Battling Social Hierarchy, the Śrī Vaiṣṇavism Way

Battling Social Hierarchy, the Śrī Vaiṣṇavism Way Abstract : The approaches taken by Śrī Vaiṣṇavism to counter the evil of social hierarchy and the biases and prejudices resulting from it have been multidimensional on one hand it has utilised its fairly open and dynamic system by mobilizing the sampradāya as a social enterprise led and inspired by spiritual giants to embrace one and all (at the same time taking care as to safeguard the core practices and values as per Vedas and the śāstra-s from getting diluted, by keeping a strict eye on spiritual merit maintained by the revered ācārya -s of the sampradāya ); on the other handit has revolutionized upāsanā itself by equating sacred symbols with the Alvar saints irrespective of their birth or social background and by introducing the four thousand hymns of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham into the canon of sacred literature, according them the same status as the Vedic hymns. This has resonated in pan-indian religious movements by other Hindu spiritual giants such as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu of Bengal in the fifteenth century and Swami Vivekananda in the nineteenth, both of whom had recognised the battle against social hierarchy as their priority agendas by throwing open the gates of their folds to one and all even the so-called other. It is therefore necessary to analyze the mechanism imbibed in Śrī Vaiṣṇavism and in the teachings of Śrī Rāmānujācarya for undoing social hierarchy, which inspired future generations of spiritual leaders emerging from within Hinduism in general; as well as Śrī Vaiṣṇavism s influence in inspiring such social and spiritual mobilization starting from south India and gradually opening up a pan-indian, pan-hindu paradigm. Also interesting to note will be the take of the tradition itself on the coincidence of almost all spiritual leaders of the Bhakti movement, and indeed almost all the great ācārya -s originating and functioning from south India. At the same time, it is important to distinguish between the conceptual categories used in such analyses of battling social hierarchy, in Tamil Nadu and South India in particular, and in the Indian Subcontinent in general, from the perspectives of Christian evangelism and Dravidian identity-politics, both of which look at Indian history exclusively through the disputed framework of Aryan/Dravidian struggle on one hand and the analyses from a Swadeshi, emic standpoint. Here the distinctions between caste as a category rooted in the Euro-American experiences of Nazism, racism and slavery and jāti / varṇa as categories rooted in Indic social organization must be highlighted. The present study will be accomplished from a Swadeshi vantage point to inquire about the phenomenon of inter- jāti mobility and Śrī Vaiṣṇavism s role in facilitating the same through faith, rituals and philosophy; to counter the narrow, monolithic and malicious narratives which depict an orientalist image of Hinduism as a three-pronged system of caste, cow and curry, emanating from the Breaking India forces. Keywords: Caste, Jāti, Śrī Vaiṣṇavism, Evangelism, Swadeshi, Pan-Hindu

Introduction Pray, is it the wearing of a sacred thread that makes one Brahmana? He who is devoted to God alone is a Brahmana. This legendary quote from Śrī Rāmānuja, ascribed to the great ācārya by traditional biographies (or, hagiographies as they are known) on him, marks the subversion of social hierarchies that had crept into various communities and locations in the Indian subcontinent by the era that saw the coming of the revered ācārya. This sort of subversion of social hierarchical constructs by way of bhakti is also characteristic of the principal theological approach taken by Śrī Rāmānuja and his sampradāya to counter this undignified practice, which had arisen due to a spiritual lethargy at that juncture of the Indian experience. It is noteworthy that such degeneration of the society right from a basic spiritual and ethical core set of conducts was felt particularly strongly across the subcontinent around the same time, which followed the repeated invasion of the Indian subcontinent by Arabs, Turks and Afghans, and as such it can be described as a pan-indian temporal phenomenon. The approaches taken by Śrī Vaiṣṇavism, treated here as an enterprise of social mobilisation based on spiritual ethics, to counter the evil of social hierarchy and the biases and prejudices resulting from it have been multidimensional on one hand it has utilised its fairly open and dynamic system by mobilizing the sampradāya as a social enterprise led and inspired by spiritual giants to embrace one and all (at the same time taking care as to safeguard the core practices and values as per Vedas and the śāstra- s, from getting diluted with a strict eye on the spiritual merit of individuals observed by the revered ācārya -s of the sampradāya ); on the other it has revolutionized upāsanā itself by equating sacred symbols with saints irrespective of their birth or social background and by introducing the four thousand hymns of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham into the canon of sacred literature, according them the same status as the Vedic hymns. This has resonated in pan-indian religious movements led by other Hindu spiritual giants such as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu of Bengal in the fifteenth century, and Swami Vivekananda in the nineteenth, both of whom had recognised the battle against social hierarchy as their priority agendas by throwing open the gates of their folds to one and all even the so-called other. It is therefore necessary to analyze the mechanism imbibed in Śrī Vaiṣṇavism and in the teachings of Śrī Rāmānujācarya for undoing social hierarchy, that also tremendously inspired future generations of spiritual leaders within Hinduism all across India; and Śrī Vaiṣṇavism s influence in inspiring such social and spiritual mobilization, opening up a pan-indian, pan-hindu paradigm. At the same time, it is important to distinguish between the conceptual categories used in such analyses that focus on battles against social hierarchy by different religious and political entities, in Tamil Nadu and South India in particular and in the Indian Subcontinent in general. Some key conceptual categories, such as caste, which

are essentially colonial constructs, are explicated and perpetuated into academic and public discourses by Christian evangelism and Dravidian identity politics which look at Indian history only through the glasses of a disputed historical framework of Aryan/Dravidian struggle. On the other hand, the analyses from a Swadeshi standpoint seeks to identify the social problems without a presumption of conflict for power between social groups. In fact the very notion of treating different caste identities as the basis for forming groups can be challenged. Caste itself is a disputed conceptual category in discussing the Indian social context, being imported by British colonial anthropologists with a view to racially categorise, divide and then ultimately rule over the Indian population. It certainly helped the British colonial agenda, which intimately colluded with the Christian missionary agenda, to use caste as a conceptual framework to categorise the Indian population and explain her society; for it yielded certain concrete theoretical advantages for the colonial administration and Christian proselytization of the people of the Indian subcontinent. Here the distinctions between caste as a category rooted in the Euro-American experiences of Nazism, racism and slavery on one hand, and jāti / varṇa as categories rooted in Indic social organization on the other, must be highlighted. The present study will be accomplished from a Swadeshi vantage point to inquire about the inter- jāti mobility and Śrī Vaiṣṇavism s role in facilitating the same through exemplary lives led by its spiritual masters, the notion of bhakti and faith preached, rituals conducted and philosophy expounded; to counter the narrow, monolithic and malicious narratives on Hinduism, cast as a three-pronged system of caste, cow and curry emanating from the quarters of the Breaking India forces (to borrow Rajiv Malhotra s phrase). To accomplish this purpose, the study will rely on several traditional hagiographies as well as works of more recent scholarship on Śrī Rāmānuja s life, and traditional as well as recent accounts of Śrī Vaiṣṇavism vis-à-vis issues in social hierarchy. Hagiography as a Historical Tool Hagiographies serve as crucial historical sources of information besides being important literary texts within a certain language tradition in determining its literary history. In the case of Śrī Ramanuja and his coterie of disciples, gurus and those whose philosophical positions were challenged by him, we are lucky to have access to many such hagiographical texts. These are mostly written in the phenomenological form, i.e. from the emic or insider s point of view of the Śrī Vaiṣṇavism movement and its chief proponents, as opposed to a so-called objective, external standpoint. The advantages of working with such hagiographies are manifold; but two of them deserve special mention in the context of the present exercise. The first is that these hagiographical texts provide us with the inner workings of a school of spiritual, religious and philosophical thought in this case those of Śrī Vaiṣṇavism and this presents before the researcher a general understanding of the organisational aspects of a socio-religious movement. Secondly, the scholar is likely to have glimpses of the intentions if any or in other words, the main impetuses that compelled or initiated such socio-religious mobilisations across a vast land for a long stretch of time. Since our present study focuses on Śrī Vaiṣṇavism which is still a functioning (and in some

cases thriving) social, spiritual, philosophical, cultural and religious movement, we hope to have cross checked the historically expressed intentions and impetuses with the present, current ones that propelled the movement and gave it its past and present direction, and detect if there has been any change in the direction. Taking a cue from one such hagiographical account of Śrī Rāmānuja, we can throw some light on the pan-hindu, pan-indian character of the social mobilisation that Śrī Vaiṣṇavism initiated. Since it is beyond the limited scope of an academic paper-length exercise to discuss all of those instances from the available hagiographies of even only Śrī Rāmānuja, let alone all notable leaders in the Śrī Vaiṣṇavism sampradāya s movement, here we shall simply indicate the direction in which this can be achieved in a full-length monograph on the subject in future. In that sense, this paper should serve as a framework laid down for such future exercises to be taken up by scholars of Śrī Vaiṣṇavism. It must be kept in mind that hagiographies, apart from epigraphy, are our only reliable sources to pick up historical information, which inform the tradition of memory i.e. śruti as well. One of the remarkable aspects of hagiographical studies on Śrī Rāmānuja s life is the all-india pilgrimages accomplished by the master. This has been fairly extensively recorded by several accounts and each of them confirms the other. A future scholar should be interested in looking into the contemporaneity of two or more hagiographies of Śrī Rāmānuja to cross-check and identify the convergences and divergences of the narratives in terms of facts as well as the level of emphasis put on different incidents. It will also be an interesting study to investigate the trajectories of repeated visit to one or more sites of pilgrimage. In the context of social mobilisation against discriminatory treatment based on birth the social hierarchical problem that Śrī Vaiṣṇavism encountered head on it is equally important to lend penetrative attention to the hagiographical accounts of the twelve Alvar saints. In this case, narratives can also be supplemented with poetry and songs that mention the saints, their lives and times, and their accomplishments in literary and socio-religious spheres. Another of the many significant ways that hagiographical accounts can be harnessed to counter the Breaking India -narratives is through interpretation of accounts associated with the composition of important works such as the history related to Śrī Rāmānuja and his disciple Kuresa s undertaking of acquiring the text of Bodhayana s vrtti on Badarayana s Vedanta Sutra-s (Brahmasutra) on their pilgrimage to the Saradapitha in Kashmir. Accounts such as these are important to discern the centrality of a text, as well as the arduous process invested in the making of it, in the Śrī Vaiṣṇavism sampradāya. The hermeneutical exercises of such texts would lack the rigour it asks for if the accounts of such pilgrimages, visits and hardships undertaken are given a miss in those exercises. Subversion and/or Expansion of Sacred Symbolic Signification One of the reasons that Śrī Vaiṣṇavism as a socio-religious movement still lingers on the Indian scenario is its very visible willingness to engage with the real problems of the society

in terms of spirituality. Its unique capability to translate the paradigm of different social problems into a spiritual one has catapulted it into the future where several spiritual giants like Śrī Caitanyadeva and Swami Vivekananda have taken up important lessons, and albeit inspiration, from the sampradāya s approach to the Divine, the human, and the relationship between the two. The leaders of the Śrī Vaiṣṇavism sampradāya, and especially Śrī Rāmānuja, had developed the concept of prapatti, the doctrine of ultimate submission to Visnu. The formulation and successful preaching of this doctrine was a breakthrough in itself within the whole corpus of the theology of Śrī Rāmānuja and the later acarya-s, by which several social weaknesses of the Indian subcontinent, battered by and reeling under the unceasing murderous attacks on it by the Arab, Turk, Persian, Hun and Afghan invasions, were successfully tackled. The social prejudices such as non-flexible hierarchies determined by one s birth were radically subverted by the Śrī Vaiṣṇavism movement ever since Śrī Rāmānuja started to expound and preach this doctrine of prapatti. The seeds of this were sown in the early days of Śrī Rāmānuja s initiation into the Vaiṣṇava fold, when it manifested in an incident as follows: a very eminent Vaiṣṇava teacher, Gostipurna initiated Śrī Rāmānuja by imparting to him the Vaiṣṇava mantra; and instructed him not to ever impart to others for the mantra was so potent that whoever heard it would attain heaven right then. But Śrī Rāmānuja did not abide by his Guru s cautionary words, and the first act of Rāmānuja on leaving the Asrama of his Guru was to get upon the Gopuram [gate-tower] of a wayside temple, call together all the neighbouring people, and in his stentorian voice, declare to them the sacred Mantra for repetition with him. (Tapasyānanda 1990) Svāmī Tapasyānanda further writes: Prapatti was the means by which Rāmānuja made the grace of devotional doctrine available to men of lower castes who were excluded from Vedic study and therefore of the Upasana inculcated in the Vedas. The teachings on this topic are not reflected as much in his Śrī Bhasya as in his commentary on the Gita and his purely devotional writings like Vaikuntha Gadya. Strong faith in God, resignation to Him and non-attachment are the qualities that link man with Him and elicit His grace. These are more fundamental for salvation than the self-effort of man. In fact the object of all self-effort is to generate this congenial mental attitude for grace to work upon the aspirant s mind. If simple and unsophisticated people, humble by birth and upbringing, have got this naturally, it is reasonable that the grace of God lifts them up from Samsara. It is this consideration that gave Prapatti such an important place in Rāmānuja s doctrine. (Tapasyānanda 1990) It was, however, at the hands of Vedanta Desika arguably the greatest acarya to have come after Śrī Rāmānuja, that the interpretation of the doctrine of prapatti received its fullness of perfection. Through his explanation of the Upanisadic texts in terms of the Divya Prabandha of the Alvars and the Divya Prabandha in terms of the Upanisadic texts he is said to have bridged the gulf of the gap existing thitherto between bhakti and prapatti. Tapasyānanda informs us that he co-ordinat[ed] the teachings of the Rsis and the Alvars...salvation through devotion and salvation through self-surrender. He emphasized that, though the prime cause ofsalvationis the grace of God, the aspirant has to deserve it at least by seeking it or asking for it. (Tapasyānanda 1990) The hermeneutical marvel of interpreting the various acarya-s and Alvar saints as reincarnations of the different

sacred symbols related to Visnu, such as Pancajanya, Nandaki, Sudarsana cakra, Kaumudaki etc. is another example of subverting the symbolism of Vaiṣṇavism and the meanings imbibed in them by tradition. It was a particularly radical act because some of the Alvar saints happened to have belonged to the so-called lower groups by virtue of their birth. The equation of the Lord s symbols themselves with the already traditionally elevated Alvar saints gave the upasana in Śrī Vaiṣṇavism a whole new meaning; and it certainly liberated the society s mindset with regard to how to approach social strata vis-à-vis spirituality. In order to popularise a rising Hinduism that successfully accepted the challenges thrown to it by Buddhism and Jainism as was consolidated by the efforts of Kumarila and Śrī Śaṅkara carya, another spiritual giant amed Yāmunācārya, who preceded Śrī Rāmānuja as the all-in-all of the Śrī rangam temple and the Śrī Vaiṣṇava sampradāya, felt the need of enthusing the spirituality and religiousness of the masses. He worked toward that end through his reforms in theoology by means of bringing the bhakti of the Alvar saints closer to the highest ideals of Vedanta, which had been given its elevated philosophical stand by the efforts of Kumarila and Śrī Śaṅkara. We get to know that Alternatives to Advaita began to emerge from the time of Bhāskara. And when we come to Yāmuna, we find an endeavour to harmonise philosophy with popular religion. In his Siddhitraya, he interpreted Upaniṣadic texts so as to support a realistic view of the world and to enjoin devotion to a personal God as the means to salvation. He composed a brief summary of the Gītā. In his lofty and moving Stotraratna, he gave poetic expression to the harmony of philosophy and religion. The Āgamaprāmāṇyā was written to make worship in temples a part of the highest religion. He continued his grandfather s efforts to institute the recitation of the Tamil hymns of the Āzhvārs in temples and to deliver discourses on them. Tradition records Śri Rāmānuja s differences with his views in regard to some stanzas of the Tiruvāyamozhi. (Sampatkumaran 1980) Sampatkumaran traces this history to lay the background of what he calls the liberal tradition of the Sanātan Hinduism in general (he traces it right from the Ṛṣi of the Gāyatrī mantra, Visvāmitra, down to the kṣatriya, śūdra and Brāhmaṇa characters of the Upaniṣad-s and onwards), which was welcomed and imbibed into Vaiṣṇavism most notably by Śri Vaiṣṇavism. He notes: Not only by precept but by example also Yāmuna showed that he belonged to the liberal tradition. One of his disciples, Kāñcīpūrṇa, was a Vaiśya mystic who is said to have been in communion with the Lord as enshrined in the temple at Kāñcī under the name of Varadarāja. Another, Māraneri Nambi, was an untouchable. They were among those who helped Śrī Rāmānuja to determine his code of social behaviour. Disrespect shown to Kāñcīpūrṇa by Śrī Rāmānuja s wife was one of the reasons that led him to sannyāsa. Another reason was her reluctance to give food to a hungry man when food was available in the house. The performance by Mahāpūrṇa of Māraneri Nambi s funeral as of one who had realised Brahman led to an interesting discussion between him and Śrī Rāmānuja where he explained and defended his action. (Sampatkumaran 1980) Thus, we get to see that the so-called liberal tradition was no arbitrary and certainly not novel phenomenon within the fold of Śrī Vaiṣṇavism ; it was rather the result of careful

integration of a distinct strand of traditional heritage within Hinduism, installled in the Vaiṣṇava system after much deliberation and refinement to bring the spiritual discoveries of the Ṛṣi -s and Vedāntin sannyāsī -s to the masses in such a way that it appeals to their sensibilities and a general level of spiritual inclination as well as instruction. This is what has been re-enacted in Bengal by Śrī Caitanyadeva in the sixteenth century and by Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa and Svāmī Vivekānanda in the nineteenth bringing the spiritual wisdom, the knowledge of mokṣa or liberation from the forest of the sannyāsin to the very centre of the cities bustling with action. In a way, these recurring instances through the centuries complete the cycle as intiated (or, at least, exemplified) by Bhagavāna Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself, who brought the same wisdom out on the field of action the battlefield of Kurukṣetra. Linking Vaiṣṇava Devotionalism of Alvar-s with Vedanta The ingenuity in making the Divya Prabandham a part of the canon of Vaiṣṇavism based on Vedanta, and especially on the Viśiṣṭādvaita school of Vedanta, seems to be inspired from the will to develop a robust narrative of social mobilisation around the Vaiṣṇava bhakti tradition. It is noteworthy that all the Alvar saints had been reinterpreted afresh in the Śrī Vaiṣṇavism movement wherein they were accorded new meaning through their association with the sacred symbols of Visnu alongside the mutually interdependent interpretation of the Divya Prabandham and the Upanisadic texts in terms of each other. The Divya Prabandham verses were made mandatory for recitation, in their original Tamil avatar, in all the temples associated with the sampradāya, including those in North India which fact itself is testimony to the pan-indian nature of Hinduism as a religion. The deification of the Alvar saints was complete through the upgrading of the symbolic meaning associated with them, in that they were catapulted beyond their mere mortal signification. Hardly any religion in the world has reserved such places of reverence to the persons who had achieved the highest spiritual order through their devotional work, coming from the most humble and at times oppressed sections of the society. Anthropomorphism or Deification? A key concept developed by Śrī Rāmānuja was that of Narayana. It constitutes his theism and a personalisation of the Brahman of Vedanta in such a way that outdid the monotheism of Abrahamic religions. In those religions God has no form, whereas Śrī Rāmānuja s personalisation of God is more obviously radical. He simply takes all names and form along with qualities and multiplies them to the superlative degree and endows God with those. In this way, God becomes accessible to even those who are not versed in the Vedas women, untouchables and people of the lower varṇa -s. The name that Śrī Rāmānuja chose to associate with such a personalised God is Śrīman-Nārāyaṇa, who has Śrī the Divine consort, anapayini, ever eternal with Nārāyaṇa and who is also the Ayana or dwelling place of all nara -s. This is anthropomorphism of God in the highest way possible. It is not a

mere concept any more but a person who can be accessed, meditated upon and above all, who can be the object of love of a lay person. Some philosophers have criticised Rāmānuja for the anthropomorphic depiction of Brahman, but as Tapasyānanda observes, Rāmānuja s main interest in philosophy was to link the Vaiṣṇava devotionalism of the Alvars with the Vedanta which seeks to find out the unity behind diversity. His philosopher critics forget this and assume that he should have abandoned his Vaiṣṇavism when he took up the role of a philosopher. For him rapturous devotion to a personal Deity is far more important than the hair-splittings of philosophy. To subvert the criticism of anthropomorphism, he seeks to enhance the excellences of Nārāyaṇa thousandfold of what is human. It is not that the Nārāyaṇa concept is an exaltation of human form and qualities. What is human is only a distorted presentation of Nārāyaṇa s excellences. (Tapasyānanda 1990) He had realised that the ordinary human yearns for concreteform of God which can be contemplated upon as a basis of his spiritual journey starting from which she can gradually upgrade his conception to the Highest, i.e. sat - cit - ānanda Brahman, devoid of form and devoid of qualities, perfectly abstract. Only the most advanced spiritual aspirant can conceive an abstract Brahman as is the conclusion of the Vedānta, and the beginner needs to concentrate her energies of mind on something concrete. Abrahamic religions have zealously upheld the idea of a formless God, but attached with Him the human attributes, including even such follies as jealousy. The result has been that religion for them has come down to a set of mere dogmas and how desperately one can cling on to those dogmas. The entity that is hailed as God becomes a vague conception of the intellect, and the prayers become lifeless petitions; and as a consequence social cohesion, group-ism and cult following and not spiritual experience of freedom becomes the sole most important aim in such religions. Religion in such instances turns into a tool for politicisation and expansionist dominance. Conclusion Distortion, even outright denial of the legacy of ācārya -s like Śrī Rāmānuja and Śrī Śaṅkara with regard to their liberalisation of tradition and humanitarian interpretation by German Indologists has been a common phenomenon in the Western academia and scholarship. Sampatkumaran observes: it is amusing to find some Western scholars showing obvious reluctance to admit any liberal or humanitarian teaching in the Gītā. Dr. van Buitenen suspects that the salvation promised to women, Śūdras and persons of sinful birth in IX. 32 has to be attained in the distant future through a series of births. Eligibility to the final freedom of the soul is, according to him, held by Hinduism to be the prerogative of the higher castes. Dr, Zaehner protests against the humanitarian twist given by Śrī Śaṅkara and Śrī Rāmānuja to the statement in VI. 32 that the yogin looks upon the joys and sorrows of others as his own. He also lays down that eternal damnation is taught in the sixteenth chapter. A great tradition like the Hindu dharma and teachers like Śrī Rāmānuja cannot be put into the straight jackets devised for them by Western critics. (Sampatkumaran 1980)

Against this background, it is imperative upon the Swadeshi Indologists to highlight the liberalisation and humanitarianism in the endeavours of these great ācārya -s and the implication of those endeavours in the social and religious context of the Indian subcontinent. The implications of Śrī Rāmānuja in particular, and Śrī Vaiṣṇava s theology, philosophy and social mobilisation in general, are far-reaching. The devotional philosophy of Bhakti, flowing out from the Śrī Vaiṣṇava sampradāya, flooded North India it did not stay confined to the social and religious contexts of South India. Several sects owe their existence to Śrī Vaiṣṇavism and Śrī Rāmānuja s Viśiṣṭādvaita philosophical school of thought within the Vedanta school. Ramananda, for example, took initiation into Viśiṣṭādvaita; and he was the fountainhead of the Rama cults of North India. He never recognised caste as a parameter in the spiritual journey of the individual; and he can be considered as the Guru of at least twelve great Vaiṣṇava leaders of the North. These leaders, as if reflecting and replicating the phenomenon of the Āḷvar saints, were from all castes, including one who was a cobbler (Ravidas) and another who was a Muslim (Kabir). Ravidas was the preceptor of Mira Bai who popularised Krsna and Rama bhakti in the North and North-West India. Sena, another disciple of Ramananda, was a barber by his caste-profession. He had converted the Raja of Bandogarh into Vaiṣṇavism. Dana and Pipa, both disciples of Ramananda, belonged to the Jat and Rajput communities respectively. In later years, spiritual giants of the likes of Tulsidas and Dadu drew inspiration from the teachings of Śrī Rāmānuja. Thus the social mobilisation initiated by Śrī Rāmānuja and taken forward by the later acarya-s of Śrī Vaiṣṇava sampradāya, which resulted into the modern manifestation of Śrī Caitanya Deva and Svāmī Vivekānanda s liberal outlook in welcoming people of all castes and creed into the Hindu fold, has a clear pan-hindu, pan-indian character with deep influences in the liberalisation of attitudes towards people of different backgrounds. The movement and its proponents deserve to be studied and their deeds exploited for the maximisation of social organisation in the deepest way possible, even in the present Indian context which is fraught by caste politics and preyed upon by the proselytising programmes of expansionist Abrahamic religions. Bibliography Sampatkumaran, M.R. "Śrī Rāmānuja as a Social Emancipator." In Studies in Rāmānuja, by Śrī Rāmānuja Vedanta Centre, 41-60. Madras: Śrī Rāmānuja Vedanta Centre, 1980. Tapasyānanda, Svāmī. Bhakti Schools of Vedānta. Chennai: Śrī Ramakrishna Math, 1990.