Tradition · Vaishnava tradition & temple order
Shrivaishnavism
Also known as Śrīvaishnavism, Sri Vaishnavism, Ubhaya Vedanta, Vadakalai, Tenkalai
The southern Vishnu tradition built on two canons at once — the Sanskrit Vedas and the Tamil Prabandham of the Ālvārs — which is why it calls itself Ubhaya Vedānta, the double Vedānta. Nāthamuni recovered the Tamil hymns, Yāmuna defended them and Rāmānuja gave the whole a philosophy in Viśishtādvaita.
- Date
- from the ninth century
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Divya Prabandham; Viśishtādvaita commentaries
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
It split about the fourteenth century into Vadakalai and Tenkalai over how far grace requires effort — the monkey's baby that clings, against the kitten that is carried. The difference is visible on foreheads and on temple walls, and has been litigated in Indian courts into living memory.
Connections (4)
- Canonised by textNammalvar
Śrīvaishnavism's distinctive claim is that Nammālvār's Tamil stands beside the Sanskrit Veda rather than below it — Ubhaya Vedānta, the double canon. Nāthamuni is said to have recovered the lost hymns by meditation at Āḻvārtirunagari; whatever happened, a vernacular poetry entered temple liturgy and stayed there. The claim is not merely honorific: the Tamil verses are recited in the sanctum, in the daily liturgy, by the same priests who recite the Sanskrit, which is what the argument was about.
- Pilgrimage order ofShrirangam
Srirangam is the administrative and liturgical centre of Śrīvaishnavism, where Rāmānuja settled the temple's rules in the twelfth century. The Vadakalai and Tenkalai division over whether grace requires any effort of our own — the monkey's baby against the kitten — has been fought out in its precincts and in Indian courts since.
- Monastic foundationAhobilam
The Ahobila Maṭha, founded in the fourteenth century, is unusual among Indian monastic seats in having no fixed seat: its head travels continuously through the Śrīvaishnava south with the deity, so the institution is a moving one and Ahobilam is its origin rather than its address. The Ahobila Maṭha's head has kept that itinerant rule unbroken since the fourteenth century, so the office has no address and the deity travels in a palanquin with him.
- Canonised by textRamanujacharya
Śrīvaishnavism's institutional shape is Rāmānuja's: the admission of the Tamil Prabandham into temple liturgy beside Sanskrit, the seventy-four simhāsanādhipatis he appointed to carry the teaching, and the Srirangam rules recorded in the Koil Oḻugu. The philosophy is his too, but the organisation is what survived him intact. The order split about the fourteenth century into Vadakalai and Tenkalai over whether grace requires any effort of our own, and the difference is still visible on foreheads and temple walls.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Sri Vaishnavism”. Sangeet Natak Akademi and Ministry of Textiles documentation, and the standard field studies.
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