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Srinivasan wrote:

What you say is indeed true. Infact you might know that there are a few "Smarthas"
who were "thirumaN" and preferentially worship Vishnu. I know that "ooththukkadu
venkata subba iyer" composed all songs on Krishna only. {I do not know if he
wore thirumaN}. Sri Sankara himself has wriiten in praise of Vishnu.

What distinguises Iyengars/Sri Vaishnavas is accepting Sri Ramanuja as their
spiritual leader, and not Sri Sankara. The difference is philosophical.

Finally, why they do not care for Siva Temples? It is because Sri Ramanuja
was not acccepted by Siva temples. You might have seen that many
Sri vaishnavas do not mind "amman" temples and some are Murugan devotees
also.
----

I really disagree to the fact that Ramanuja was not accepted by Siva temlpes, 
that basically could be because he categorically refused to accept Siva as 
a supreme god and was in fact forced out of Srirangam for this very reason!!.
And for the fact that some Vaishnavas do not mind 'amman' is purely by choice
and more so out of fear and they rather do it to appease the god for material
well being etc. the same holds good as far as Murugan and even Ganesha goes.

I have always been of the understanding (do stand by to be corrected) that
Shankara did acknowledge the fact that Govinda was the supreme being but Shiva
was all important for him. The smarthas also follow the same, but if one
recounts all instances of mythology Shiva has been potrayed as a destroyer of 
evil and a god who was quite easy to please, thats the reason why he would 
even grant boons to the wily RavaNa. This is one reason why you find so many
of the smarthas and Vaishnava involved in various kinds of mandala pujas etc.
for the ammans for all the immediate reliefs they expect to get.
This probably is more of a reason why smarthas worship both Vishnu and Shiva
but going by Ramanuja's philosophy a Vaishnava NEED not seek any body other
the the one and only one for any thing in this world!!! 

--sriram