KANDADAI RAMANUJA IYENGAR

From the Bhakti List Archives

• May 5, 1999


On Tue, 4 May 1999 Smt Lakshmi Srinivas wrote:
> 
> Iyengar is a caste appellation of recent times (16th century or so). For
> example, KandADai RAmAnuja AyyangAr who figures in a major way in the
> history of Tirumala was not even a Brahmin. Likewise PeriyavAccAnpiLLai,
> the prince among commentators, was a purvasikha brAhmana, not a piLLai as
> your friend might think ;-)))
      
  Om SrI krishNAya namah.

        Dear bhAgavatas,
                     
             namO namah.
           
            Thanks to Smt Lakshmi Srinivas for mentioning the name of Sri
K R Iyengar who did a lot of bhagavad bhAgavata kainkaryam at
TiruvEngadam.
     
            I am very sure that both SrImat kandAdai and kOil kandAdai
families are of brahmin orgin, as these two fall in my relatives' circle
(and also those of Sri Mohan Sagar, Sri P B Anand et al., if I am right).
In fact on my father's side, my great grandmother, grandma and two of her
daughters-in-law are from S K vamSam only. So is Smt Lakshmi Srinivas
referrng to some other kandAdai family of non-brahmin origin? 
 
           Also is there any place called VinjamUr in T N? If there wass,
does it have the same name today? I am both curious and interested to
know. If anybody has some info, he can mail me personally without replying
in the list. There is one VinjamUru in Nellore Dist. of  A P but
has nothing to do with the origins of our family. Forgive me for writing
something irrelevant to the ongoing satsang. 
                                
                        SrI vEnkatESa charaNau SaraNam prapadyE
                           your servant
                         V.Srimahavishnu