To Sri Perumbudur...................musings.

At the very mention  of this temple town's name the event that jumps into everyone's mind is the blast that took place there years back that took in its wake the life of a  ex PM.

This happened within a few months  of our landing back at Chennai after 3 year stay on transfer at Ranchi.It was then rumoured that its  perpetrators had rented a house in the vicinity of our house in the suburbs ,which was in those days nothing but acres of fallow fields  sparsely dotted with houses . This rumour /piece of information made us the early settlers  apprehensive of every Sri lankan Tamil residing there , who were all easily distinguishable from others by their very dark skin and attires that they  wore,mainly middies and maxi's and not sarees.,for quite some time to come.

This so far unheard of, an unique method of violent killing of a leader, perceived to be invincible and immortal owing to his awe inspiring lineage and personal charm ,was the talking point of conversation in all meetings whether social or otherwise,for several years there after.

My next association  with this place came when my father-  in- law  and m-i-l who stayed in the city picked me up en route of his visit to this place where his lands purcahsed for a song  in earlier decades was being acquired by the govt to build a car factory, to get my legal views.

If the place i lived 2 decades earlier was a forlorn outpost of Chennai , Sri Prerumbudur 40 kms away was a small town amidst barren lands and rolling fields, shrubs and thorn trees.Same  was  true of the way sides ,through out.

We also visited The perumal---Vishnu temple that was dominating this small town.

The above mentioned tragedy had eclipsed the original importance of this place to Hinduism and in particular to Sri Vaishnavism.

This is the birth place of Sri Ramnuja the foremost acharya , scholar and saint who analysed existing philosophies  that were scattered in the Vedas, epics, gita, aazhwar hymns and  his own views ,perceptions and codified them into a coherent form   and presented them as Visishtadwaita philosophy ,which is thence forward was considered to be one of main schools of Hindu philosophy.He defeated advaitan's in debates , several of whom  then voluntarily embraced his espousal's.He also went on a extensive pilgrimage of all parts of Bharat and standardised the form and procedure of worship and rituals to be conducted by priests in all SriVaishnavaite temples like Tirumala, Sri Rangam and so on, which are followed to date.

He was also a bold social reformer, a rarity in the times in which he lived --12 cent AD.He embraced every devotee of Narayana from which ever caste he may belong to, into his fold with equal rights.Thus shaking the taboos attached to caste system to its very foundations.He was a brahmin hailing from a very orthodox family but separated from his wife once and for all when she refused to serve food in proper manner to his teacher ,owing to his inferior caste status.He then took up sanyas and turned away from the life of a house holder.To him a devotee of Narayana was more important and dearer than Narayana himself . It was as simple as that.

I was visiting this place and temple after nearly 20 years. An old place but nevertheless an interesting novelty  due to my new found interest in Hinduism and philosophy.