The Srivaisnava Theological Dispute: Manavalamamuni and Vedanta Desika.

• Author: Clooney, Francis X.

By Patricia Y. Mumme. Madras: New Era 1988. xvi + 303. Rs 150.

Gone are the days when the Visistadvaita Vedanta of Ramanuja (11th century) could be studied simply as a school of Sanskrit philosophy, a devotional counterpart to the Advaita Vedanta of Sarikara (8th century); or when post-Ramanuja texts, if studied at all, could be appreciated simply as representative of various schools of theology with roots in Rimiinuja's texts. In the past twenty-five years or so scholars in India and the West have been exploring the larger context within which the Visastadvaita developed, broadening our understanding of the Sanskrit puranas and agamas which helped distinguish pre-Ramanuja Visistadvaita and, even more importantly, of the Tamil context which had accompanied and to a certain extent undergirded Sanskrit systematizations, even from the period prior to Ramanuja. We now know much more about the texts of the Tamil literary and religious tradition, more importantly the 4000 verses of the Divya Prabandham (songs composed by the 12 devotees of Vis u known as the alvars) and about how these texts were among the sources for some distinctive aspects of the Vigistadvaita. Figures hitherto almost unknown are now being studied in detail: Satakopan ("Nammalvar," 8th century), the author of the most important alvar work, Tiruvaymoli; Nithamuni (9th century) who is said to have retrieved the Divya Prabandham and initiated both its study and ritual use; Alavantar (Yamuna), the author of several extant Sanskrit works, who is also honored as a great teacher of the Divya Prabandham; Tirukkurukai Pirzin Pillan (1060-1161), who at Ramanuja's behest composed the first written commentary on Tiruvaymoli; Nampillai (early 13th century), whose massive commentary, the Itu, is one of the imposing masterpieces of all Indian literature.

Likewise, attention is being given to the "post-Nampillai" age, when the composition of commentaries gave way to the composition of summaries and thematically more specific treatises, and the classical age of Srivaisnava theology began. The Sanskrit, Tamil and mani-pravala (which combines Sanskrit and Tamil) writings of highly important figures such as Pillai Lokacarya (1205-1311), Vedanta Desika (1270-1369) and Manavalamamuni (1370-1443) are now being studied; we are increasingly able to trace and understand the skillful and discriminating use by the acaryas of the resources available to them, in a complex combination of Tamil and Sanskrit...