What remains
Crowbar, camphor, satari, magizha tree, brindāvanam, and a line that still signs itself Madhurakavidāsa.
On the evening of Āḍi Pūram, Lord Srinivasa with His consorts still processes to the garden, offers prasāda, and on the return honours the magizha tree with flowers and Śaṭhakopa. Outside Ananthalvan’s tirumāḷigai the satari receives tīrumanjana. Tradition reads the tree as the Acharya remaining on the Hill — Kulaśekhara’s wish, granted in another body.
The crowbar hangs at the right of the main gopura entrance. Pacchaikarpuram on the chin of the mūlavar is among the most intimate marks of Tirumala worship, distributed as śrīpādarēṇu. A thousand years of that mark began in a garden argument.
The brindāvanam stands in the nandavanam where he breathed his last. The Ramanuja shrine he consecrated remains on the left of the garbhagṛha — the image given by the Acharya himself, older in origin than the better-known vigrahas of Sriperumbudur, Srirangam, and Melkote.
Descendants are Anantanpiḷḷai vamsasthar and Madhurakavidāsas. With Periṇ Tirumalai Nambi and Ramanuja he stands at the founding of the Pedda Jeeyangar Mutt. Epigraphs TT 171–173 and 175 record his dedication. In 1882 the sthala-ācārya Puriśai Srīrāngācāriyār wrote the Sanskrit and Telugu biography from which this account is drawn.
The living garden
The garden-shrine that still carries his name — gate, tank, inscription, and the wall where he stands with joined palms.
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 outer gate. Ramanuja sits to the Lord’s right; Alarmelmanga and Bhudevi stand with Him. Dvarapalakas keep the posts.
The inner entrance. A board at the left names the place in Telugu, Hindi, and English: Sriman Anantalwar Thota.
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.
A stone kiosk at the thota carries the gardener’s record, under a string of marigold.
On the wall of the shrine: Garuda, Sudarsana, the namam, the conch, Hanuman — and Ananthalvan himself, standing with joined palms.
The side shrine, with the same marks of Srinivasa painted on the wall — namam, discus, and conch under the coconut trees.
Vaḻi-tirunāmam
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.
On Āḍi Pūram the Lord still walks to the nandavanam. The satari of the main sanctum is Śaṭhakopa, for Nammāḻvār; the satari of Ramanuja’s shrine is Ananthalvan. At Govindarāja’s temple in Tirupati, Madhurakavi and Ananthalvan share one shrine. Melkote still dresses Tirunārāyaṇa as Srinivasa on Ekādaśi and on Ananthalvan’s birthday — because the Acharya, visiting, would see no other form.
The biographer
Chatuś-śāstra paṇḍita, compared to Vasiṣṭha in anuṣṭhāna, chief sthala-ācārya puruṣa of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam at the turn of the century. From Guruparamparā, Vārtamālā, and the Itihāsamālā itself he wrote Śrī Veṅkaṭādri Śrīmad Anantārya Mahimākathā Saṅgraha in Sanskrit and Telugu. A Manipravāla rendering followed in the family; T.A. Krishnamacharya issued a Tamil Vaibhavam in 1959 through the TTD Bulletin; T.C.A. Ramanujam made the English that this shrine reads.
Originally in Sanskrit by Sri U.Ve. Mahavidvan Puriśai Srīrāngācāriyār Swami, sthala-ācārya of TTD (1882). Tamil version and introduction by Sri U.Ve. T.A. Krishnamacharya. English by T.C.A. Ramanujam. Foreword by K.K.A. Venkatachari.
The garland of historical tales of the Hill of Venkata, attributed to Anantārya. Edited by Rajasevasakta Dr S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar for the Tirumalai-Tirupati Devasthanam Series, 1937, from a rare Telugu edition associated with MM. Srirangacharya of Tirupati.
The elephant of Bhūtattāḻvār, the meeting with Nanjiyar, and the Madhurakavidāsa vow — as Ananthalvan himself read them.
Sanskrit taniyans in Devanagari from the Hindu Vedic Temple of Virginia. Anantarya Mangala Dasashloki of Varadacharya, and the Thirumanjana Kattiyam recited at his sacred bath, from acharya.org.
Śrī Tirumalai Anantārya Svāmi. Prepared by Sunder Kidāmbi with the blessings of Śrīmad Āṇḍavan Śrīraṅgam, from prapatti.com. Telugu as printed, with Devanagari and English on this shrine.