The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c32.18

v1.c32.18

During his stay at Srirangam he made many disciples. One of the most prominent of them was Tiruvarangattamudanar, the hereditary trustee of the Ranganatha temple⁵. But Ramanuja could not live there long. The Chola ruler Karikala, probably the younger brother of Rejendra and father of Kalottunga, who was then Viceroy at Uraiyur⁶, himself a Sankaracharya wanted to take an oil bath. The pupils used to serve their master in turn, and that day it was Ramanuja's. He was rubbing the oil over the bald head of the Sankaracharya, and another student was taking lessons by his side. A stanza was read in which the face of Vishnu was represented to be as red as the lotus. The Sankaracharya at once exclaimed that it was a *luptopama*, or defective comparison, as there were objects surpassing the lotus in their redness, which might have been used for the simile. As an example, he indicated the buttocks of the monkey. Ramanuja, who was a firm believer in Vishnu, cried out. Tears from his eyes dropped on the thighs of the Sankaracharya, and pierced them like molten lead. At once he ordered Ramanujacharya to leave the *matha*, and he accordingly went. And now being a hater of Siva and a special worshipper of Vishnu he started the new religion". Natesa Sastri, *The Origin of the Srivaishnavas*, *Ind. Ant.*, XVI, p. 252. The author explodes this legend.