The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c32.21

v1.c32.21

staunch Saiva, could not tolerate any longer the spreading of the new sect. According to the Sri Vaishnava chronicles, "it was pointed out to this King that converting the common people by force was not in itself capable of augmenting the numbers to the Saiva faith; and if such a great leader as Ramanuja were to be made to subscribe to the Saiva faith, his followers would join that sect in a body. Ramanuja was summonded before the King; Kurattalvan (Ramanuja's first disciple), apprehending danger to his master, assumed the garb of a sannyasi, proceeded to the royal court and represented himself as the famous Vaishnava Acharya. The King then compelled him to sign a declaration that no god was superior to Siva. Kurattalvan boldly contradicted him by telling him that 'larger than Siva was Drona (words which also mean two different measures, of which the latter was the bigger) thus playing upon the double meaning of the words Siva and Drona. The King, enraged at the behaviour of Kurattalvan, ordered both his eyes to be put out immediately, and the order was forthwith carried out. So throughout the remaining part of his life he lived a blind man " 1.