SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImadh varavaramunayE nama:
These two brothers mercifully wrote many prabandhams starting with thathvarahasyam (secrets regarding the truthful entity), living past the age of hundred years, with many great persons having taken refuge under the divine feet of piLLai lOkAchAriyAr, leaving their sustenance to him and living in total bliss.
Among them were disciples such as kUrakulOththama dhAsar, maNappAkkaththu nambi, azhagiya maNavALapperumAL piLLai, also known as kolli kAvala dhAsar, kOttUril aNNar, viLAnjOlaip piLLai et al and ammangArs (women disciples) such as the mother of thirumalai AzhwAr thiruvAimozhip piLLai). They carried out continuous service to his divine feet, never leaving him. piLLai lOkAchAriyAr, being the refuge for them, would call them and through his mercy, would tell them the reasons for the composing of commentaries such as ARAyirappadi, onbadhinAyirappadi, irubaththu nAlAyirappadi, muppaththARAyirappadi for the divine prabandham, thiruvAimozhi [composed by nammAzhwAr].
Being experts in thiruvAimozhi, which is an ocean of vEdham in thamizh, many pUrvAchAryas have written elaborate commentaries, according to their intelligence, considering that to be the ultimate goal. thiruvAimozhi is considered as the equivalent of upanishath which has a thousand branches. emperumAnAr (bhagavadh SrI rAmAnujar) showered his grace on thirukkurugaipirAn piLLAn to write a commentary on such thiruvAimozhi. piLLAn, going by the divine mind of nammAzhwAr, who is considered to be a divine incarnation, composed the commentary ArAyirappadi (six thousand padi; a padi is a metric for prose, composed of 32 syllables).
Later, rAmAnujar and other preceptors, ordained bhattar (the son of kUraththAzhwAn) to write another commentary for thiruvAimozhi, composed of onbadhinAyirappadi (nine thousand padi), with additional significant meanings, in a way which would make it comprehensible to all. bhattar had won over an adhvaithi, named mAdhavar, in a debate. mAdhavar adopted sanyAsam (renouncing all attachments towards samsAram) and took refuge under the divine feet of bhattar. bhattar gave him the title of nanjIyar and took him to SrIrangam temple to worship namperumAL. In the assembly of bhattar, nanjIyar and several other jIyars (ascetics), namperumAL, through the words of archakar (temple priest) told nanjIyar “Welcome, nanjIyar! Compose the commentary of onbadhinAyirappadi which is in the divine mind of bhattar”. Thus, nanjIyar composed onbadhinAyirappadi which was like a golden crown for ARAyirappadi.
After bhattar was granted mOksham (SrIvaikuNtam) by namperumAL, nanjIyar became sad. He thought “We are aging; [we had thought that] since bhattar swAmy is young, there will not be any hurdle for leading the dharSanam (the term dharSanam refers to the principle of viSishtAdhvaitham) and that it will keep getting nurtured continuously. Now, the status has changed like this”. He reached bhattar’s residence, fell at his divine feet and became inconsolable. bhattar called him to come nearer to him and told him “There is no need for you to become desolate; get a person who will be good enough to lead the dharSanam” jIyar became pacified on hearing these words, and as an act of remembering his words, made a knot in his uththarIyam (upper cloth). He conducted the final rites of bhattar in a befitting way. He made pattOlai (this is the first copy of any composition) of his onbadhinAyirappadi as a precursor to developing it further to irubaththu nAlAyirappadi (twenty four thousand padi) and muppaththARAyirappadi (thirty six thousand padi) and was looking for a person who could make several copies of the manuscript.
adiyEn krishNa rAmAnuja dhAsan
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