Journey
Ramanuja's kshetras
Five places that hold Rāmānuja's life rather than a deity's: born at Shrīperumbudūr, taught at Kānchī, settled at Srirangam where he rewrote a great temple's rules, exiled to Melkote for twelve years, and remembered at Tirumala for deciding whose god it was. A philosophy's map drawn by a biography. He is said to have lived a hundred and twenty years, which gives the biography room for all five.
Stops (6)
- Ramanujacharya · The man — Rāmānujācārya, c. 1017-1137
Born at Śrīperumbudūr near Kāñcīpuram and traditionally said to have lived 120 years, Rāmānuja was the philosopher-reformer who gave Śrīvaiṣṇavism its theological spine. He systematised the Viśiṣṭādvaita (qualified non-dualism) that corrected Śaṅkara's Advaita, wrote the Śrībhāṣya commentary on the Brahma Sūtras, and spent his working life reorganising the temple liturgy and administration at Śrīraṅgam. The five kṣetras that follow trace the arc of his life — birthplace, teachers, long tenure at Śrīraṅgam, exile at Melukote, and the vindication at Tirupati.
- Shrīperumbudūr · Ādi Keśava Perumāl — the birthplace
A village near Kānchī where he was born about 1017. The temple is a birthplace shrine rather than one he built, and it is the first stop on a pilgrimage Śrīvaishnavas make through his life rather than through a deity's. His image there is said to have been consecrated by him and to be a likeness.
- Kānchī / Kānchīpuram / Kanchipuram · Kānchī — Yādava Prakāśa and the break with him
Where he studied under the Advaitin Yādava Prakāśa and kept correcting his teacher's readings until the relationship broke. The Varadarāja temple is where he is said to have served, drawing water, before leaving for Srirangam. Kānchī is the city in which his disagreement with non-dualism was formed.
- Shrīrangam · Srirangam — the liturgy and the administration
He spent most of his working life here and rewrote how the temple ran: the Koil Oḻugu records his division of duties, his allocation of shares and his admission of the Tamil Prabandham into the daily liturgy beside Sanskrit. It is less a doctrine than an institution, and it has outlasted every dynasty since.
- Melkote / Thirunārāyanapuram · Melkote — twelve years of exile
He fled Chola persecution to the Hoysala country and stayed about twelve years, consecrating the Cheluvanārāyana temple and, tradition says, opening its festival to Dalits, whom he called Tirukulattār, people of the sacred lineage. The concession is still marked in the temple's calendar.
- Tirupati · Tirumala — deciding whose god it was
Tradition credits him with settling whether Venkateśvara was Vishnu or Śiva by leaving the emblems of both in the sanctum overnight and finding the conch and discus taken up. Whatever happened, the Śrīvaishnava claim on the hill and much of its ritual order date from his intervention.