By Sri T.S. SundaraRajan

Sri Kanchi Prativadi Bhayankaram AnnangarachAriar Swami was born in the year 1891, ‘mIna-viSAkham of year vikrti’, in SrIvatsa gOtram, of the noble ‘muDumbai’ descent, same as SrI piLLai-lOkAchArya and his brother SrI azhagia-maNavALa-perumAL nAyanAr. ‘mithuna Sukla-EkAdasI’ is the ‘tiru-adhyayana-tithi’ of svAmi (1891-1983) of blessed memory. The title ‘prativAdi-bhayankaram’ was given to his ancestor SrI-hastigiri-aNNA, by no less than Srivarada nAyanAcharya, the son of svAmi vEdAntadESikan. This PB ‘mUla-purusha’ became one of the chosen ‘ashTa-dig-gaja’ disciples of SrI-maNavALa mAmunigaL. Thus, the PB lineage represents the confluence of two eminent AchArya, viz., svAmi-dESikan and SrI mAmunigaL. Hence the PB ‘tanian’:

“vEdAnta-dESika-kaTAksha-vivrddha-bOdham
kAntOpayantr-yaminah karuNaika-pAtram
vatsAnvavAyam anavadya-guNai: upEtam
bhaktyA bhajAmi paravAdi-bhayankarAryam”

prativAdi-bhayankaram aNNangarAchArya-svAmi is remembered in Srirangam simply as the ‘kAnchi-svAmi’. His education commenced under his own father, PB SrI-rangAcharya who, in the short span of his life, had had such distinguished disciples as jagad-guru gAdhi anantAchArya-svAmi who later established the tiruvEnkatam-uDaiyAn sannidhi in FanasvADi, Mumbai. The education continued under his maternal grandfather (later the azhagia-maNavALa jIyar alias chatus-shashTi-kalA jIyar) and gAdhi svAmi himself, giving him an academic pedigree no university could ever match.

In the world of letters, religion and philosophy, kAnchisvAmi was truly a Renaissance kind of figure. He was a ‘prAtah-smaraNIyah’ (one to remember at sunrise) to anyone who had had the fortune to meet him, or even to look at him from a way off, or had read any of his works, or had attended his discourse. His life, centred in dEvaperumAL (SrIvaradarAja perumAL) as it was, wrote itself as a commentary on SrIkrshna’s exhortation,
“tasmAt sarvEshu kAlEshu mAm anusmara yudhya cha
mayyarpita-mano-buddhih mAm Eva Eshyasi asamSayah”
(SrImad-bhagavad-gItA 8:7)

His first publication was the title ‘divyaprabandha-vaibhava-vivEkah’ written in Sanskrit to establish the canonical status of AzhvAr ‘aruLichcheyal’ as equal to the ‘gIrvANa vEdam’. His monumental work consisted of the first-ever publication of the complete works of svAmidEsikan, SrIrAmAnuja, and maNavALA-mAmunigaL; his own Sanskrit translation of the divyaprabandham and of the ‘rahasya’ (esoteric) classics ‘mumukshuppaDi’, ‘tatva-trayam’ and ‘SrIvachana-bhUshaNam’; and his own Tamil commentary ‘divyArtha-dIpika’ on the entirety of divya-prabandham, SrIvachana-bhUshaNam and AchArya-hrdayam. His ‘vEda-lakshana’ works are original investigations into vedic grammar and semantics, and have not been duplicated.

His annual ‘tiruppAvai’ discourses in Madras (now Chennai) city constituted his most visible service to the ‘sampradAyam’, and these gave a festive look to the city environs themselves. Besides the dEvaperumAL ‘adhyApaka-gOshTHI’ in kAnchIpuram, he also adorned namperumAL gOshTHI as its centrepiece whenever he visited Srirangam. The ‘iyal-SAttu’ has the verse “Uzhi-torum...nUl Odi, vIthi vAzhi ena varum tiraLai vAzhttuvAr tam malar aDi en Sennikku malarnda pUvE” (Watch the devotees in formation walking the streets and reciting the divya-prabandham; and there be those that bless this ‘gOshThI’, and I shall carry their sacred feet as a flower of decoration on my forehead.) This was the very sentiment evoked by kAnchi svAmi’s gOshThI.

He attained his acharyan thiruvadi on (June 21 1983) ‘mithuna Sukla EkAdaSI’, the day of ‘Ani-garuDan’ marking periAzhvAr Sattumurai. I have never ceased to wonder that kAnchi svAmi’s kind of accomplishments were at all possible in one lifetime. All excellence partakes of divinity (yad-yad vibhUtimat sarvam: SrImad bhagavad-gItA 10:41), and this is how we are to understand of the kAnchi svAmi. It is a memory that purifies.