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Jai Ramanuja,
Sri Ramanuja's mother's name is KANTIMATI,(Parvati's name)
Hence one can infer that even before Sri Ramanuja,marriages were held between smarthas & vaishnavas.But in those days every vaidika(smartha as well as vaishnava) held Sriman Narayana as the supreme brahmam.Only there was differences of opinoin in iterpreting vedanta.Hence this was possible. I have learnt from the article by Sri U.VE.Krishnamachariar swamy,the editor & publisher of monthly religious journal (SRI VAISHNAVA SUDARSHANAM)that Appaya Dikshitar was the first advaitin to proclaim supremecy of Shiva & then onwards the smarthas started leaning towards shivisam as is evident today.Hence the marriages between the two communities stopped.
dasan


On Sun, 10 Aug 2003 sudarshan madabushi wrote :

Dear friends,

In this posting I am going to tell you about an
Advaitin who, believe it or not, was an ardent admirer
of the VisishtAdvaita 'achArya', Swami Venkatanathan
(Vedanta Desikan). He is Appayya Dikshitar (1554 -1626
AD) and his life is testimony to the fact that the
many differences of opinion or principle between their
respective schools of philosophy did not always come
in the way of Advaitins and VisishtAdvatins respecting
one another for erudition, talent and piety. It speaks
volumes for the nobility and catholicity of 'vaideeka'
minds of those gentlemanly days.

The material for this posting of mine is drawn mainly
from an old write-up given to me by Sri.
T.S.Parthasarathy of Chennai, a well-known scholar of
Sanskrit literature and a musicologist of the Carnatic
tradition (he has been a member of the Experts
Committee, Music Academy, Madras for several decades).
Sri.Parthasarathy is a family friend being an avid
'rasika' of my mother (late) Smt.Mani Krishnaswami's
music (It was he who edited the commemorative volume
"Remembering Mani" that was released in early July
this year). Sri.Parthasarathy is a great devotee too
of the other, greater "mani" -- the "ghanta-mani"
(Swami Desikan). After he had read my monograph on
Swami Desikan's life-story ("Art of Living" --
archived now in cyber-lists like 'Srirangasri',
'tiruvenkatam', 'Oppiliappan' as well as in Sri.TCA
Venkatesan's homepage), Sri Parthasarathy, who is now
90 years of age, blessed me warmly and, in
appreciation of my little effort, he gave me an old
note written and published by him some years ago on
the life of this illustrious Advaitin admirer of
Desikan, Sri Appayya Dikshitar. I am deeply grateful
for the kind gesture of Sri Parthasarathy. I dedicate
this posting to the doyen.

***********

Appayya Dikshitar was born in a village called
Adayappalam near Kanchipuram. His lineage was an
interesting one.

His grandfather was a scholar named Vakshasthala
Ganapati of Bharadhwaja 'gOtra'. He had two wives of
which the second was Totadri Amba, the daughter of
RangarAjadhvari who belonged to family of one
VaikuntachArya. This appears to have been a very
unusual "mixed marriage" between Vaishnava and SmArta
families in those days! Appayya Dikshita himself is
reported to have confirmed this.

Two sons, RangarAjadhvari (again) and Achan Dikshita
were born of this alliance. Appaya Dikshita was born
to the first one. Achan Dikshita's grandson was the
reputed Nilakanta Dikshitar of later years.

Appayya Dikshitar's father RangarAjadhvari was the
author of many Advaita works. He passed away when his
son was only 9 years old. But Appayya Dikshitar even
by that tender age had learnt and mastered all that
his father had taught him by way of Veda, vEdAnga,
vyAkarana and traditional arts and sciences. Appayya
Dikshita's mastery over chandas, nirukta and jyotisha
is said to be easily evident in his works, the
"nakshatra vAdavalli" and "prAkrita manidIpa".

Appayya DIkshita was deeply Advaitic in outlook. He
was also a staunch Siva bhakta. In 2 highly
controversial works Dikshita attempted to prove that
the heroes of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were
incarnations of Siva, the supreme Lord of the
Saivites. Though these works stired the proverbial
hornet's nest even in those days, scholars even today
admit that a reading of these classics of Appayya
Dikshita speak volumes about his originality and
mastery over the 2 "itihAsAs".

Although Dikshita lived for a long time in Chidambaram
(the Vatican of Saivism in those days), and served in
the temple of Lord Nataraja there by composing many
works in praise of Siva, it did not stop him from also
composing works in praise of Lord Vishnu. Two works
are known today -- "Sri Krishna DhyAna paddathi" and
"Varadarajastava". Diskhita was an indomitable
intellectual.

Even amongst the Advaitins, Appayya Dikshita was a bit
of a maverick and a stormy petrel. His interpretation
of Advaitic 'mImAmsa' and 'alankAra' were entirely
original and for this he had to face loud and bitter
criticism from other Advaitic pandits of the times
like Khandadeva, Somanatha and Venkatadhvari. Appayya
Dikshita's brand of Vedanta also came under attack
from the famous Sri Rangaramanuja muni, the Vaishnava
commentator on the Upanishads.

In spite of all these severe critics, everyone who was
acquainted with Dikshita's works, whether Advaitin or
Vaishnava, held no two opinions about his many-sided
scholarship and sincerity of purpose. They considered
him to be a 'sarva-tantra-svantatra', a master of all
arts and sciences, much in the mould of Vedanta Desika
on whose work Dikshita was later to write a
commentary. SriVaishnavas of those times, especially,
had no hesitation whatsoever in proclaiming that even
a scholar belonging to their own 'sampradAya' could
not have written a better commentary on Swami
Venkatanathan's classic Sanskrit opera
"yAdavAbhyudaya".

Appayya Dikshita happened to be the poet-laureate
('asthana-vidwan') at the royal court of Chinna Timma,
who was the local ruler of Vellore between 1574 and
1585. The King Chinna Timma came from a lineage of
royal kings of the Raja dynasty and they were great
patrons of literature. Some of the kings like Chinna
Timma also adopted Vaishnavas as personal mentors or
'sadAchAryAs'. It is this Vaishnava connection of his
forbears which probably had made this king familiar
with Desikan's 'yAdavAbhyudaya'. Chinna Timma was
desirous of having someone write a detailed commentary
on this 'mahA kAvya' of Desikan and felt his
poet-laureate Appayya Dikshita was the best suited to
undertake it. It is said the king performed a
"kanakAbhishEkam" on Dikshita for having successfully
completed the royal commission.

The 'yAdavAbhyudaya' is a Sanksrit opera of 24
'sargas' or cantos. It is an equal of KalidAsa's
magnificent works like Raghuvamsha or Meghasandesham.
Swami Desikan himself considered it to be his best
poetic work when he attested:

"gauda vaidarbha panchala malakaram sarasvatim
yasya nityam prasamsanti santah
saurabhavedinah"

(The cognoscenti who realize the true value of
perfumery, extol the poetic muse of Desika who wears a
garland woven out of Gauda, Vaidarbha and Panchala
'riti').

It is common among SriVaishnavas to hail the 'stOtra'
of YamunAchArya as "stOtra-ratna" and Desikan's
'yAdavAbhyudaya' as "kAvya-ratna". This operatic
magnum-opus traces the life of Krishna from his days
in Gokulam right upto His ascent unto Heaven at the
end of His avataric sojourn on earth. Scholars to this
day have never ceased marvelling at the breath-taking
beauty of Sanskrit poetry that brims over in this
'kAvya'. Dikshita in his own times, having lost
himself in the enchanting poetry of Desikan, is said
to have declared:

"ittham vichintyah sarvatra bhAva santi padE padE
kavi tArkika simhasya kAvyEshu lalitEshvapi"

(In the verses of this lion among poets there are
beauties and sentiments of immeasureable beauty, at
every turn of phrase -- however simple they appear to
be... and these are to be fathomed after deep study!)

Sri T.S.Parthasarathy writes: "Desika's original along
with Dikshita's commentary has recently been edited
and published by Abhinava Desika Sri Uttamur
Viraraghvacharya swami on behalf of the Ubhaya Vedanta
Granthamala of Madras. The original and the commentary
by two intellectual giants of two different times are
literary treasures deserving to be cherished and
preserved forever".

The meaning of this great 'yadAvAbhyudaya' would have
been totally lost to posterity but for the commentary
... believe it or not... that an Advaitin scholar
called Appayya Dikshita wrote on it!

Thanks and regards,
dAsan,
Sudarshan

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