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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00092 Jan 2003

 
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Sri:
Srimathe Ramanujaya Nama:


The hand and the hair - Of Appaya Dikshitar and
Desikar's YatirAja Saptati (based on PBA Swami's
article)


In Sri Vedanta Desikar's Yatiraja Saptati, part of the
38th shloka runs as follows:

kudrushTi kuhanAmukhE nipatata: parabrahmaNa:
karagrahavicakshaNo jayati lakshmaNOyam muni:

In the second line, it is said "kara graha"; that is,
Ramanuja lifted by the hand those who were submerged in
the arguments of the mAyAvAdis.

At one time when Sri Appaya Dikshitar was living in the
agrahAram of Thumbai Vanam near Kanchipuram, he happened 
to hear a Srivaishnava person walking in the street for
unjavrutti reciting this shloka. He stopped the person 
and told him "Swamin, come over here. It is normal in 
this world to see a drowning person being lifted by their
hair and not by their hand. Therefore, Vedanta Desikar 
must not have said kara graha. Instead he would have said
kaca graha. So please recite it like that from now on". 
The Srivaishnava Swami agreed to this as it was coming 
from the great Appaya Diskhitar and from that time onward
started reciting the Yatiraja Saptati with this 
modification.

One day as he was reciting this work, some Srivaishnava
scholars heard him and asked him "Swamin! This sounds
new. Why are you using kaca instead of kara in this 
verse?". The Swami told them the incident with Appaya 
Diskhitar. Upon hearing it, the scholars told him "Appaya 
Dikshitar is no doubt a great scholar, but he should not
lose the interesting meaning by trying to fit it to some
event. It may be true that a drowning man's hair might
be pulled to save him. But if the man is fully submerged,
he would throw his hands up trying to get some help. At
that time the hands would be the only part of the body 
that is accessible to the rescuer. After all, it was said
that the person was drowning and not drowned. It is 
therefore correct to say kara graha and that is what
Vedanta Desikar wrote."

It is said that, later when Appaya Diskhitar heard about 
this, he claimed that only Srivaishnavas are truly 
qualified to gather the inner meanings of acharya works.

adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan
TCA Venkatesan




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