Ramanuja Song

[Gaynelle Beltramo]

Ariyakkudi created a concert style for himself which involved beginning with a varnam, singing many songs, short raga alapanas preceding some of them, niraval and swaras again within limits for many pieces, followed by the ragam tanam pallavi which again did not last more than half an hour at most. He followed the rtp with many small pieces from the Tiruppugazh and other Tamizh works. He also invariably sang tillanas composed by his guru at the end of the concert. This pattern soon became the rage and it was soon demanded from all other musicians as well and is followed religiously till date.

Ariyakkudi reached the top of his profession by the early 1930s. The stage at that time had emptied of stalwarts such as Madurai Pushpavanam Iyer, Konerirajapuram Vaidyanatha Iyer and his own guru Poochi Iyengar. Audiences loved his new style of singing, his winsome personality and his dignified humour and flocked to his concerts. Beginning from then, he remained at the top of his profession till his passing in 1967. By the 1930s, his busy concert schedules necessitated his leaving his family comprising wife Ponnammal and daughters Janaki and Lakshmi in his native village and migrating to Kumbhakonam then pretty much the centre for culture and music. By then a fairly large number of disciples had apprenticed themselves under him and they took care of his needs. In particular, three disciples of his B Rajam Iyer, KV Narayanaswami and Madurai N Krishnan were to become really famous. The household ran on the pattern of the traditional gurukula and most disciples involved themselves in daily chores in addition to learning music from the master.

Ramanuja Iyengar was a man who believed in dignity and stood for by his principles. During the Tamizh Isai movement of the 1940s, he, despite being a voluntary and perhaps one of the earliest proponents of Tamizh songs, refused to bow to the diktat of the Tamizh Isai Sangam that all concerts in Madras Presidency ought to comprise Tamizh songs alone. This meant he stood aloof from the influential Sangam and several of its powerful members all of whom were his patrons. They relented in the 1950s and accepted that songs in other languages could also be sung during concerts organized by them and he then performed for them. He later became Principal of the Music College run by the Sangam. In later years he also had such stand offs with the Music Academy, the RR Sabha and the All India Radio. Ultimately he won on almost all counts; such was his personality and crowd pulling power.

Ramanuja Iyengar moved base permanently to Madras city in the 1950s and his house on Devanathan Street, Mylapore was so famous that the bus halt there was referred to as Ariyakkudi by commuters and state transport employees alike. He was to live there for the rest of his life. In 1963, a grand function took place at the Rajaji Hall, Madras on his completing 50 years in the service of music. The Maharajah of Mysore presided over the function. Ramanuja Iyengar began suffering from ill health in 1966 and after a brief but painful illness passed away on 23rd January 1967 at his residence. It was as if a large tree that had sheltered Carnatic music under it, had suddenly been axed. The Ariyakkudi bhani however survived thanks to his numerous disciples and so has the concert style he created.

Ramanuja's guru was Yādava Prakāśa, a scholar who according to tradition belonged to the Advaita Vedānta tradition,[13] but probably was a Bhedabheda scholar.[14] Sri Vaishnava tradition holds that Ramanuja disagreed with his guru and the non-dualistic Advaita Vedānta, and instead followed in the footsteps of Tamil Alvārs tradition, the scholars Nāthamuni and Yamunāchārya.[9] Ramanuja is famous as the chief proponent of Vishishtadvaita subschool of Vedānta,[15][16] and his disciples were likely authors of texts such as the Shatyayaniya Upanishad.[13] Ramanuja himself wrote influential texts, such as bhāsya on the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, all in Sanskrit.[17]

Ramanuja was born into a Tamil Brahmin community, in a village called Sriperumbudur (present-day Tamil Nadu) under the Chola Empire. His followers in the Vaishnava tradition wrote hagiographies, some of which were composed in centuries after his death, and which the tradition believes to be true.[10]

Ramanuja married, moved to Kānchipuram, and studied with Yādava Prakāśa as his guru.[11][13][25] Ramanuja and his guru frequently disagreed in interpreting Vedic texts, particularly the Upanishads.[22][26] Ramanuja and Yādava Prakāśa separated, and thereafter Ramanuja continued his studies on his own.[10][25]

He attempted to meet another famed Vedanta scholar of 11th-century Yamunāchārya, but Sri Vaishnava tradition holds that the latter died before the meeting and they never met.[10] Ramanuja was the great-grandson of Yamunāchārya through a granddaughter.[27] However, some hagiographies assert that the corpse of Yamunāchārya miraculously rose and named Ramanuja as the new leader of Sri Vaishnava sect previously led by Yamunāchārya.[10] One hagiography states that after leaving Yādava Prakāśa, Ramanuja was initiated into Sri Vaishnavism by Periya Nambi, also called Mahapurna, another Vedānta scholar. Ramanuja renounced his married life, and became a Hindu monk.[28] However, states Katherine Young, the historical evidence on whether Ramanuja led a married life or he did renounce and became a monk is uncertain.[29]

Ramanuja became a priest at the Varadharāja Perumal temple (Vishnu) at Kānchipuram, where he began to teach that moksha (liberation and release from samsara) is to be achieved not with metaphysical, nirguna Brahman but with the help of personal god and saguna Vishnu. Ramanuja believed that when scriptures such as the Vedas declare god as nirguna, they should be interpreted as saying that qualities such as pain, sorrow, mortality and age are absent in god.[25][30][31] Ramanuja has long enjoyed foremost authority in the Sri Vaishnava tradition.[32]

Ramanuja grew up in the Tamil culture, in a stable society during the rule of the Chola dynasty.[34] This period was one of pluralistic beliefs, where Vaishnava, Shaiva, Smarta traditions, Buddhism and Jainism thrived together. In Hindu monastic tradition, Advaita Vedānta had been dominant,[13] and Ramanuja's guru Yādava Prākāsha belonged to this tradition.[25] Prior to Ramanuja, the Sri Vaishnava sampradaya was already an established organization under Yamunāchārya, and bhakti songs and devotional ideas already a part of Tamil culture because of the twelve Alvārs.[35] Ramanuja's fame grew because he was considered the first thinker in centuries that disputed Shankara's theories, and offered an alternative interpretation of Upanishadic scriptures.[34]

When Ramanuja and his guru Yadava Prakaasa parted ways due to their differences in interpreting the Vedic literature, Ramanuja became a devotee of the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kanchi. During this period, Ramanuja's discourses and fame reached far and wide. Yamunacharya, the Vaishnavite acharya and the religious head of the Ranganathasamy temple at Srirangam had been closely following Ramanuja from a very young age. When it was time to pass on the legacy, the acharya decided that he would call upon Ramanuja. Accordingly, he summoned Sri Mahapurna, a disciple who was helping him out with the temple affairs and asked him to go to Kanchi and bring Ramanuja.[36]

When Mahapurna met Ramanuja and informed him of his guru's desire, Ramanuja was overjoyed and they both immediately left for Srirangam. But bad news awaited them at Srirangam and they both learned that Yamunacharya had died. Heart-broken, Ramanuja then left for Kanchi and refused to worship Sri Ranganatha for he held him responsible for taking away Yamunacharya from this world.[37] As for Mahapurna, he began to assist Tiruvaranga Araiyar, the son of Yamunacharya in managing the temple affairs. But as time passed by, Tiruvaranga Araiyar and other senior members of the Vaishnavite order felt that there was a vacuum after Yamunacharya's demise and that they lacked a person who could interpret the Vedas and Sastras like Yamunacharya. So it was finally decided that Sri Mahapurna should once again go and invite Ramanuja to Srirangam.[37]

Meanwhile, in Kanchi, Ramanuja met with Kanchipurna, a fellow devotee, regularly and soon decided that he would become Kanchipurna's disciple. When he approached Kanchipurna about this, Kanchipurna politely refused as he did not belong to the same caste as Ramanuja and told him that he would get a more appropriate guru.[37] After this Kanchipurna left for Tirupati to worship Lord Venkateswara and would return only after six months. When he finally came back, it was through him that Lord Varadaraja conveyed his wish to Ramanuja. Accordingly, Kanchipurna advised Ramanuja that it was the Lord's wish that he leave for Srirangam and find solace in Sri Mahapurna.[36][38]

After it was decided that Mahapurna would go and invite Ramanuja to Srirangam, the acharya left for Kanchi with his wife. While on his way to Kanchi, Mahapurna and his wife decided to take some rest at Maduranthakam, a place that is located 40 km from present day Chennai. As fate would have it Ramanuja, who was on his way to Srirangam, arrived at the same place and to his joy found Mahapurna. They soon embraced each other and Ramanuja requested that he waste no time in initiating him into the Vaishnavite order. Mahapurna immediately obliged and Ramanuja received the Panchasamskaras (the five sacraments).[38]

Some hagiographies, composed centuries after Ramanuja died, state that a Chola king, Kulothunga II,[39] had immense hatred towards Sri Vaishnavism. He was called Krimikanta Chola or worm-necked Chola, so called as the king is said to have suffered from the cancer of the neck or throat.[40][41] Historian Nilakanta Sastri identifies Krimikanta Chola with Adhirajendra Chola or Virarajendra Chola with whom the main line (Vijayalaya line) ended.[42][43] Knowing the evil intentions of the king, Sri Rāmānujā's disciple, Sri Koorathazhwan persuaded Ramanuja to leave the Chola kingdom. Sri Rāmānujā then moved to Hoysala kingdom for 14 years, wherein he converted a Jain king, Bitti Deva to Hinduism after miraculously healing his daughter. Bitti Deva changed his name to Vishnuvardhana. King Vishnuvardhana assisted Sri Rāmānujā to build a temple of Lord Thirunarayanaswamy at Melukote, which is now a temple town in Mandya district of Karnataka. Rāmānujā later returned on his own to Tamil Nādu after the demise of Krimikanta Chola.[39] According to Sastri, Krimikanta or Adhirajendra Chola was killed in a local uprising of the Vaishnavas.[43][44]

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