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The Visista-dvaita School
[CH. XVIII nātha, Śrīnivāsa-yati, Devarajaguru, Vādhūla Varada Nārāyaṇaguru, Prativadibhayankara, Rāmānujaguru, Sutākhya, and Śrīvānācala Yogindra. These eight disciples were great teachers of Vedanta1. He taught the Bhasya to Rangaraja. There were many ruling chiefs in South India who were his disciples. Among his works the following are noteworthy, Yati-raja-vimśati, Gītātātparya-dipa, a Sanskrit commentary on the Gita, Śrī-bhāṣyāratha, Taittiriyo-paniṣad-bhāṣya, Para-tattva-nirnaya. He wrote also commentaries on the Rahasya-traya, Tattva-traya and Śrīvacana-bhūṣaṇa of Pillai Lokācārya and the Acarya-hṛdaya of the senior Saumya Jāmātṛ muni, called also Vadikeśari, brother of Pillai Lokācārya; commentaries on Priyalvar-tiru-mori, Jñāna-sāra and Prameya-sāra of Devarāja, and the Sapta-gāthā of Viṛāmśolaippillai; glosses on the authorities quoted in the Tattva-traya, Śrīvacana-bhūṣaṇa, and commentaries on the Divya-prabandha called the Idu; many Tamil verses, such as Tiruvāymoṛi-nuṛundādi, Artti-prabandha, Tiruvārādhana-krama, and many Sanskrit verses. He occupied a position like that of Rāmānuja, and his images are worshipped in most Vaisnava temples in South India. Many works were written about him, e.g. l'aravara-muni-dinacarya, l'aravara-muni-sataka, Varavara-muni-kavya, Varavaramuni-campu, Yatindra-pravaṇa-prabhāva, Yatindra-pravaṇa-bhadracampu, etc. His Upadeśa-ratna-mālā is recited by Śrivaiṣṇavas after the recital of the Divya-prabandha. In his Upadesa-ratna-mālā he gives an account of the early Arvars and the Aragivas. It was translated into Sanskrit verse by his grandson Abhirama-varācārya, whose Aṣṭādasa-bheda-nirnaya has already been noted in the present work. He also wrote another book called Nakṣatra-mālikā in praise of Sathakopa2.
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Though Mr Narasimhiengar says that a commentary on the Śrīvacana-bhūṣaṇa was written by Saumya Jāmātṛ muni (junior) in the manipravala style, yet the manuscript of the commentary, with a sub-commentary on it by Raghuttama, which was available to the present writer, was a stupendous volume of about 750 pages, all written in Sanskrit. The main contents of this work will appear in a separate section.
1 See Prapannāmṛta, Ch. 122.
2 The present writer is indebted for some of his information regarding the works of Saumya Jāmātṛ muni to M. T. Narasimhiengar's Introduction to the English translation of the Upadeśa-ratna-mālā.
