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SEPTEMBER, 1884.)
ORIGIN OF THE VAISHNAVAS.
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This is what the Ayyangårs tell of the origin of their religion. Let us examine it. Notice the indecency attributed to the Sankaracharya in referring the student to the buttocks of the monkey for a better comparison with the redness of Vishnu's face. Sankaracharya as an Advaiti had equal regard to Siva and Vishnu, and would not be guilty of the indecent com- parison here attributed to him. And to say that he stooped to being rubbed with oil is next to nonsense. That a man like him, who had renounced the pleasures of the world, should take an oil bath is to a Hindú incredible.
In the Smårta relation of the story, the former part is almost the same. At that time, i.e. in the middle of the 12th century, Buddhism and Jainism had made great inroads. People, not knowing what religion was, left one sect for another; the then Sankarachåryas used to go into the country and preach the Advaita doctrines which they professed. The mathams were resorted to by people to have their religious difficulties cleared up; so the Sankarichiryas, when absent, appointed some intelligent disciple in their stead. In accordance with this custom the Kanchi Acharya on one occasion appointed Ramanuja to officiate for him. An opinion spread among the people that the real Sankaracharyas knew nothing, and that they owed their fame to their intelligent students. When this opinion reached the Káñchi Åobarya he returned to his masham, dismissed Råmánuja to his studies, and himself ruled over the see.
Råmannja having already tasted the sweets of power, ambition now burnt in his heart to start a new religion. He left the matham, went to the modern Visha-Kaioht, and there proclaimed that faith was supreme, and Vishnu, the protector, alone was the real deity. On this he built up his Vaishpavism, and made known that he would freely accept converts into his religion without distinction of caste and receive them as Brahmaņa.
In all times people of other castes have looked up to Brühmaņism with jealousy, and when Ramanuja proclaimed that he would accept men of the lower castes to an equality with Brahmans, people flocked to him.
Ramanuja would speak to his followers about the necessity of the Vedas to Brahmans, and ask them to study them, and himself would
repeat portions of them to his disciples. As the majority of these could have no knowledge of Sanskrit, they would be at a loss when they heard him repeating portions of the Vedas. The difficulties of pronunciation, the peculiarities of tone, would confuse the minds of the new members. “Our Acharya, instead of asking us to get by heart the Vedas, might as well ask as to fly in the air" one would say to another, and would be ready to fall back on their old religion rather than undergo the painful task of getting the Vedas by heart. Ramanuja would see the difficulty, and to carry out successfully his aim, the idea would at once occur to him to use the Tamil stanzas containing simple and lovely descriptions of Vishạn, and so retain on his side the dissatisfied converts. He ordered some of the most eminent among them to sing the praises of Vishņu in Tamil. Then it was that the Tiruvdymoli of the Srivaishnavas, the sacred book of the whole sect for three centuries, and of the Tenkalai Ayyangårs even to the present day, was formed. Some of the gifted men engaged in this work were Parai. yahs and Chaklers. When the book was finished, Ramanaja said to his followers :“Let this be your Veda: let this be more honoured by you than the Vedas are by the Brahmans." From that day the Tirwdymoli was so respected by the whole sect and continued to be so till the time of Vedantad esika, who, perceiving the great defectof Vaishnavism threw the Tiruvdymoļi into the background, and restored the Vedas as the religious book of the Vaishnavas also, and started the new sect of the Vadakalais, who have as much faith in the Vedas as other Brahmans. This, then, is the origin of the Tirudymoli.
The next peculiarity of the Srivaishnavas is the wearing of the langôi (Sans. kaupina) throughout life, while the other Brahmans give it up after reaching their Grihasthásrama. While all the common Smritis deny the langóti to & Grihastha, why should the Vaishnavas alone wear it? The sect originated from the dregs of the population, whose only dress was their lang81. They could not do without it. They laboured all day in the fields with their loin-cloth on. And when Râmânaja talked to them about the Panchakachchha of the Brahmans, and when they tried to wear their clothes in that fashion they would find themselves in an awkward con
