HISTORY
Chapter
I
SOURCES
Epigraphy
The
study of the history of the Srirangam temple has been rendered possible mainly
by the remarkable advance of epigraphy in
The inscriptions help to furnish the appropriate political background
to the Vaisnava tradition, enshrined in the Guruparamparai,
which gives a continuous account of the succession of pontiffs at Srirangam.
But the Guruparamparai belongs purely
to the realm of hagiography and is not of much help to the historian. However,
the correlation of political and religious data in inscriptions is not as
complete as one might wish. Direct references, in the host of inscriptions, on
the walls, pillars and plinths of the Srirangam temple, to the affairs and
activities of the Vaisnava movement at Srirangam can be counted on one’s
fingers’ ends. It is surprising that Ramanuja, who according to the authentic
tradition of the Arayirappadi Guruparamparai, was for long (more than sixty
years according to the Koil-Olugu) the manager of the affairs of the Srirangam
temple, both spiritual and temporal, is not mentioned as such in any of its
inscriptions. This applies also to his immediate predecessors and successors.
Thus to all appearances we possess two sets of material for the reconstruction
of the history of Srirangam temple, viz., the hagiologies and the inscriptions,
which have nothing in common between them. But actually the position is not to
be despaired of. The inscriptions of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries contain
important references, though indirect and also few and far between, to the
affairs and organisation of the Srirangam temple. An inscription of Kulottunga
I dated 10881 (62 of 1892; Sii. III.70.) and
another of Maravarman Sundara Pandya I dated 12252
(53 of 1892; SII.IV.500.) contain such references, casual in themselves and
hence quite reliable. These references, for instance go to confirm the
traditional account of Ramanuja’s activities in Srirangam. There are also a few
inscriptions, of the same period, which mention Srirangam, Ramanuja and a few of
his immediate disciples like Embar and Accan.3
(MAR.1913. p.36; 1908. p.9.) With the help of these and a few other inscriptions it
is possible to check and verify the traditional account to some extent.
Generally speaking
inscriptions in
The major South Indian temple was the
result of a gradual process of accretion; the number of sub-shrines containing
the images of minor deities and sublimated devotees clustering around the main
shrine were raised in different periods by beneficent princes. The only source
for a proper study of the structural growth of the Srirangam temple is
epigraphical. Here again a chronological list of the inscriptions in the temple
furnishes a clear sketch of the physical growth of the temple. From a study of
such a list it can be seen that a majority of the minor shrines were
constructed in the 13th century, when the region round Srirangam was under the
occupation of the Hoysalas and after them the Pandyas of the Second Empire. It
is also known that some of the structures that had suffered damage during the
Muslim occupation were repaired or reconstructed subsequently by the chieftains
of Vijayanagar. The Koil-Olugu, which gives a detailed account of the several
structures with the names of their builders and Saka dates, has, it is found,
drawn its information largely from inscriptions.
Over and above these, the inscriptions
furnish various minor details useful for the history of the temple. For example
a couple of inscriptions in Srirangam supply the rare and interesting
information about the transfer of the management of certain shrines (the
Dasavatara shrine and the Tirumangai Alvar Sannidhi) to new arcakas and the
duties they were expected to perform in respect of their offices4. (100 and 102 of 1936-37) Again two inscriptions on
the jambs of the Vellai gopuram in the temple tell us an episode of topical
interest. They give us details of the self-immolation of a few Jiyas and Ekangis
of the temple, as a protest against insufficient allowances made by the local
governor for the conduct of puja.5 (87 of
1936-37; pt.II, para 78) From the inscriptions we know that munificent Hindu
kings founded in their names festivals that continue to this day, and
established agraharas or Brahmin-habitations going by the name of
Caturvedimangalams. Such are the Bhupati Udayar festival, called after Bhupati
Udayar, a chieftain of Vijayanagar of the First Dynasty and
Ravivarman-caturvedi-mangalam, called after the famous Ravivarman Kulasekhara.
The Early Tamil literature and the
Prabandas of the Alvars
One of the Aham odes refers to Arangam
and the Panguni festival on the banks of an adjacent river.6 (Aham 137) It is likely that this has reference to
one of the important festivals of the Srirangam temple. Aham 400 or the
Ahananuru is one of the oldest anothologies included in the classical Tamil
literature, better known as the Sangam works. By common consent this group is
assigned to the same age in which Ptolemy and the anonymous author of the
Periplus wrote about South India, i.e., the first two or three centuries of the
Christian era.7 (This period is sometimes
extended so as to include the 5th century also) The Silappadikaram which is
also included in this group, refers more definitely to the Srirangam temple.
Roughly speaking the age of the Sangam
literature is succeeded by the age of the historical Pallavas of Kanchi. Foe a
history of the temple of this period the Prabandas of the Vaisnava mystics,
going by the name of the Alvars, call for special notice. All the Alvars did
not belong to the same age. A few were earlier and the rest later. The early
Alvars are variously assigned to the 2nd century and the 5th century A.D. It
has to be said that the Prabandas of the later Alvars furnish much interesting
information about the state of the Srirangam temple 1,200 years ago. Though the
poems contain very often idealized pictures yet they give some unfailing
details about worship in the temple and the devotees of the god. The lives of
the Alvars, as they are preserved in the hagiologies, again confirm these
references and furnish fresh details, though these have to be utilised with
great caution.
The legendary Stalamahatmya
People have generally loved to ascribe a
hoary antiquity and invent sacred and edifying legends to glorify the sanctity
of their sacred shrines. This has led to the rise of a whole mass of literature
going by the name of ‘Stala Mahatmyas’ and ‘Stala Puranas’, mostly of recent
origin. Though of little value because they bear no relation to the historical
dates or events still they do not lack a quaint interest for the student of
folk-lore and popular tradition. The Sriranga Mahatmya, which gives such an
account of the Srirangam temple, is known in two varsions, viz., the
‘Satadyayi’ and the ‘Dasadyayi’, or the versions of ‘hundred chapters’ and ten
chapters’, said to form part respectively of the Garuda Purana and the
Brahmanda Purana; and surprisingly enough they are not to be traced in their
originals. Such apocryphal Mahatmyas are not histories, nor are they even
chronicles; at best they are local ……………. of foundation-legends cherished by
the popular mind.
The Koil-Olugu
Between legend and history stands the
chronicle; and to this intermediate class is to be assigned the Koil-Olugu. The
word ‘olugu’ means a record or a register, and ‘Koil’, in Vaisnava parlance,
denotes Srirangam. Genealogical accounts were, sometimes, called ‘Olugus’,
e.g., the ‘Annan Tirumaligai Olugu’, which is an account of the family of the
Kandadaiyar of Srirangam.
The Koil-Olugu is stated to be
the work of ‘Purvacaryas’, i.e., the Acaryas of the past’, in other words it
was not the work of a single writer belonging to a particular period but a temple
record written and maintained by successive wardens of the temple or their
accountants or writers. Events are narrated, especially in the latter portions
of the Olugu, under specific dates, and a perusal of the entire book conveys
the idea that it was a diary kept up by successive generations, true to its
name, ‘Olugu’. On these grounds a categorical statement that the Koil-Olugu was
a late composition of about the 18th century cannot be taken as altogether
justified.8 (EI. XXIV. p. 91.) It is not improbable that an original and
early cadjan existed in the Srirangam temple before the latter suffered during
the Orissan and Muslim invasions of the medieval period. From the fact that
Udayavar or Ramanuja receives the most exhaustive treatment it may be hazarded
that the Olugu was commenced after his death. The comparatively scrappy
treatment of the earlier period strengthens this view.
The
most instructive portion of the Koil-Olugu is that which treats with the
reforms of Udayavar in the temple, the foremost of them being a thorough
reorganization of the various groups of temple servants. The administration of
the temple was improved and purified in manyaja respect. A five-fold division
of the temple servants was expanded into a ten-fold division and the duties of
each group were specified. In a lengthy account these duties are described
elaborately and to the minutest detail in the peculiar temple jargon. To a
person intimately connected with the temple ritual and custom this is
undoubtedly the most interesting part of the entire chronicle.
A
perusal of the Koil-Olugu shows that the sequence of events adopted is jumbled,
e.g., the period of the Acaryas is dealt with after the first Muslim attack on
Srirangam. Certain events or names are repeated in a different context; this
was perhaps because an accountant recorded certain past events in the diary
without liquiring whether the same had been recorded or not by a predecessor of
his. The jumbled sequence might have been due to the constant resuscitations of
the original due to the vicissitudes of history and the imperfections and
shortcomings of scribes. It is also possible that a scribe while making a copy
made his own interpolations. The Olugu maintains a fairly correct sequence of
events while dealing with the Vijayanagar period and after.
With
its many imperfections in sequence, chronology and language9 (The language of the Olugu is supposed to be the
familiar manipravala style of the Vaisnava hagiologies, i.e., a mixture of
Sanskrit and Tamil. There is also an admixture of the jargon of the Vaisnava
temple, a part of it being peculiar to Srirangam. Many of the sentences are
unmangeably long and deal with a variety of details.) the Koil-Olugu is still a
valuable source-book for a history of the Srirangam temple. Mr.R.Sewell made a
correct guess of the worth of this chronicle when he said, “The priests of the
(Srirangam) temple have in their possession a document which ought to be of
real value, the mahatmyas of temples being almost invariably an absurd jumble of
mythological fables. This is a chronicle called the ‘Varagu’, which is said to
give a list of all the priests of the temple, with details of temple management
from the earliest times.”10 (Lists of
Antiquities. 1 p.268; see Introduction to Koil-Olugu in English, edited by the
writer.
The Guruparamparai of Pinbalagiya Perumal
Jiyar and the Divyasuricaritam
The Guruparamparai belongs to that type
of chronicle known as hagiology. It records the history of a religious movement
by tracing the list of its successive spiritual preceptors. Its usefulness for
an attempt at reconstructing the history of Vaisnavism in South India cannot be
exaggerated. To this type belong the Arayirappadi Guruparamparai of Pinbalagiya
Perumal Jiyar, the Guruparamparai of the third Barahmatantra Swatantra Jiyar,
the Divyasuricaritam and the Prapannamrtam of Anantarya, the first two being
Tamil (Manipravalam) works and the next two Sanskrit. The Acaryasuktimuktavali
by Namburi Kesavacarya, also called Vaduga Nambi or Andhrapurna, is a similar
hagiology in Telugu. Of these the earliest is the Aryirappadi Guruparamparai
whose author is, according to well-known Vaisnava tradition, assigned to the
first half of the 13th century. So far as the lives of the Alvars are concerned
much of the chronicle is legendary in character. Yet the astronomical details
of the nativity of these Alvars as well as their original homes and their early
activities provide a starting point for further research. The Paramparai is
more dependable when it deals with the
Acaryas, who were certainly less remote; in fact Pinbalagiya Perumal Jiyar
himself was living in the age of the Acaryas. He was the student of Nampillai.
Nampillai was the successor of Nanjiyar on the Vaisnava pontifical seat at
Srirangam; Nanjiyar was the student of Bhattar; and Bhattar in his turn was the
successor of Ramanuja. Manavala Mahamuni came almost a century after Nampillai;
and Pillai Lokam Jiyar continued the narrative of Pinbalagiya Perumal Jiyar and
dealt in detail with the life of Manavala Mahamuni in his ‘Yatindra Pravana
Prabhavam’.
It was once believed that Garudavahana
Pandita, the author of the Divyasuricaritam, was a contemporary of Ramanuja,
but it has been effectively shown that he came much later and that his work was
posterior to and based on the Arayirappadi Guruparamparai.11 (Cf. B.V.Ramanujam’s article on the
‘Divyasuricaritam’ (JIH XIII, pp. 181-202) and A.S.Ramanatha Aiyar’s edition of
the Srirangam inscription of Garudavahana Bhattar, S. 1415. (EI. XXIV. pp.90 ff).
The author, who perhaps composed the Caritam in the first years of the 15th
century, did not trace the account of the Divyasuris upto his own time. He
stopped with Ramanuja; and he himself, in the opening verses, tells that his
set purpose in composing the Kavya was to trace the lives of the Divyasuris
upto Ramanuja, which in itself forms a convenient period in the history of the
Vaisnava movement and about which there is a continuous and unanimous
tradition. In this work the lives of the Alvars are briefly traced in the first
eight sargas. Sargas 9 and 10 are taken up by the subject of Andal’s marriage
with Sriranganatha. The ‘Mahatmyam’ of Srirangam finds mention in the 10th
sarga. Tirumangai Alvar is again brought in as the thief who waylaid the marriage
party consisting of Andal, Alagiyamanavalan and their attendants. The 15th
sarga is taken up by a recital of the festivals celebrated for the God at
Srirangam throughout the different seasons of the year.
The Lakshmi Kavyam
The author of the Lakshmi Kavyam was
Uttamanambi Tirumalacarya. He, says that he was the grandson of Uttamaraya, who
had a brother named Cakraraya. The Koil Olugu speaks prominently of an
Uttamanambi who had the titles ‘Meinilaiyitta’, ‘Ellainilaiyitta’, and
‘Valiyadimainilaiyitta’, and his brother Cakraraya and assigns him to the date
S.1337. It is obvious that the Uttamaraya of the Lakshmi Kavyam, who is said to
have administered the Srirangam temple with royal insignia, is the same as
Valiyadimainilaiyitta Uttamanambi of the Koil-Olugu. A copper plate inscription
belonging to the Srirangam temple mentions Valiyadimainilaiyitta Perumal
Uttamanambi as the donee and is dated S.1356 or A.D.1434.12 (E1. XVIII. Pp. 138 ff) His grandson Tirumalainatha
Uttamanambi also, viz., S.1366 or A.D.1444. The Uttamanambi Vamsaprabhavam
mentions Srirangacarya Uttamanambi and assigns him to the period S.1328-1372.
It also mentions Tirumalainatha Aiyan Uttamanambi and says that be began to
collect donations for the temple after S.1372 (A.D.1450).13 (‘Uttamanambi Vamsaprabhavam’, Taylor III. p. 438.)
There is much common ground between the
Divyasuricaritam and the Laksmikavyam; the two were not far removed from each
other in date. Probably the kavyam appeared a little earlier than the caritam.
While the latter deals first with the lives of the Alvars and then dwells
extensively on the marriage of Andal with the God at Srirangam, the former is
entirely concerned with the marriage of Uraiyurvalli (another consort of the
God) with Sriranganatha. This kavya deals with the various festivities of the
Adibrahmotsava in great detail and as such is of considerable interest to a
person intimately connected with the shrine, but unfortunately it has not been
printed.
Local dynastic accounts
Two genealogical lists called the Annan
Tirumaligai Olugu and the Uttamanambi vamsa-prabhavam deal respectively with
the families of Kandadai Andan, the son of Mudaliyandan, to whom the control of
the temple was entrusted by Ramanuja, and the Uttamanambis, who played a
notable part in the history of the Srirangam temple, especially during the
Vijayanagar period. Both the accounts were collected by Col. Colin Mackenzie.
The latter is also available in print.
The Parameswara Samhita of the
Pancaratragama
The Agamas form a voluminous part of
Sanskrit literature. Like the stalamahatmyas they claim great antiquity and are
attributed to the risis or the sages of yore and appear in the form of
discourses. There are three varieties of agamas, viz., Saiva, Vaisnava and
Sakta. The Vaisnava agamas are of two kinds, viz., Pancaratra and Vaikhanasa.
While the latter is attributed to the sage Vikhanasa, various explanations are
given for the former, viz., that it explains five principles, that it was told
during five nights, that it expels five-fold darknesses, etc. Each has numerous
guide books called samhitas, those of the Pancaratra being more numerous. They
are said to number more than 200. Of these the Satvata, the Pauskara and the
Jayakhya are said to be the most important. Different Vaisnava temples
following the Pancaratra have chosen different samhitas and have stuck to them
at least so far as the rituals and mantras are concerned, and hence they serve
as text-books for the priests. The Srirangam temple follows the Parameswara
Samhita of the Pancaratragama.14
(‘Sripancaratrantargata Sriparamesvarasamhita’, edited by U.V.Govindacarya,
Srirangam, 1953. The printed part deals with the Kriyakanda of the samhita, the
gnanakanda having been lost.)
The samhita consists of 26 chapters and
deals with the following: snanavidhi, bhutasuddhi, mantranyasa, berapuja,
agnikarya, vimana devata, dvara-avaranadi devata, Garuda-Visvaksenadi
parivararcanam, pratista-vidhanam, pavitrotsavam, sayanotsavam, dhvajarohanam,
naivedyas, prayascittas, rules governing tulapurusa and hiranyagarbha danas,
samproksnam, Sudarsana yantra, its puja, etc. It gives full details of
disposition of the gateway gopuras of all the seven prakaras, dvarapalas and
upadvarapalas, dvara devatas, avarana devatas, sobha devatas and upa-sobhadevatas,
and the devatas of the various parts of the vimana including the sanctum.
It is not easy to fix the age of the
samhita. It need not be held that it belongs to a period when full blown
temples with seven prakaras and elaborate rules regarding pujas, festivals,
etc., were known, for such a view presupposes that the temple came first and
then the agama. It is more likely that the agamas, in a very early period, laid
down rules, as elaborately as possible, governing the architecture and
iconography of an ideal temple as well as pujas, prayascittas etc., and that
temple builders tried to follow them as best as they could. If it is accepted,
on the authority of the Koil-Olugu, that the Vaikhanasas were doing worship in
the Srirangam temple and that they were replaced by Udayavar by priests trained
in the Pancaratra, as expounded in the Paramesvara-samhita,15 (KO. pp.45, 46, 55, 100 and 173) the latter was certainly known in his period
and perhaps long before. One thing appears to be plain. Whoever the author of
the samhita was he seems to have had the Srirangam temple in his mind, for
Chapter X, which deals with the vimana devatas, mentions the Ranga-vimana and
relates its mahatmya. It is also possible that it was the product of more than
one author belonging to different periods.
Modern Period
Coming to the modern period the monographs
on the Nayaks of Madura and those of Tanjore, compiled with the help of
inscriptions, the Jesuit letters and the native chronicles, help in checking
the accounts of the Koil-Olugu on the relations of the Nayaks with the
Srirangam temple.16 (‘The Nayaks of Madura’ by
R.Sathyanatha Aiyar and the ‘Nayaks of Tanjore’ by V.Vriddhagirisan.) For the
period of the rule of the Nawabs of Arcot and the Carnatic Wars have been
utilised, in the main, Robert Orme’s ‘Military transactions of the British
nation in Indostan’ and Burhan Ibn Hasan’s Tuzaki-walajahi. Burhan, the son of
Hasan, was a resident of Trichinopoly and he wrote his work in the reign of
Muhammad Ali Walajah when Haidar Ali invaded the Carnatic.17 (‘Tuzaki Walajahi’ (Madras University Islamic
series 1. Translated and edited by M.Hussain Nainar), pt.1. p. XXVI.) Three
collections of “Collectors’ and
Magistrates’ Orders and Judicial affairs and decisions in the Adalut Courts”
with reference to the details of administration and religious ceremonial of the
Srirangam temple that arose between the years 1803 and 1894 by K.S.Rangaswamy
Aiyangar of Srirangam compiled in the latter year are useful for a study of the
recent history of the temple. The well-know Diary of Anandaranga Pillai has
also been found to be useful.