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Dear Shri Srinivasachary,
Thanks for your reply. Please do not take my reply as an offence.

1. Absence of theistic tradition of other 'deities':
This is an interesting question (at least for a student of history). 
Let us for the moment ignore sanskrit tradition and visit tamil 
sangam literature. Sangam literature talks about five landscapes (5 
thiNai), mullai, marudam, kurinji, neidal and pAlai. It also talks 
about five deities presiding over those landscapes - vendan, varunan, 
maayon, seyon and kotravai. In 'popular' terms, they are Indra, 
Varuna, Vishnu, Muruga and Devi/Goddess. 

>From silappathigaram, we see that the Indira-vizha was a colorful, 
joyous festival. (I gather that Indra mahotsav is still celebrated in 
Nepal). We, tamils don't celebrate. Also, we see that Varuna was 
worshipped with 'fish-bones'?! Vishnu was worshipped with a form of 
dance (is Ras-lila in Manipur related to this?)
Out of these 5, Vishnu, Murugan and Devi worship became prominent and 
Indra, Varuna worship faded into background (maybe except in places 
like Nepal).
If we relax our criterion to include Persia, the 'cult' of Mithra, 
another Vedic deity was prevalent in Iranian regions upto Roman 
colonies (also defunct, thanks to proselytizing religions).

2. A question on Baudhayana:
I am aware that Shri Ramanuja quotes him as an authority for 
Vishistadvaita. I am not aware that he was a Vaishnava (and 
Vishishtadvaita tradition could be independent of Vaishnavism, right?)

3. Samhitas & Upanishads:> 
"By the way, I feel that our Purvacharyas
> conviction of Narayana paratva is based more on
> Upanishad texts than the Samhitas.May be one can see
> whole thing only in the light of Vedanta as we any way
> believe that importence of karam mimansa is more in
> karma."
Thanks for mentioning this. I have come across the claim that "for 
us, the whole shruthi is authority" (an argument which we supposedly 
used against mimamsakas for whom samhita/brahmaNa portions are 
sufficient to conduct flawless yagnya and upanishad portions are 
redundant). If we include those, aren't we in trouble, as we are 
dragging texts that say the supremacy of 'other deities' as well?


Once again, if I have offended you and other devotees, I apologize.

Regards,
Kasturi Rangan

--- In ramanuja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, srinivasa chary <srinivasadasa@xxxx> 
wrote:
> Dear Sri Kasturi Rangan,
> I have a small suggestion here based on my little
> analysis. Kindly see if it makes any sense.
> If you really only go by number of hymns
> dedicated to praise of Indra in say Rigveda, as we
> understand it today, Indra should be ultimate god of
> Vedas. Obviously there should have been a reasonably






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