| You are here: Sri Vaishnava Home Page : Bhakti List : Archives : May 2000 |
VAgarwalV_at_cs.com
Date: Sun May 14 2000 - 11:10:01 PDT
Dear Vaishnavas,
Our tradition states that a ruler called Krimikantha persecuted Sri
Ramanuja and his disciples. He is said to have got the eyes of Shri
Kuresha plucked out. Are there any publications which identify this
king conclusively? Is his bigotry attested from alternate sources? I
ask because recently, I read an account which casts aspersions on the
traditional understanding of these events. I am reproducing selected
statements from the text (see reference at the end). Any help will be
highly appreciated. I hope I am not offending anyone.
Vishal
_____________________
Persecution of Sri Vaisnavas by Krimikantha
The very details of the incident are doubted by Rao [Ref. 1, pg.
59-61]. He says: "Though it is correct to say that the Chola monarchs
were ardent patrons of Saivism, it need not be conlcuded from this,
nor from the account of the persecution of Ramanuja that there was a
general persecution of the Vaisnvavas and the Vaisnava temples in the
Chola period. From the Chola inscriptions, we know that they extended
their patrongage to both the Saiva and the Vaisnava temples". Rao
identifies the king Krimikantha mentioned in Sri Vaisnava
hagiographies as Kulottuga I (1070-1120 CE) and then states: "There
are several inscriptions of Kulottunga I in the Srirangam temple".
Rao then lists all these inscriptions, which make it clear that
numerous generals of the king made lavish grants to the temple,
which was the center of the Sri Vaisnava community, and then
concludes: "It is significant that a number of generals and officers
of Kulottuga I figure as the donors of the Srirangam temple. This is
unlikely if the king had been a Saiva fanatic." Hari further
says: "In the present state of our knowledge and with the tradition
account of the Guruparamparai as the basis, we can only conclude that
the persecutor of Ramanuja was not Adhirarajendra but Kulottunga I.
It was the audacious statement of Kurattalvan, who made a joke
of the dictum of the king, viz. 'Sivat parataram nasti' that was
perhaps responsible for the blinding order. Ramanuja felt himself
unsafe and so he left the Chola territory altogether. For aught we
know even the blinding of Kuruttalvan might have been a
hagiographical invention, for the Guruparamaparai tells us that Alvan
regained his eyesight later through divine beneficence. There is a
good reason to believe that the account of persecution is highly
exaggerated."
Reference:
1. V. N. Hari Rao; History of the Sritangam Temple; Sri Venkateswara
Universtity; Tirupati; 1976
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Best friends, most artistic, class clown Find 'em here:
http://click.egroups.com/1/4054/4/_/716111/_/958417715/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------
- SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list@eGroups.com
Visit http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/ for more information