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srImathE rAmAnujAya namah.

dear maNi,

I was unable to do this yesterday due to work issues..
but here is some data along the lines that you had
requested.

The following are excerpts regarding svAmi rAmAnujA's
sannadhi in thirumala, taken from the book
"History of tirupati" - volume 1
Author: Sri. TKT Veeraraghavacharya
TTD Devasthanam publication. Further down
in the email, I have written my own conclusions from
what I see. Obviously, I am not imposing that
conclusion on anyone. 

--begin excerpts from the book
------------------
srI rAmAnujA's shrine in tirupathi (keezh tirupathi):

An inscription on the west and the south bases of
sri ramanuja's temple in tirupathi states that in
the month of avaNi of the vikrama year, the fifteenth
regnal yeaar of vira narasinga yadavaraya, certain 
srivaishnavas made an endowment for the lighting
and supply of flowers to the emperumanar shrine.
This corresponds to 1220 AD.
....

We have shown that there are references to srI
rAmAnujA's shrine in Tirupati from 1220 AD; but
for the shrine in tirumala, the earliest one is
1476AD. The shrine abuts on the prakaram wall
which obviously came into existence in the 
second quarter of the fifteenth century AD.

.......

There is a tradition that the shrines of srI rAmAnuja
in Tirumala and Tirupati were constructed more or less
simultaneously soon after the death of rAmAnuja.
The guruparampara account (note from varadhan:
the author probably is referring to the 3000ppadi)
says that a shrine was constructed in srirangam by
thiru-k-kurugai-piran pillan, the gnyana putra of
sri ramanuja; that mudaliyandan constructed the
shrine at sriperumbudur; that kidAmbi AchchAn,
nallAn and some others constructed a shrine in
thirunarayanapuram and installed alvars also there;
that nadadur azhvar installed sri ramanuja's idol 
in kanchipuram and that piLLai thirumalai nambi
installed one in keezh thirupathi, a second one
at the spot now called dOvabhasyakar sannidhi,
where thirumala prasadams of thiruvengadamudaiyan
were presented to him on the occasion of his
glorious visit and the third in the sannidhi of
thiruvengadamudaiyan.

Apart from this tradition and account we know that
anandAzhvAR and his son were devoted disciples
of srI rAmAnuja. The grand-son viz. anandAzhvAn
vEnkatatturaivan has left an inscription (which
stands as an incomplete one) on the north base
of the first gopuram in the tirumala temple. It 
reads, translated into english..

..in the margazhi month of ___ year..
..tAzhvAn's grand son.....
....offered for the kind acceptance...
....for amudupadi, satupadi....

... to the end of my life as udaiyavar
... as emperumanar dharmam i shall carry on
... anandalvan venkatattu
...may stand for

....AchArya purusha in thirupathi
...AzhvAn piLLai vEnkatattu
...on hill thiru nandavanaththu

The author concludes as follows:

There are two other inscriptions in a similar
incomplete condition (note from varadhan - this 
line he presents after the first translation 
above.. in effect the above 3 are the inscriptions 
available) which only go to show that anandAzhvAr
vEnkataththuraivAr took a pledge to carry
on the thirunandavanam and some other dharman
of srI rAmAnuja. This pledge might have been
given to his father when he was in his old
age or about to die.

There is nothing in these inscriptions which
could be constued as stating that there was
a shrine for srI rAmAnuja in thirumala on 
that date which may be about 1170 or 1180 AD.
Inscription I-172 (note from varadhan: the first 
one above) only
shows that the "amudupadi" and "sattupadi"
were meant for some (Deity) in the month of
margazhi when the inscription was made. It
might well have been for srI venkatesvara's
temple for dhanurmasa food offering.

The thirumala temple in those days had not
sufficent resources to carry on the daily
nimandanam (pooja including food offering) 
and the stanaththar represented the matter
to thirukAlattidEva yAdavarAya when he was
camping in avilAli near tirupathi in his
19th regnal year (1209 AD). He then granted
with libations of water all the nanjai and
punjai lands situated within the four
boundaries of kudavUr together with taxes,
etc. for the nimandanam. So, at the time
vEnkataththuraivAr made his inscriptions
the temple stood in need for amudupadi
and sattuppadi. It is therefore reasonable
to assume that "amudupadi' and "satupadi" 
should be supplied by his disciples
regularly to the temple of srI venkatEsvara.
There was no likelihood of a shrine having
been erected for srI rAmAnujA at that time.
The tradition, however is that his images
were installed simultaneously in tirupathi
and thirumala. In thirupathi, there was one
in 1220 AD. It is therefore not unlikely
that a small shrine was built in thirumala
also or at any rate that an idol was 
installed in the temple. The idol might have
been subsequently shifted to the present
shrine after it was built sometime before
1476 AD. Since then, attention was paid to
the maintenance of the shrine. In fact it 
needs no maintenance. We find that the food
offerings even when intended for srI
rAmAnuja were by stipulation of the donor
first offered to thiruvEngadamudaiyAn and
then brought to the shrine for being offered
to srI rAmAnuja. This has always been the
procedure in thirumala. It is inconceivable
that a shrine would have been built in 
thirupathi when there was none in thirumala.

--------------

What follows is my (Varadhan's) comments
on the above:

The author's conclusions based on the evidence
presented by him seem to be not 100% strong.

1. In the case of the inscriptions, the first
one can be taken to mean amudupadi and sattupadi
for ramanuja shrine; The second and third
can be taken together and interpreted as a
pledge to continue the pushpa kainkaryam that
anantazhvan started.
2. The reasoning by the author to conclude that
amudupadi/sattupadi was for dhanurmasa offerings
to perumAL is not bulletproof either. From
the dates presented by him , there is a gap of atleast

29 years from the date of the inscription to the
endowment of the village for nitya kainkaryams
to the temple. 
3. The guruparampara (3000-ppadi) excerpt quoted above
is not 100% verifiably accurate either. The older
6000ppadi mentions the names of all AchAryAs
at that time as collectively doing the yathi
samskAra vidhi for rAmAnuja. Some editions
of the 6000ppadi mention about rAmAnuja's
rites being performed inside the temple (i.e.
corroborates the current situation of ramanuja
sannadhi/thirumEni being inside the temple
at srirangam), and some do not. No mention is
made of "construction of a shrine" in the
6000ppadi. If somehas has a copy of kOvil
ozhugu and can find some data, it might be
helpful. Anyway, the above just means that 
there can be doubts raised whether piLLai
thirumalai nambi installed the vigraham in
the temple at thirumalai.

4. From all the above, the following scenario -
that of anantAzhvAn establishing an idol 
of rAmAnuja inside the temple, and his grandson
pledging to continue the pushpa kainkaryam
and the maintenance of the ramanuja sannadhi -
seems to be a plausible scenario. In 6000ppadi
it is mentioned that anantAzhvAn came with
his disciples to srIrangam to take part in
the carama kainkaryams to rAmAnuja.

5. The approx. date of rAmAnujA's attaining
paramapadam is 1137 AD. If one takes the
above inscriptions to be around 1170/1180 AD,
it does fall into the realm of possibility
that soem sort of a shrine existed before the 
inscription. 

6. In any case, the maximum gap between 
rAmAnujA's attaining paramapadam and his
enshrining in thirumala/thirupathi seems
to be less than 100 years. Given that,
the other possibility is if there was any
other rAmAnuja follower in thirumalai,
other than anantAzhvAn, that had enough
stature to install the idol. Given the
traditional not-very-close relationship
between the vaikhAnasa priests and the
rAmAnuja followers (as mentioned/hinted
in many places in the book above, and
through other sources), it is improbable
that someone with a lesser stature than
anantAzhvAn could have managed to install
the vigraham. (stature in this case is
obviously "stature within thirumala"..
anantAzhvAn lived there for a major part
of his life, and hence it is only logical
to conclude that he probably had enough
stature among the temple management/
employees at that time). 

7. There is little information about any
other AchAryA other than anantAzhvAn with
reference to thirupathi/thirumala during these time
periods. So, one can assume that there was
no other ramAnuja follower with the type
of influence that anantAzhvAn could have
had in thirumala.

8. All the above does point to a greater
likelihood of anantAzhvAn being the person
who installed rAmAnuja in the temple at
thirumala; The oral version passed by many
AchAryAs also tell that anantAzhvAn established
the sannadhi. Taking those two together, 
one can conclude that there is a high
probability that it was indeed anantAzhvAn
that established the sannadhi.

adiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
varadhan


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