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Kastūrī Rangācārya between the Varagalai and Tengalai schools depends largely on the emphasis given by the latter to the superior type of prapatti.
Kastüri Rangācārya. Kastūrī Rangācārya, otherwise called Sri Rangasūri, was a disciple of Saumya Jāmāts muni and probably lived late in the fifteenth or the beginning of the sixteenth century. Rāmānuja's views do not seem to have undergone great changes of interpretation, and we do not find the emergence of different schools of interpretation as in the case of the philosophy of Sarkara. The followers of Rāmānuja throughout the succeeding centuries directed their efforts mostly to elucidating Rāmānuja's views and adducing new arguments for his doctrines or refuting the arguments of his opponents and finding fault with the theories of other schools. A sectarian difference, however, arose with Venkațanātha's efforts to explain the nature of devotion and the ultimate nature of emancipation and various other problems associated with it. Some external ritualistic differences can also be traced from his time. One sect! (Vadkalai or Uttara-kalārya) was led by Verkațanātha and the other school (called Tengalai or Dakșiņa-kalārya) by Lokācārya and Saumya Jāmāts muni.
Kastūri Rangācārya wrote two works called Kāryā-dhikaranavāda and the Kāryā-dhikarana-tattva, in which he discussed some of the most important differences of these two schools and lent his support to the Tengalai or the Dakșina-kalārya school. The discussion began on the occasion of the interpretation of Rāmānuja of a topic in the Brahma-sūtra (4.3.6-15) called the Kāryā-dhikarana-vāda, in which some Upanisad texts raised certain difficulties regarding the attainment of absolute immortality as conditioned by wisdom or worship (upāsanā). Vādari says that the worship of Hiranyagarbha, the highest of the created beings, leads to absolute immortality; Jaimini says that only the worship of the highest Brahman can produce immortality. Bādarāyaṇa, however, rejects their views and holds that only those who regard their souls as naturally dissociated from Prakrti and as parts of Brahman attain absolute immortality.
1 sarvāsu vipratipattisu purvā kaksyā tedāntā-cārya-tad-anuvandhinām uttara-kalārya-samjñānām uttarā tu lokācārya-tad-unubundhinām daksinakalārya-samjñānām iti viveko bodhyah. Kūrya-karana-dhikaruna-vāda, 8. 2.
