AnantazhvAn, who has a great interest in the saving of the universe will take avatAram as another saint. Those who will be shishyAs of that saint will be filled with sathvaguNA and will have the thattvagnyAnA.

Ananta will take another avatAram per the words of Lord varadaraja Himself, and he will spread the holy thiruvAymozhi and this commentary to the world. So, pass this along your shishyavarga so that it may be available for him."

During the life of swami manavala mamuni, there were multiple instances in which he had made known His original form to various people. The following is one of them that has been recorded in yatindrap pravanap prabhavam -

swami manavala mamunigaL's original name was azhagiya manavalap perumal nayanar. In his earlier stages of life, svAmi undertook to visit many holy places, and sriperumbudur and kanchipuram were among the first few that he visited. In sriperumbudur, where nayanar was spending some time, enjoying and worshipping sri ramanuja, ramanuja commanded him to proceed to kanchipuram. In that command, in the form of a dream, ramanuja said " Go and meet kidAmbi nAyanAr and learn from him. After you learn sribhasya, per my and thiruvaymozhip pillai's wish, please spread the word of the AzhvArs primarily".

swami went to kanchipuram and started learning sribhasya under srI. kidambi nayanar, a descendant of srI. kidambi accan. ALong with kidambi nayanAr, two other Acharyas, selvanayanr and aigal appa taught him srIbhAsya. (The three were always together and were great friends).

One day, when kidAmbi nAyanAr was teaching sribhAshya to AM nayanar, aigal appa mentioned "The complexity with which sribhasya is being taught is not corresponding to the brilliance of AM nayanar". At that time, kidambi nayanar asked aigal appa himself to start teaching AM nayanAr. AM nayanar started learning srIbhAsya and also simultaneously started teaching it to others. Seeing the scholarship, and the additional deep meanings being taught by srI AM nayanar, aigaL appa was very happy. kidAmbi nAyanAr too heard about this, and he came to the place where AM nayanar was giving the discourse. Upon request of his shisyAs, svAmi AM nayanar gave great discourse on tarka, mImAmsa and it was a source of wonder for everyone concerned, since they were unaware of svAmi's learning/knowledge.

kidAmbi nAyanAr then requested AM nayanar to give discourses on AzhvAr's works, and simultaneously, he taught AM nAyanAr srIbhAshya. kidAmbi nAyanAr was continuosly amazed by the scholarship and ability of AM nayanar while he was teaching the thiruvAymozhi commentary.

One day, when he and AM nayanar were alone, he asked AM nayanar about his true form, telling him "I know certainly that you have an avatAra visEsha, please do not hide that from me, please show me as it is". AM nayanar then said "You are my AchArya, and I will not hide my true form to you, please do not let anyone else know about this rahasya that is due to the Lord's command", and asked him not to be afraid, and showed his true form as AdisEshA.

kidAmbi nAyanAr, with some fear, requested AM nayanar to return to his human form, which he did. After this, svAmi kidAmbi nAyanAr started bringing warm milk everyday to swami AM nayanar, given that milk is the natural food for AdisEsha.

Even to this day, for svAmi maNavALa mAmunigaL, this tradition of offering warm milk is continued. In the temple of srI yathOkthakAri svAmi, the icon of svAmi maNavALa mAmunigAL is depicted with the "vyAkhyAna mudra", or the teaching form, the only place where he is depicted such. This is where svAmi gave his discourses on srIbhAsya.

During the time of svAmi maNavALa mAmuni's birth, srI. thiruvAymozhip piLLai was conducting the nirvAham of the emperumAnAr darsanam from AzhvAr thirunagari (during svAmi piLLai lOkAchAr's time, immediately preceding the time period in question, due to the islamic invasion, most of the srIvaishNavAs had to leave srIrangam, including svAmi piLLai lOkAchAriar himself with the namperumAL vigraham; and svAmi vEdAnta dEsikan with the manuscripts of srutaprakAsika, the grand commentary of srI. sudarsana bhattar (a descendant of srI. kUrattAzhvAn) on srI. rAmAnujA's srIbhAshyam.

Earlier, srI. thiruvAymozhip piLLai was the rAja mantri of the king of madurai, and after the death of the king, he was the caretaker of the kingdom. during that time, due to the krpa of svAmi piLLai lOkAchAr and his shishyAs (kUrakulOththuma dAsar, nAlUrAchchAn piLLai, viLAnchOlaip piLLai and others), learnt deeply abuout the darsanam, and slowly became the darsanap pravarthakar. During his reign as the caretaker of the madurai kingdom, srI. thiruvAymozhip piLLai was instrumental in using his influence to regain the vigraha (archa thirumEni) of svAmi nammAzhvAr that was stored in a slope in the kEraLa hills during the islamic invasion.

At that time, AdisEsha took avatAram as the son of srI. thiruvAveeRudaya pirAn thAthar aNNar, in a place called sikkil kidAram, in the southern districts of tamizhnAdu. The year was 4471 years after the birth of kaliyuga, aippasi month, mUla nakshattiram. In the roman calendar, this corresponds to 1370 AD. This child was named azhagiya maNavALap perumAL nAyanAr by his parents. At the appropriate times as dictated by the sAstrAs, upanayanam and other rites were performed by this child, and he learnt vEdAs and the divya prabhanda, and other sAstrAs at the prescribed age. His marriage also took place, and his father himself taught him the rahasya granthAs and the meanings of the nAlAyira divya prabhanda. At this time, his father attained paramapadam, and svAmi performed the appropriate rites.

At this time, in AzhvAr thirunagari, srI. thiruvAymozhip piLLai was looking for the next teacher for the rAmAnuja sampradAya. srI. AM nAyanAr also wanted to learn more about the sampradAyam, and he took srI . thiruvAymozhip piLLai as his achAryan and learnt the intricacies of thiruvAymozhi and other sAstrAs from him. srI. TMP commanded srI AMNAyanAr to do service to rAmAnujA. srI. AM nayanar built a temple for rAmanuja, created a surrounding commuynity called rAmAnuja chaturvEdi mangalam around the temple, and spent his time doing service to the great AchArya. It was during this time that srI AMNAyanar composed the beautiful, simple to understand even by less learned folks, yatirAja vimsati. So pleased was srI. TM PiLLai on seeing yatirAja vimsati, and the devotion of his sishya to rAmAnuja that he presented his sishya with his own vigraha of rAmAnuja. It is appropriate to write about this specific vigraha, and its speciality.

It is the belief of our elders that when svAmi madhurakaviAzhvAr yearned to install a arca thirumEni of svAmi nammAzhvAr and prayed to him, nammAzhvAr commanded him to boil the water or the river tAmraparaNi. When madhurakaviAzhvAr followed the command, and boiled the water, first he obtained a vigraha that is the current rAmAnuja vigraha. On seeing the vigraha, madhurakaviAzhvAr mentioned to nammAzhvAr that he wanted his (i.e. AzhvAr's) vigraha, and that he had obtained a different vigraha. AzhvAr conveyed to him that this icon was that of the universal teacher that was going to take birth (bhavisyathAchAryar) as per the message in the thiruvAymozhi pAsuram "poliga poliga", and that madhurakaviAzhvAr needed to boil the water once again to obtain the nammAzhvAr vigraham. madhurakaviAzhvAr did so, and he obtained the nammAzhvAr vigraham, which we have to this day in AzhvAr thirunagari. The above rAmAnuja vigraham was buried under the tamarind tree in AzhvAr thirunagari when the nammAzhvAr vigraham was taken to a safe place during the islamic invasion. srI. thiruvAymozhip piLLai dug out the vigraha on his return to azhvAr thirunagari along with the nammAzhvAr vigraham that he helped to regain from kerala.

A son was born to svAmi AM nayanar, and he named the son as "em aiyan irAmAnusan". For the next few years, svAmi AM nayanar spent his time performing kainkarya to srI. TM pillai, and performing upadEsa to the sishya varga. srI. TM piLLai's last days on this earth arrived - srI. TM pillai had a great concern, and that concern was apparent in his face. srI. AM nAyanAr enquired about the concern, to which srI. TM pillai replied - 'It is the kaliyuga now, and I am very concerned about who has the deepest interest and appreciation of the works of our azhvArs, and who will spread the beautiful message of the AzhvArs for the benefit of all the people". srI.AM nayanar replied - "adiyEn will do the same" to which srI. TM pillai countered "just words alone will not suffice" to which srI. amnayanar replied "adiyEn promises to do so". srI. TM pillai then commanded srI. AM nayanar as follows - "learn and propaget the srIbhAsya once, and spend most of your time in propagating and preaching the aruLicheyal of the AzhvArs that is so dear to srI. rAmAnuja and myself. Just as our teachers did, stay at srIrangam and perform kainkaryam to the Lord there", and he left this world thinking about his AchArya svAmi piLLai lOkAchArya.

srI AM nAyanAr, true to the command of his acharya performed upanyasams of the aruLichcheyal and the rahasyas. At this time, srI. azhagiya varadar became swamis sishya, and undertook sanyasashrama. The sanyAsa name was given as "ramanuja jiyar". Thus began the most illustrious jIyar maTam in the srIvaishNava sampradAya, the vanamamalai maTam, that continues the great unbroken lineage of our acharyas to this day.

srI. AM nayanar took the permission of svAmi nammAzhvAr, and along with his sishyAs, left for srIrangam. On the way, he spent some time at srIvillipuththUr and thirumAlirunchOlai, and finally reached srIrangam.

When srI. AM nAyanAr reached srIrangam with his sishyAs, he went straight to the house of an acharya called kOttUril aNNar. This acharya took srI. AM nAyanAr to the then adhipathi of the temple, srI thirumaalai thandha perumaal bhattar, who took srI. AM nayanar to the temple escorted by scores of srivaishnavas to perform mangalasasanams to Lord ranganatha. After performing mangalasasanams to the Lord, nayanar went to the houses where the previous acharyas (emperumanar, embar, bhattar, nanjiyar, nampillai etc..) lived and performed obeisances at each place. After that sri nayanar stayed at srirangam, listening from the elders about the previous acharyas. One day, when sri. nayanar went to the temple to perform mangalasasanams to perumal, the Lord commanded him as follows - "You stay here just as our ramanuja did, taking care of my work, and spreading the rahasya granthas till the time you leave your body", which sri. nayanar took as a great gift and accepted the command readily.

After taking permission from Lord ranganatha, for a short period, srI. nayanar undertook a pilgrimage of thirupathi, sriperumbudur, kanchipuram and enroute, went to sholingur and thirukkovalur.

In thirumalai, the following is quoted by our elders as a proof of svami's greatness - it was the first day of the 10 day annual (purattasi) brahmotsavam in thirumalai. The elder jIyar at thirumalai (this maTam was established by ramanuja when he visited thirumalai, with the duty of the jiyar of that maTam being to oversee the affairs of the temple - the name of this pIta in tamizh is "periya kelvi appan ramanuja jiyar" - i.e. the jIyar who oversees/ questions the affairs of the temple) had a dream where he saw a glorious, beautiful, resplendent with tejas srivaishnava in the lying down posture, with his head on the west, legs on the east and facing south. This srivaishnava was the length of the entire mountain and at his feet was a glowing sanyasi. In the dream, further, periya keLvi jIyar asked the people around him as to who those two were, to which they replied that the glorious one who was lying down was sri. azhagia manavala nayanar and the sanyasi at his feet was ramanuja jiyar ( ponnadikkal jiyar, 1st jiyar of vanamamalai mutt).

periya kelvi appan jiyar narrated this dream to thozappangar (descendant of periya thirumalai nambi, one of the heriditary caretakers of the thirupathi temple) just before the nalayira divya prabhandam goshti was about to begin for the day. many other srivaishnavas in the goshti, on listening to this were very pleased and everyone was eagerly hoping that this glorious srivaishnava would come to thirupathi for the utsavam.

sri nayanar then reached thirupathi/thirumalai, and all the srivaishnavas there received him with full respect and took him to all the sannadhis where he performed mangalasasanams. A mention is made of the ramanuja sannadhi inside the temple (along with other sanandhis - varadarajar, azhagiyasingar..), the only sannadhi for someone other than perumAL on the hill. This sannadhi was established by srI. anantAzhvAr immediately after ramanuja left this world, and our elders have consciously avoided building sannadhis for any other azhvar/acharya on the hill, since the belief of our acharyas is that the hills themselves are very holy (peria thirumalai nambi used to crawl on the hills to go to the temple, not wanting his feet to touch the holy hills).

After that, sri nayanar went to kanchipuram where he performed mangalasasanams to Lord varadaraja, and the Lord at the other divya desams in kanchipuram, then he went to sriperumbudur where ramanuja commanded him to go to kanchipuram and learn/preach sribhasya. The first post in the series contained the details about svAmi's greatness with respect to learning/expounding on sribhasya.

After leaving kanchipuram, sri nayanar went back to srirangam, where he felt that the grhastashrama life was an impediment to perform unimpeded kainkarya to the Lord. So, he took permission from Lord ranganatha and took sanyasashramam from srI. satakopa jiyar, a contemporary of him and a great jiyar of the ramanuja sampradaya who was residing in srirangam then. the Lord had commanded both sri. nayanar as well as sri. satakopa jiyar about His wish to have sri. nayanar take sanyasashramam.

After receiving sanyasashramam, he went to the sannadhi of the Lord. The Lord gave him His own name - "azhagiya manavala mamuni", and gifted him what used to be the pallavarayan maNtapam. This maNtapam was originally used during ramanuja's time by srI. aatkoNdavilli jiyar as his maTam and his aradhana moorthy was called "ennai theemanam keduththar" {the one who removed my ignorance - this is a very rough paraphrasing of the phrase, I will get a better version from elders here in the next few days - Varadhan}. After him for various reasons, it was in a state of disuse and was used later as a ramanuja kutam by a srivaishnava called pallavaraya, and then was not used after his time.

The Lord gifted this matam and commanded the archakas and srivaishnavas to lead srI. manavala mAmuni to the maTam, and presented him with all prasadams appropriate for a great sanyAsi. srI. manavala mAmuni then repaired this maNtapam with the help of his shisyas, built a discourse room called "thirumalai azhvar" named after thirvaymozhi piLLai. It is further mentioned in the book that srI. manavala mamunigaL made it a point to bring the sand and material from where srI. piLLai lOkAchAriAr used to live and built this maTam with that material - i.e. srI. MM treated this matam as srI. PL's house and his stay there as gurukulavasam. In the thirumalai AzhvAr mantapam, swami MM performed upanyasams of sastras, the nAlAyira divya prabhandham and rahasya granthas. {To this day, one can see this mutt, and the thirumalai azhvar mantapam in srirangam - in the east corner of south uttara street - this sannadhi and the mutt is maintained by the descendants of srI. MM}

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