Acharyan Manavala Maamunigal  

Acharyan ManavALa Maamunigal

Sri ManavALa Maamunigal revered also under the names of Sri Vara Vara Munni, YathIndhra pravaNar is one of the greatest Sri ViashNavite AchAryAs. He was born in the village of Kidaram in the year 1370 AD and ascended paramapadham in the year 1443 AD. He has blessed us with 19 granthams. Three of them are in Sanskrit. The rest are in Tamil and ManipravALam. The three works in Sanskrit are: YathirAja Vimsathi, Sri DevarAja mangalam and Sri Kaanchi DevapperumAL SthOthram. His ninteen granthams can be classified under three major categories:

(A) VyAkyAna Granthams or commentaries on the works of earlier AchAryAs like Sri PiLLai Lokaachaar, PeriyavaacchAN PiLLai and Thiruvarangatthu Amudanaar. These eight VyAkhyAna granthams are:

1. Sri Vachana BhUshaNam
2. Mumukshuppadi
3. Tattvathrayam
4. AchArya Hrudhayam
5. Jn~Ana Saaram
6. PramEya Saaram
7. PeriyAzhwAr Thirumozhi
8. RaamAnuja NooRRanthAdhi

(B) Three granthams known as PramANa Thirattu are:

1. Eedu
2. Sri Vachana BhUshaNam
3. Tattvathrayam

(C) His Own Granthams in Sanskrit (3) and Tamil (5) add up
to the remaining Eight :

1. UpadEsa Rathna Maalai
2. ThiruvAimozhi NooRRanthAdhi
3. Iyalc ChaaRRu
4. ThiruvArAdhana Kramam
5. YathirAja Vimsathi
6. DevarAja MangaLam
7. Sri Kanchi DevapperumAL SthOthram
8. Aaarthi Prabhandham, his last grantham .


He lived for 73 years on this earth performing many Kaimkaryams and undertook many pilgrimages to many Sri VishNavite Dhivya dEsams. Most of his life was spent however at Srirangam. The work known as "YathIndhra pravaNa PrabhAvam" records the life and accomplishments of this important AchAryA.

His devotion to AchArya RaamAnujA, Swami NammAzhwAr and NammperumAL was extraordinary. He spent a significant portion of his life at Srirangam worshipping Sri Ranganaathan and peforming KaalakshEpams on AzhwAr-AchAryAL aruLiccheyalkaL.

When he was 60, Sri RanganAthA wanted to honor Sri ManavALa Maamunigal for all his kaimkaryams in spreading the message of NaalAyira Dhivya prabhandham. He commanded Sri MM to conduct an year long lecture series on SatAri Soori's ThiruvAimozhi at Srirangam in His presence. All the regular uthsavams for the Lord of Srirangam was cancelled that year, while He heard the pravachanams on ThiruvAimozhi based on all the five commentaries starting from aRAyirappadi. At the conclusion of these pravachanams, a small boy with dhivys tEjas came from the back of the sadas and sang a verse that has come to be known as the Taniyan for Sri MaNavALa MaamunigaL:

srIsailEsa dayaapaatram dhIbhakthyAdhi guNArNavam
YathIndhra pravaNam VandhE RamyajAmAtharam munim

The audience and Sri MM were wonderstruck after the small boy disappeared as fast as he came on the scene. Later, through His archakAs, Sri RanganAthA revealed that it was He who appeared as a boy to pronounce the famous Taniyan for Sri ManavALa Maamunigal, who is considered as a reincarnation of AchArya RaamAnujA. Earlier at Thirukkurungudi, the Lord had appeared before RaamAnujA and requested for UpadEsams on rahasyArhtams and took on the name of Sri VaishNava Nambi as a result of these upadEsams.

 

Articles

 1. Sri Devaraja MangaLam of Sri MaNavALa mAmunigaL
 2. Sri Sailesa DayA pAthram Taniyan
 3. UpadEsa Rathna Maalai
 4. Yatiraja Vimsati of MaNavaaLa Maamunigal
 5. Devotional side of Sri mAmunigaL