I am putting this My mail subject to Moderation by other Moderators:
Respected member TM Sundaram put:
" To say Ramanuja was a Shaivite is to say Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, Guru Nanak or Mahavir were Hindus first and Jesus was a Jew."
Not that we ARE NOT AWARE OF.
Respected Member Ramachandran put :
Ramanujar was studying in Sankar Matt in Kanchi and that he assisted Sankarachariar in taking a oil bath...
The book was written by a famous historian. REV. Henry Heras, Studies in Indian History (The Araidu Dynasty of Vijaya nagara) Vol 1; P.G.Paul Publications, Madras 1927. Foot Note Page No 533.
Respected member Narasimhan put :
Ramanuja was a Buddhist, and he converted to Hinduism. His real name was Ethirajan.
Respected member TM Sundaram added ::
Sri Ramanuja is one of the greatest Hindu philosophers who propagated 'Visishtadvita' principle as we all know. He belonged to a generation where distinction of Saivaism and Vaishnavaism was not made only by birth. WE ARE AWARE AND AGREE.
Source was solicited in respect of TWO POINTS :
1. Sought Source :: Whether Rev St Sri Ramanuja was a Buddhist ?
Mr. Narasimhan is yet to provide this.
2. Sought Source :: Ramanujar was studying in Sankar Matt in Kanchi and that he assisted Sankarachariar in taking a oil bath...
Mr. Ramachandra provided quoting a Christian Missionary's seconday source... written in 1927 - but the event reportedly occured in the 11th / 12th Century !
17 AD and lived about 120 years.
Means while HE STUDIED - say prior to Marriage or immediatel after Marriage as well - it should have ben 1027 - 1030 / 40 or so. Means Rajendra I period.
Rajendra Ruled 1012 to 1044 AD.
The time line is UNDOUBTEDLY RAJENDRA I .
QUERIES ::
1. Who was the Sankaracharya in Kanchi at that point of time - under whom Rev St Ramanujar studied ?
2. Whether it is Corroborated in either Vaishana Guruparambara books or in Sankara Guru parambara books ?
3. OIL BATHE story - WHAT IS SUPPORTIVE ?
KINDLY ENLIGHTEN ME after REVISITING THAT "BOOK".
thanks and regards /
sps
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I HAVE A FEW QUERIES - for a HEALTHY DISCUSSION INDEED ::
I am just thinking of whether we are confussing with saint Ramanujam with mathematician Ramanujam.
For both the case I found the following info from quick net search.........One thing is clear .....it is not the RAJENDRA I .........it is KULOTHUNGA CHOLA I
Saint Ramanujam
The traditional biographies of Ramanuja place his life in the period of 1017–1137, yielding a lifespan of 120 years. However, the unusual length and roundness of this lifetime has led scholars to propose that Ramanuja was born 20–60 years later, and died as many as 20 years earlier than the traditional dates. Any chronology depends crucially on the major historical event mentioned in the traditional biographies: the persecution of Vaishnavas under the Chola king Kulothunga and Ramanuja's subsequent 12-year exile in Melkote, in Karnataka. In 1917, T. A. Gopinatha Rao proposed a chronology based on the traditional lifetime of 1017–1137. He identified the Chola king with Kulothunga Chola I (reigned 1070-1120), and dated the exile to Melkote from 1079 to 1126 CE (Rao 1923 cited in Carman 1974:45). However, this would extend the period of exile to 47 years, and in any case, Kulothunga I was not known for being an intolerate Shaivite. A different chronology was proposed by T. N. Subramanian, an official in the Madras government (Subramanian 1957 cited in Carman 1974:45). This chronology identifies the Chola King with Kulothunga Chola II, who reigned from 1133–50 and was known for his persecution of Vaisnavites. It puts Ramanuja's exile from c. 1137 to 1148. Subramanian's hypothesis is aided by a fragment from the late Tamil biography Rāmānujārya Divya Caritai, which states that Ramanuja completed his most important work, the Śrībhāṣya, in 1155–56. Nevertheless, temple inscriptions in Karnataka indicate the presence of Ramanuja and his disciples before 1137. Carman (1974:45) hypothesizes that the traditional biographers conflated two different visits to Mysore into one. This later chronology has been accepted by several scholars, yielding a tentative lifetime of 1077–1157. Whatever the precise dates of Ramanuja's lifetime, it seems clear that all three of the great Śrīvaiṣṇava ācāryas lived under the relatively stable and ecumenical climate of the Chola empire, before its decline in the late 12th and 13th centuries (Carman 1974, p.27).
Dear SPS: uh...oh; things are now going to get really really tricky. Your question could open a sub-discussion in itself.
One school of thought says Sankara established only 4 mutts. The southern one was in Sringeri. According to the source down below, Kumbhakonam mutt was established in the 18th century; and later moved to Kanchi.
If the above school of thought is correct, then there was no Sankaracharya mutt in Kanchi in the 10th-11th century period.
Any special reason to using "Rev St" than using any of our Indic phrase/words? For example the word "Guru" comes to my mind, but knowledgeable have reasons and are very careful with words. That is why I inquire.
Dear SPS, Don't Indians sometimes use the word 'sant'? I was just up at Melkote last Jan. so have shared a place with Sri Ramanujan. I thought the AdiSankaracarya's Sringeri Mutt had to be moved to Kanchi for safeKeeping, but I may be wrong.