A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c20.22

c20.22

The greatest of the Vaishnava ācāryas was undoubtedly Rāmānuja. Born at Śrīperumbudūr, near Madras, in the first quarter of the eleventh century, he had his early philosophical training under Yādavaprakāśa of Kāñchipuram who belonged to the school of Śankara. Yāmunācārya is said to have once met Rāmānuja at Kāñchi but, unwilling to disturb the progress of the youth's studies, he uttered a prayer for the increase of Śrī Vaishnavas and went back to Śrīrangam. Rāmānuja then disagreed with the teachings of his guru and was strongly attracted by those of the Śrīrangam school. Yāmuna sent for him, but breathed his last before Rāmānuja could reach him. He succeeded Yāmuna as head of the maṭha at Śrīrangam, which gave him control over the temple and the school and a position of authority in the sect. He soon proved his mettle as a teacher and organizer, and his influence grew day by day. In his lectures and writings he refuted the Māyāvāda of Śankara, demonstrated that the Upanishads did not teach a strict monism, and built up the philosophy of Viśishtādvaita which reconciled devotion to a personal God with the philosophy of the Vedānta by affirming that ‘the soul, though of the same substance as God and emitted from him rather than created, can obtain bliss not in absorption but in existence near him’. He attempted to unify the sect by a reform of temple ritual wherever possible. Though he respected the rule that none but the twice-born may read the Veda, he was eager, like the ālvārs, to spread the doctrine of bhakti among Sūdras and even among the outcastes. He arranged that in certain important temples the outcastes should have the privilege of entering the temple on one day in the year. He travelled throughout India to propagate his ideas, and these journeys may well account for the wide influence of the sect in Northern India.