of Vedanta that has strong affinities to Shankara's
Absolute Idealistic Monism (Advaita Vedanta) but was also close to the
Difference-and-non-difference view (Bhedabheda Vedanta). ("Vedanta" means the 'end of the Vedas' and refers to the philosophy
expressed in the end portion of the Vedas, also known as the Upanishads, and encoded in the cryptic summary by Badharayana called
the Vedanta Sutra or Brahma Sutra. The perennial questions of Vedanta are: what is the nature of Brahman, or the Ultimate, and
what is the relationship between the multiplicity of individuals to this Ultimate. Vedanta comprises one of the six orthodox
schools of Hindu philosophy.) "
From a young age, his intelligence and ability to comprehend highly abstract philosophical points were legendary. He took
initiation from Yadavaprakasa, a renowned Advaitic scholar. Though his new
guru was highly impressed with his analytical ability, he was quite concerned by how much emphasis
Ramanuja placed on bhakti. After frequent clashes over interpretation, Yadavaprakasa decided the
young Ramanuja was becoming too much of a threat and plotted a way to kill him. However, Ramanuja's cousin Govinda Bhatta (a
favourite of Yadavaprakasa) discovered the plot and helped him escape. An alternative version is that one of Yadavaprakasa's
students plotted to kill Ramanuja as a means of pleasing their teacher, but Sri Ramanuja escaped in the afore-mentioned manner.
Yadavaprakasa was horrified when learnt about the conspiracy. Ramanuja returned to Yadavaprakasa's tutilage but after another
disagreement, Yadavaprakasa asked him to leave. Ramanuja's childhood mentor, Kancipurna, suggested he meet with Kancipurna's own
guru, Yamunacharya. After renouncing the life of a house-holder, Ramanuja travelled to
Srirangam to meet an aging Yamunacharya, a philospoher
of the remergent Vishishtadvaita school of thought. Yamunacharya had died prior to
Ramanuja's arrival. Followers of Ramanuja relate the legend that three fingers of Yamunacharya's corpse were curled. Ramanuja saw
this and understood that Yamunacharya was concerned about three tasks. Ramanuja vowed to complete these--
- Teach the doctrine of Saranagati (surrender) to God as the means to moksha.
- Write a Visishtadvaita Bhashya for the Brahma Sutras of Vyasa which had previously been taught orally to the disciples of the
Visishtadvaita philosophy.
- That the names of Paraśara, the author of Vishnu Purana, and saint Śaţhakopa should be
perpetuated.
Legend goes that on hearing the vow, the three fingers on the corpse straightened. Ramanuja accepted Yamunacharya as his
Manasika Acharya and spent 6 months being introduced to Yamunacharya's philosophy by his disciple, Mahapurna although he
did not formally join the community for another year. Ramanuja's wife followed very strict brahminical rules of the time and
disparaged Mahapurna's wife as being of lower subcaste. Mahapurna and his wife left Srirangam. Ramanuja realized that his life as
a householder was interfering with his philosophical pursuit as he and his wife had differing views. He sent her to her parent's
house and renounced family and became a sanyasin. Ramanuja started travelling the land, having
philosophical debates with the custodians of various Vishnu temples. Many of them, after losing the debates, became his
disciples. Ramanuja standardized the liturgy at these temples and increased the standing and the membership of the srivaishnava
school of thought. He wrote his books during this time. Ramanuja, who was a vaishnavite, might have faced threats from some
shaivite Chola rulers who are religiously intolerant . Ramanuja and a few of his followers moved to the Hoysala kingdom of Jain king Bittideva and queen Shantala Devi in
karnataka. Bittideva converted to Srivaishanavism, in some legends after Ramanuja cured his daughter of evil spirits, and took
the name vishnuvardhana meaning "one who grows the cult of vishnu". However, the queen
and many of the ministers remained Jain and the kingdom was known for its tolerant. Ramanuja re-established the liturgy in the
Cheluvanarayana temple in Melukote In Mandya District and
vishnuvardhana re-built it and also built other vishnu temples like chennakesava temple and
hoysaleswara temple.
Five acharyas
Swami Ramanuja incorporated teachings from 5 different people who he considered to be his acharyas
- Peria Nambigal who performed his samasrayana
- Thirukkotiyur Nambigal : who revealed the meaning of Charama slokam to swami on his 18th trip
- Thirumalai Nambigal : Ramayana
- Tirumalai Aandaan : Bhagavad Vishayam
- Thirukachchi Nambigal : The 6 sentences or PErarulAlan
Visishtadvaita philosophy
Ramanuja's philosophy is referred to as Vishishtadvaita because it combines Advaita (oneness of God) with Vishesha
(attributes).
Differences with Shankara
Adi Shankara had argued that all qualities or manifestations that can be perceived are unreal and temporary. They are a result
of ignorance. Ramanuja believed them to be real and permanent and under the control of the Brahman. God can be one despite
the existence of attributes, because they cannot exist alone; they are not independent entities. They are Prakaras or the
modes, Sesha or the accessories, and Niyama or the controlled aspects, of the one Brahman.
In Ramanuja’s system of philosophy, the Lord (Narayana) has two inseparable Prakaras or modes, namely, the world and
the souls. These are related to Him as the body is related to the soul. They have no existence apart from Him. They inhere in Him
as attributes in a substance. Matter and souls constitute the body of the Lord. The Lord is their indweller. He is the
controlling Reality. Matter and souls are the subordinate elements. They are termed Viseshanas, attributes. God is the
Viseshya or that which is qualified.
Ramanuja opines, wrong is the position of the Advaitins that understanding the Upanishads without knowing and practicing dharma can result in Brahman knowledge. The knowledge of Brahman
that ends spiritual ignorance is meditational, not testimonial or verbal.
In contrast to Shankara, Ramanuja holds that there is no knowledge source in support of the claim that there is a
distinctionless (homogeneous) Brahman. All knowledge sources reveal objects as distinct from other objects. All experience
reveals an object known in some way or other beyond mere existence. Testimony depends on the operation of distinct sentence parts
(words with distinct meanings). Thus the claim that testimony makes known that reality is distinctionless is contradicted by the
very nature of testimony as a knowledge means. Even the simplest perceptual cognition reveals something (Bessie) as qualified by
something else (a broken hoof, “Bessie has a broken hoof,” as known perceptually). Inference depends on perception and makes the
same distinct things known as does perception.
He also holds that the Advaitin argument about prior absences and no prior absence of consciousness is wrong. Similarly the
Advaitin understanding of a-vidya (not-Knowledge), which is the absence of spiritual knowledge, is incorrect. “If the distinction
between spiritual knowledge and spiritual ignorance is unreal, then spiritual ignorance and the self are one.”
The Seven objections to Shankara's Advaita
Ramanuja picks out what he sees as seven fundamental flaws in the Advaita philosophy to revise them. He argues:
I. The nature of Avidya. Avidya must be either real or unreal; there is no other possibility. But neither of these is
possible. If Avidya is real, non-dualism collapses into dualism. If it is unreal, we are driven to self-contradiction or infinite
regress.
II. The incomprehensibility of Avidya. Advaitins claim that Avidya is neither real nor unreal but incomprehensible,
{anirvacaniya.} All cognition is either of the real or the unreal: the Advaitin claim flies in the face of experience, and
accepting it would call into question all cognition and render it unsafe.
III. The grounds of knowledge of Avidya. No pramana can establish Avidya in the sense the Advaitin requires. Advaita
philosophy presents Avidya not as a mere lack of knowledge, as something purely negative, but as an obscuring layer which covers
Brahman and is removed by true Brahma-vidya. Avidya is positive nescience not mere ignorance. Ramanuja argues that positive
nescience is established neither by perception, nor by inference, nor by scriptural testimony. On the contrary, Ramanuja argues,
all cognition is of the real.
IV. The locus of Avidya. Where is the Avidya that gives rise to the (false) impression of the reality of the perceived world?
There are two possibilities; it could be Brahman's Avidya or the individual soul's {jiva.} Neither is possible. Brahman is
knowledge; Avidya cannot co-exist as an attribute with a nature utterly incompatible with it. Nor can the individual soul be the
locus of Avidya: the existence of the individual soul is due to Avidya; this would lead to a vicious circle.
V. Avidya's obscuration of the nature of Brahman. Sankara would have us believe that the true nature of Brahman is somehow
covered-over or obscured by Avidya. Ramanuja regards this as an absurdity: given that Advaita claims that Brahman is pure
self-luminous consciousness, obscuration must mean either preventing the origination of this (impossible since Brahman is
eternal) or the destruction of it - equally absurd.
VI. The removal of Avidya by Brahma-vidya. Advaita claims that Avidya has no beginning, but it is terminated and removed by
Brahma-vidya, the intuition of the reality of Brahman as pure, undifferentiated consciousness. But Ramanuja denies the existence
of undifferentiated {nirguna} Brahman, arguing that whatever exists has attributes: Brahman has infinite auspicious attributes.
Liberation is a matter of Divine Grace: no amount of learning or wisdom will deliver us.
VII. The removal of Avidya. For the Advaitin, the bondage in which we dwell before the attainment of Moksa is caused by Maya
and Avidya; knowledge of reality (Brahma-vidya) releases us. Ramanuja, however, asserts that bondage is real. No kind of
knowledge can remove what is real. On the contrary, knowledge discloses the real; it does not destroy it. And what exactly is the
saving knowledge that delivers us from bondage to Maya? If it is real then non-duality collapses into duality; if it is unreal,
then we face an utter absurdity.
Even though Bhagavad Ramanuja taught his followers to highly respect all Sri Vaishnavas irrespective of caste, he firmly
believed in the tenets of Varnashrama Dharma.
His Saranagati philosophy emphasises that anyone, irrespective of colour, creed, caste, sex and religion can surrender their
mind, body and soul to the Lotus feet of Lord Narayana and the God would accept him/her. But if one surrenders to any other deva
than Vasudeva, such as Siva or Ganesha, he will have to be reborn as a vaishnava.
Cited from Sri Ramanuja, His Life, Religion, and Philosophy, published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, India.
Writings
Ramanuja may have written 9 books. They are also referred to as the nine precious gems , the " Navarathnas ".
- Vedartha Sangraha (a resume of Vedanta). It sets out Ramanuja’s philosophy, which is
theistic (it affirms a morally perfect, omniscient and omnipotent God) and realistic (it affirms
the existence and reality of a plurality of qualities, persons and objects).
- His most famous work is known as the Sri Bhasya or Brahma Sutra Bhasya. It is a
commentary on the Brahma Sutras.
- Vedanta Saara (essence of Vedanta) an appendix to Sri Bhasya
- Vedanta Deepa (the light of Vedanta), another appendix/commentary to Sri Bhasya.
- Gita Bhashya ( his Commentary for the Bhagavad Gita)
- Gadhya Thrayam (three prose hymns) - Vaikunta gadyam describing in great detail
vaikuntha, the realm of vishnu and recommending meditating
on it. Sriranga Gadyam, a prayer of surrender to the feet of Ranganatha and Saranagati Gadhyam, an imagined dialogue between Ramanuja and
Shri (Lakshmi) and Narayana where he petitions Lakshmi to
recommend Narayana to give him grace. Narayana and Lakshmi accept his surrender. All three are great works in Vaishnava
philosophy.
- Nithya Grantham (About the day to day activities to be performed by all Sri Vaishnavas)
Samadhi mandir
Ramanuja's thiruvarasu (sacred burial shrine) is the Ramanuja shrine (sannidhi) located inside the Sri
Ranganathaswamy temple (periyakoyil[citation needed] or simply koyil) Srirangam, Tamil Nadu within the temple complex,
where he attained his Acharyan Thiruvadi (the lotus foot of his Acharya). His mortal remains (thirumeni) have been
interred inside the Sri Ramanuja shrine and on top of it his wax look-alike deity (the wax image has been covered with the
saffron robes he had used when he was alive) has been consecrated and it is anointed with chandan (sandalwood paste) and
saffron (kungumappoo). Another version says the body of Sri Ramanuja is the one which is seen at Srirangam temple today.
When closely observed,the nails etc. of the body can be seen. Sandalwood paste and saffron are used to maintain the body and no
other chemicals are added .His shrine is open to the general public for dharshan.
A living tradition
Ramanuja's achievements are visible to this day. The Tamil prabhandas are chanted at Vishnu temples on par with the Sanskrit
vedas. Persons of all communities, and not just Brahmins, are given roles in rituals at Srirangam and other leading temples. The
philosophic discources have been passed on to subseaquent generations by great successors like Lokacharya, Vedanta Desika and Manavala Mamuni who lived in the 13th and 14th centuries .
Footnotes
- ^ For further information on Vedantic hagiographies, see Granoff 1984.
- ^ The "Six Thousand" refers to the number of paṭis or granthas, units of 32
syllables.
- ^ Some modern authors have argued for a date two centuries later, and give
the actual author as a descendant of the traditional one, pointing out that Garuḍavāhaṇa Paṇḍita is a family title. This
possibility has been argued at greater length by Ramanujam 1936.)
References
- Bartley, C. J. (2002), written at London,
The Theology of Rāmānuja: Realism and religion, RoutledgeCurzon
- Carman, John Braisted (1974), written at New
Haven and London, The Theology of Rāmānuja: An essay in interreligious
understanding, Yale University Press
- Govindacharya, A. (1906), written at Madras, The Life
of Rāmānuja, S. Murthy
- Rao, T. A. Gopinatha (1923), written at Madras, Sir Subrahmanya
Ayyar Lectures on the History of Śrī Vaiṣṇavas, University of Madras, Government Press
- Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta (1955), written at London, A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar,
Oxford University Press
- Sharma, Arvind (1978), written at New Delhi, Viśiṣṭādvaita
Vedānta: A study, Heritage publishers
- Srinivasa Aiyengar, C. R. (n.d.), written at Madras
- Subramanian, T. N. (1957), "South Indian Temple Inscriptions", Madras Government
Oriental Series, no. 157 3 (2): 145–60
External links
Biographies
Works
Philosophy
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