Vaishnava teachers of the south.

 

The Vaishnava teachers, accepted as such among the Vaishnavas of South India, fall into two broad classes, the Alvars (saints) and the Acharyas (teachers). The succession of the latter began some five generations before Ramanuja and is a continuously growing list in respect of each section, nay each family, of the Vaishnavas of the South. The other class is by common consent anterior to this and more holy according to the recognized ‘guru paramparas’. They are twelve in number and fall into three classes, as arranged in Sir R.G. Bhandarkar's work under reference.

The list which is in the order of the dates given in the guruparampara, may be quoted here for convenience.

 

ANCIENT.

Saroyogin (Poygai Alvar)

Bhutayogin (Bhutattalvar)

Mahadyogin or Bhrantayogin (Pey Alvar j

Bhaktisara (Tirumalisai Alvar)

 

MIDDLE.

Sathakopa (Nam Alvar)

Madurakavi

Kulashekhara

Vishnuchitta (Periya Alvar)

Goda (Andal)

 

LAST.

Bhaktanghrirenu (Tondaradippodi Alvar)

Yogivaha (Tiruppan Alvar)

Parakala (Tirumangai Alvar)

 

Then follows Sir R. G. Bhandarkar's comment which I quote in extenso;

"The date of the first ordinarily given, is B C. 4203 and of the last, B. C. 2706, and the others range between these two. Not only are these dates fanciful, but even the sequence shown above is unreliable. Krishnaswami places the last in the earlier half of the. 8th century A. D and all the preceding ones impliedly before that date but there is distinct evidence to show that Kulashekhara flourished much later. He was a king of Travancore, and one of the works composed by him styled Mukundamala contains a verse from the Bhagavata Purana (XI, 2, 36). Again in an inscription on a tablet existing in a temple at Naregal in the Dharwar district, translated by Dr. Fleet, it is stated that Permadi of the Sinda dynasty vanquished Kulasekharanka, besieged Chatta, pursued Jayakesin and seized upon the royal power of Poysala and Dhorasamudra, the capital of the Poysala dynasty. In another inscription, this Permadi is represented to be a vassal of Jagadekamalla II, whose dates range between A. D. 1138 and 1150. While the former was in power as Mahamandaleshvara, in the seventh year of Jagadekamalla, i.e., in A. D. 1144, a certain grant was made by a body of sellers of betel leaves and nuts. The Kulashekhara mentioned as being vanquished by this Permadi, must be a prince reigning on the western coast as the others, Jayakesin, the Kadamba prince of Goa, the Hoysala king 1 and so forth were. Putting this statement and the quotation from the Bhagavata Purana together, it appears highly probable that the Alvar Kulashekhara lived in the first half of the 12th century. The sequence therefore, given above cannot be implicitly believed in. Still it may be admitted that the earliest Alvars flourished about the time of the revival of Brahmanism and Hinduism in the north, which extended up to the Mahratta country, as we have shown from inscriptions and antiquarian remains, and must have extended still farther to the south. The earliest Alvars may be placed before, about the 5th or 6th century, but there is nothing to show that Vaishnavism had not penetrated to the Tamil country earlier, that is, about the first century. But an impetus such as the rise of the Alvars indicates could in all probability come only from the energy of the revival.

1. It is doubtful if the Hoysala power ever reached the coast at this period.

“The hostile relations into which the Alvars and the Shaiva saints, Nayanmars, came with the Buddhists and Jainas, lend support to the view we have advocated." In this criticism of the venerable Doctor there are three points that emerge into relief: —

(1) that Alvar Kulashekhara lived sometime about the middle of the 12th century A. D.

(2) As a consequence the order in which these Alvars are usually named is unreliable.

(3) That the earliest Alvars must have flourished about the time of revival of Brahmanism and Hinduism in the north, and therefore about the fifth or the sixth century A. D. while the possibility is admitted that Vaishnavism might have penetrated to the south as early as about the first century A.D.

 

THE VAISHNAVA TRADITION.

 

We shall proceed to examine these three positions in the order in which they are enumerated above. In regard to the whole of this position it has to be remembered that. Vaishnavism is a living religion with a very considerable following and a continuous tradition so that even tradition in a matter like this has to be given some weight historically, though we are not entirely dependent upon tradition alone in regard to this subject. The works of these Alvars are composed in the vernacular of the country, Tamil, and was collected and thrown into the form, in which they have come down to us by oral tradition as well as in written form, in the latter days of the lifetime of Ramanuja himself. The Prabandha “four thousand” includes in it a centum on Ramanuja himself by one who called himself Amudan of Arangam (Shrirangam), and who declares himself, in the course of the work, to be a disciple of Ramanuja's chief disciple Kurattalvan. 1

He refers to these Alvars in that work in a particular order, but places Nam Alvar, the last of them all for which there is a particular reason which we shall notice presently. 2

1. Ramanuja Nurrandadi St. 7.

2. Ibid set. 8-17.

The order is:

1. Poigai Alvar.

2. Pudattalvar.

3. Pey Alwar.

4. Tirupanalvar.

5. Tirumalisai Alvar.

6. Tondaradippodi.

7. Kulashekhara.

8. Periyalvar.

9. Andal.

10. Tirumangai Alvar.

The name of Nam Alvar, with that of Madurakavi, is omitted. The former comes in for more elaborate reference in the verses immediately following. While we may not be warranted in assuming any strictly chronological order perhaps from this, we ought to grant that it is the recognised general order of precedence in point of time as there is no other kind of order known or recognised among the Vaishnavas with the solitary exception of the position of Tiruppan Alvar. The exception in the case of Nam Alvar comes in for a satisfactory explanation as he is the only one among the Alvars who figures in a succession of religious preceptors proceeding from one's own particular guru right up to Vishnu himself, the chief Guru of them all. It is this pre-eminence of Nam Alvar that is responsible for this particular work removing him out of his place and treating of him in a number of stanzas immediately following.. As against this order might possibly be quoted a shloka from Pillan, the disciple and immediate successor in the apostolic seat of Ramanuja to whom the latter entrusted the work of commenting on Tiruvaymoli 1000, the work by pre-eminence of Nam Alvar. He sets all the names in one single shloka 1 and gives the names of only 11, omitting Andal. The exigencies of versification perhaps would not warrant the inference of any chronological order. It must be noted in this connection that the Tamil poems of Kulashekhara are included in the collection which received the sanction of Ramanuja.

1 Bhutam Sarascha Mahadahvaya Bhatfanatha
Shri Bbaktisara Kulaisekhara Yogivahan
Bbaktang{irirenu Parakala Yatindraminran
Shrimat Parankiismunim pranatosmi nityam.