Right of the main gopura entrance
The crowbar
The iron he raised at a young brahmachari still hangs on the temple wall. The shrine’s own sign names it in Telugu, English, Hindi, Tamil, and Kannada.
The story
Tirumala · Tirupati
Where the gardener still stands
Crowbar, camphor, thota, magizha, brindāvanam, and the image Ramanuja placed in his own hands. The Hill still keeps his kainkarya.
Cittirai Cittirai
His star. Born on this day in Kali 4154. The kattiyam still opens: cittiraiyil cittirainaaL ciRakkavantha perumaaL.
Āḍi Pūram
Andal’s birthday, and the day he joined the Lord. Srinivasa still processes to the nandavanam in the evening, and honours the magizha tree with flowers and Śaṭhakopa.
Purattasi · eighth day
During rathotsavam of the Brahmotsavam, the Lord is still adorned with pītāmbara and silk as the sambhāvanā of His father-in-law.
Marks that remain
Walk them in this order
On the chin of the mūlavar
Pacchaikarpuram
Camphor is applied to the chin of Srinivasa to this day and given as śrīpādarēṇu. A thousand years of that mark began in a garden argument.
The story
South-west of the temple, Tirumala
Sriman Anantalwar Thota
The garden-shrine that still bears his name. He laid the nandavanam, dug lake and tank, and named all three for Ramanuja.
The story
In the nandavanam
The magizha tree
Tradition reads the vakula as Ananthalvan remaining on the Hill — Kulaśekhara’s wish, granted in another body. The Lord honours it every Āḍi Pūram.
The story
In the garden where he breathed his last
Brindāvanam
He joined the Lord on Āḍi Pūram. The brindāvanam stands in the nandavanam. Outside his tirumāḷigai the satari receives tīrumanjana.
The story
Left of the garbhagṛha, Tirumala
Ramanuja’s image
The vigraha Ramanuja placed in his own hands on his first visit — held the earliest image of the Acharya. Ananthalvan installed it after 1137, by Vaikhānasa rite, the day after Kaṇṇinuṇ ciṟuttāmpu. The satari of that shrine is named Ananthalvan.
The story
Govindarāja temple, Tirupati
Madhurakavi and Ananthalvan
At Tirupati they share a single shrine. He had told Srinivasa: Madhurakavi knew no God but Nammāḻvār; consider me his dāsa.
The storySriman Anantalwar Thota
The living garden
South-west of the temple. The board writes the name once in Telugu, once in English, once in Tamil, with the namam above.
Sriman Anantalwar Thota
The garden-shrine that still bears his name. The board writes it once in Telugu, once in English, once in Tamil, with the namam above.
The gateway
The outer gate. Ramanuja sits to the Lord’s right; Alarmelmanga and Bhudevi stand with Him. Dvarapalakas keep the posts.
Inside the thota
The inner entrance. A board at the left names the place in Telugu, Hindi, and English: Sriman Anantalwar Thota.
The tank
The tank of the garden. He dug lake and pond on the Hill and named them for Ramanuja. Water is still held here for the kainkarya.
The record
A stone kiosk at the thota carries the gardener’s record, under a string of marigold.
The sannidhi wall
On the wall of the shrine: Garuda, Sudarsana, the namam, the conch, Hanuman — and Ananthalvan himself, standing with joined palms.
The painted shrine
The side shrine, with the same marks of Srinivasa painted on the wall — namam, discus, and conch under the coconut trees.
Names of the Acharya
One man, many titles
Ananthan
The name given at birth, at Siruputtur (Kirangur) on the Kaveri near Mysore, to the son of Kesavacharya of the Yajur Veda, Bhāradvāja gotra. Kali 4154, Tamil year Vijaya, month Cittirai, star Cittirai.
Āḻvān · Ananthalvan · Anantārya
The world named him Āḻvān, as it had named Kūreśa — lost in bhagavad-bhāgavata-ācārya bhakti. Sanskrit Anantārya, Tamil Anandazhvar, Telugu Anantalwar: one man, the gardener of the Hill.
Āṇ Piḷḷai
Ramanuja’s title before the Srirangam assembly: the only man who would climb the forested Hill for puṣpa-kainkarya. From this, descendants are Anantanpiḷḷai vamsasthar.
Madhurakavidāsa
The name he claimed before Srinivasa, and the name the Lord Himself took when He walked the path as a young brahmachari. The line still signs itself Madhurakavidāsa.
Māmaṉār of Veṅkaṭavaṉ
Father-in-law of the Lord of the Hill, father of Alarmelmanga — sung in the vaḻi-tirunāmam after he tied the princess under a champaka and she asked to be taken as his daughter.
Malaiyil Veṅkaṭavarkku māmaṉār vāḻiye Alarmelmangai tiruvukku appaṉār vāḻiye
Glory to him who is father-in-law of the Lord of the Hill. Glory to him who is father of Alarmelmanga.
Vaḻi-tirunāmam