by Sri TA Varadhan

During the time of adisesha's reign on earth as svami manavala mamuni, there was a great scholar named hasthigirinadharanna who lived in kanchipuram (hasthigiri = kanchipuram). He was a great scholar in the ubhaya vedanta philosophy, and had defeated scores of scholars in debates regarding vEdAnta, and established the srivaishnava sampradayam as the religion propounded by the vedic seers. Due to his excellence in debates, he was conferred the title of "prativAdi bayankarar" - the one that stirs fears in the minds of those debating him, and became to be known as prativadi bayankaram aNNa. He had 3 children who were scholars in their own right, and his wife is normally held in the same regard as koorattAzhvAn's wife ANdAL.

PB aNNA slowly developed revulsion for material things, gave all of his material belongings away, and went to thirumalai to perform service to the Lord of the seven hills in the true spirit of what nammAzhvAr advocated (ozhivil kAlamellAm udanaay manni), and what anantAzhvAn practiced. There, thOzappa svami (descendant of periya thirumalai nambi) gave PBANNa the kainkaryam of fetching water from AkAsa ganga, preparing it with fragrant material like elaichi and submitting it for perumAL's thiruaradhanam everyday. PB aNNa did that kainkaryam with great happiness. One day, a srIvaishNava from srIrangam came to worship the Lord of seven hills. PB aNNa served the srIvaishnava by taking him to the temple, helping him worship the Lord and by taking him to his home and having him stay there. EVeryday, svAmi PBaNNa used to listen to the srIvaishNava express the happenings at srIrangam - the utsavas, the srivaishnavas there and the great prabhavam of svami manavala mamuni. One day, PB aNNa invited the srivaishnava to accompany him as he was bringing water from akasa ganga, and the srivaishnava did so. On the way to and from akasa ganga, the srivaishnava was explaining the vaibhavam of svami manavala mamunigal, especially through the purva and uttara dinacharyas (two slokas written by srI. erumbiappa, that contain details about svami manavala mamunigals activities throughout the day). Both the srivaishnava and svami PB aNNa were overcome with hearing about svami manavala mamuni, and there was a slight delay in the bringing of the water. as soon as they reached the temple, before the fragrant material like elaichi were added, a ekangi took away the vessel containing water for thiruaradhanam for perumal.

The archaka used the water as usual for thiruaradhanam, but svami PB aNNa was very dejected and was feeling very sad that there were no fragrant additives in the water for perumal. So, he took a small vattil (small vessel), and took some of the fragrant material in that vattil and stood near the archaka so that he can give the material to the archaka. At that time, the archaka mentioned " The water today is much more fragrant than everyday" to PB aNNa.svami aNNa realized that the fragrance was because of the listening to svami manavala mamunis vaibhavam and even the water became more fragrant listening to the vaibhavam and becomes more attractive for the Lord!. He requested to srivaishnava to take him to srirangam so that he(aNNa) can become a sishya of svami manavala mamunigal.

PB aNNa went to srIrangam with his family, and stayed at the srIranga narayana jeeyar matam. He went to the temple to worship Lord ranganAtha and in the temple, he saw svami manavala mamuni performing upanyasam of a specific decade (onrum thevum) of thiruvaymozhi in the chitra mantapam inside the temple. svami manavala mamunigal, on hearing that PB aNNa had come to the gosthi, stopped the upanyasam, embraced svami and then continued with the upanyasam.

After the upanyasam, svami manavala mamuni took pbanna to the sannadhi and helped him worship the Lord. The Lord, through the archaka, welcomed pb aNNa and told anna thus "You have come here, knowing that even the water that was present in a place where svami manavala mamuni's vaibhavam is being described is very dear to Me - I give you the most special relationship now" and showed svami manavala mamuni and entrusted pb anna in svami manavala mamuni's hands.

pb anna, along with his family took refuge in svami manavala mamuni and became his sishyas. he lived the life of a true srivaishnavite performing service to fellow srivaishnavas at srirangam. Here, it is a appropriate to fit in an incident narrated by many elders regarding pb anna. Once, when pb anna met a srivaishnava and performed his obeisances to him, the srivaishnava addressed pb anna as "prativadi bayankararE", to which pb anna replied - "svami, please do not address me so - i am prativadi bayankara in the goshti of non-srivaishnavas; in the goshti of srivaishnavas, i am their servant" {para gOshtIshu prativAdi bayankarah. srIvaishNavaanaam gOshtIshu that dAsa ithi visruthah}. That is the reason why most of the descendants of svami pb anna to this day have the name "srivaishnava dasan" and use "adiyen srivaishnava dasan" etc.

Another important detail about pb anna, especially relevant in today's context, is that he was a shishya of svami vEdanta dEsika's descendants. In fact svami aNNa's thaniyan mentions him as receiving the grace of vEdAnta dEsika and svami maNavALa mAmuni. svami anna is a prime example that there were no divisions among the ramanuja sampradaya followers even during and a little bit after svami manavala mamuni's time.

The lineage that descends from srI pb anna is very illustrious. In the thiru nAngUr area, where a branch of that lineage settled, this family has brought in thousands and thousands of people into the ramanuja sampradaya over the years. They are the heriditary trustees and managers of all the divya desams in the thirunangur area. This geographic branch is known for great ubhaya vedanta scholars that are present to this day. nAngUr PB aNNangarAchAriAr comes to mind of the scholars in the last century. In the divya dEsam known as aNNan kOvil, now, there is a prativadi bayankaram svami, very very learned, one of the kindest acharyas that one can see - he is around 95 years old, and if one goes to pay his/her obeisances to him, the first word that comes out his mouth (even at this advanced age) is "did you eat? have you eaten? please stay here, eat here and then go". A branch from here went to north india and settled there.

In kanchipuram, another illustrious branch of the lineage is present. This branch gave us the two most illustrious scholars of the ramanuja sampradaya of the 20th century - svami PB anantAchAriAr and svami PB aNNangarAchAriAr. Volumes and volumes have been written on these two great acharyas. svAmi PB anantAchAriAr (also known as gadhi svami), perhaps illustrates what a true acharya needs to be - He travelled long and far in North India, and brought hundreds of thousands of people into the ramanuja sampradayam. Out of his concern that language should not be a barrier, he translated azhvar prabhandhams and their meaning and delivered upanyasams in sanskrit and/or hindi. He was instrumental in building the famous panasvadi srinivasa temple in mumbai. He, perhaps after ramanuja was the first acharya to have gone deep into north india and spread the universal knowledge of our religion. There are thousands of sishyas who come to kanchipuram even today from remote parts of north India to the current acharya of this lineage.

svAmi PB aNNangarAchAriAr needs no introduction. He followed the footsteps of svami gAdhi anantAchAr, and became a scholar in his own right. His contributions to ramanuja sampradaya are uncountable. He spread the ramanuja sampradaya among many many people in andhra pradesh. He , along with thirukkaNNApuram pattappa svami and gadhi anantAchar svAmi was among the very few acahryas to have carried the universal message of the ramanuja sampradaya to ALL people, irrespective of caste, language or background. His contributions towards making our acharyas' commentaries accessible to the common man is infinite. The "divyArtha deepikai", an easy to understand commentary on the naalayiram, based on purvacharyas vyakhyanams is a treasure. Similarly the simple to understand summaries of the rahasya granthas. He also published countless books on the sampradaya (commentaries by acharyas, summaries, commentaries in simple colloquial language) in telugu, sanskrit and hindi.

Perhaps the greatest contribution of svami PB aNNangarAcharya was the debunking of several (even today prevalant) myths about the difference of views among ramanuja sampradaya acharyas. His treatises establishing the unifying nature of all of our acharyas are a treasure for us.