What remains
Crowbar, camphor, satari, magizha tree, brindāvanam, and a line that still signs itself Madhurakavidāsa.
On Cittirai Cittirai and on the evening of Āḍi Pūram, Lord Srinivasa with His consorts still processes to the garden, offers prasāda, and honours the magizha tree — under which Ananthalvan’s body was given to the fire — with His own garland and Śaṭhakopa. Outside the 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 Periya 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 garden
Vaḻi-tirunāmam
மலையில் வேங்கடவற்கு மாமனார் வாழியே மணிச்சுடர் கொள் அனந்தனென இங்குதித்தோன் வாழியே உலகுக்கோர் தஞ்சமென உதித்தருள்வோன் வாழியே உலகமுண்ட மால்அடிமை உகந்தருள்வோன் வாழியே இலகு சித்திரையில் சித்திரையோன் வாழியே எந்தை எதிராசர் இணையடியோன் வாழியே அலர்மேல்மங்கை திருவுக்கு அப்பனார் வாழியே அனந்தாழ்வான் திருவடிகள் அனவரதம் வாழியே
Long life to the father-in-law of Veṅkaṭavaṉ of the Hill. Long life to him who took birth here as Anantha, taking the jewel-light. Long life to him who arose as a refuge for the world. Long life to him who rejoiced in the service of the Lord who swallowed the worlds. Long life to him of bright Chithirai, born in Chithirai. Long life to him at the pair of feet of my father Yatiraja. Long life to the father of Alarmelmanga Thiru. May the sacred feet of Ananthazhwan live without end.
Vaḻi-tirunāmam · acharya.org/sloka/vtn
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.
Sthala-ācārya of Tirumala · Ānanta Sūri vamsa
Thirumalai Ananthanpillai — the Puriśai ācārya-puruṣa line of the Hill, not the Nadadur house of Cheyyar
Śrīraṅga Sūri of Śrīśaila Ānanta Sūri’s line. He composed the Śrīnivāsa Gadyam and the Lakṣmī Gadyam, and in 1882 he wrote the life of Ananthalvan.
The colophon of both hymns is the same: śrīraṅgasūriṇedaṃ śrīśailānantasurivaṃśyena bhaktyā racitam. Śrīśaila Ānanta Sūri is Ananthalvan. The descendant who signs himself Śrīraṅga Sūri is Puriśai Śrīraṅgācāri of Tirumala — Sri Ubhayavedānta Vidvān Thirumalai Ananthanpillai Purasai Srirangachariyar Svami, as T.A. Krishnamacharya names him.
Chatuś-śāstra paṇḍita, compared to Vasiṣṭha in anuṣṭhāna, chief sthala-ācārya puruṣa of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam. Puriśai here is the ācārya-puruṣa family of the Hill, one of the seven, recorded as descendants of Ananthalvan. They recite Divya Prabandham in the ghoṣṭi headed by the Pedda Jeeyangar, receive tīrtham after the Thollappacharya line, and keep the Madhurakavi shrine at Govindarāja’s temple in Tirupati. The village of that name in Cheyyar taluk is another Puriśai — Nadadur vamsam, a later Swami. This Swami is Ananthanpillai.
1882 life · birth, Āṇ Piḷḷai, crowbar, garden līlā, taniyans, Dasashloki. Garden trees named vakula, pāṭala, punnāga, śenbaga — not roses.
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 public English copy is Internet Archive ta-ab-tcar-ao.
Open the source1937 TTD · Stabaka VI Anantārya, Yamunatturai, Ananta-puruṣārya. Stabaka VII image of Ramanuja, Śaṭhakopa Yati. Aiyangar’s English running account.
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. Seven stabakas. The 1937 English introduction is followed on this shrine; the Devanagari grantha is kept as a source.
Open the sourceDraft · Itihasamala opening, purana chapters, Pada-padi. Chin remains the 1882 life.
Release 3, marked a draft. A few accounts from the Venkatachala Itihasamala, then the Mahatmyam from Brahmanda, Markandeya, and Vamana. The compiler says the English is not yet reviewed by scholars. It tells the chin twice, and neither telling is the 1882 life. This shrine keeps the draft beside the 1937 grantha. It does not correct the grantha, and it does not correct the life.
Open the source1953 TTD · Granthamala No. 4 · pp. 79–85 Anandazhvan.
Being a history of the Tirumala–Tirupati temples. Sri Vaishnava Sampradaya Granthamala No. 4. Edited by K. Balasundara Nayakar, Reader in Tamil, Sri Venkatesvara Oriental Institute. Series editor Prof. P. V. Ramanujaswami. First edition, TTD Press, Tirupati, 1953, by order of C. Anna Rao. The editor places the chronicle in the latter sixteenth century. The author is unnamed. He names Andazhvan (Anantarya) as the author of the Pūrva Veṅkaṭācala Itihāsamālā, and says that work’s matter is in the Olugu only up to the heading on the Lord hearing the arulicheyals. Printed pages 79–85 are the arayar, the year without the garden, the Lord’s words after Ramanuja’s passing, the Nurrantati, and the consecration of Ramanuja’s image. The scan is not hosted: the rights are the Devasthanams’.
Open the sourceacharya.org/an · taniyans, vaḻi, tirunāḷ, Dasashloki, Kattiyam, Catuḥślokīs, Ārāyirappaṭi episodes.
The Srivaishnava archive of TCA Venkatesan. Sanskrit and Tamil taniyans, the Tiruvāymoḻi taniyan of Ananthazhwan, vaḻi-tirunāmam and tirunāḷ pāṭṭu, Anantarya Mangala Dasashloki, Thirumanjana Kattiyam, Rāmānuja and Godā Catuḥślokīs, T.A. Krishnamachariar’s Tamil of the Itihāsamālā (Tiruvenkatamalai Varalatru Malai), the 1882 English life, and the Hindu article of T.C.A. Ramanujam (21 April 2000). Articles on Anandazhvan with Bhūtattāḻvār, Madhurakavi, and Nanjiyar. The English page of the Sanskrit taniyans mislabels them as Nathamuni — the Devanagari and this shrine keep Anantārya.
Open the source31 March 2013 · Irāmānusan; Virajā / Puṣkariṇī; magizha on Cittirai and Āḍi Pūram.
A 2013 guruparamparai life, drawing on the Āṟāyirappaṭi Guruparamparāprabhāvam, Vārthāmālai, vyākhyānams, Periya Tirumuḍi Aḍaivu, and MAV Swamy’s Vāḻvum Vākkum. Records Aruḷāḷapperumāḷ Emberumānār as the first ācārya Ramanuja assigned; the garden named Irāmānusan; the snake-bite reply of Virajā and Puṣkariṇī; the ants of the Hill; and that the Lord honours the magizha tree on both Cittirai Cittirai and Āḍi Pūram.
Open the sourceJETUK, 2015 · Purusai Thota Utsav. Festival retelling; trees as in 1882, not the pamphlet.
Jeeyar Educational Trust children’s telling of the garden līlā, printed 2015. Names the festival Purusai Thota Utsav: Ananthalvan tied Alarmelmanga, processed her to the sanctum, and is remembered as father-in-law of Srinivasa. Kept here as a festival retelling. The 1882 garden remains vakula, pāṭala, punnāga and śenbaga — not the pamphlet’s roses and daisies.
Open the sourceacharya.org · Ananthazhvar-and-Bhoothatthazhvar; Nanjeeyar; Madhurakavi.
The elephant of Bhūtattāḻvār, the meeting with Nanjiyar, and the Madhurakavidāsa vow — as Ananthalvan himself read them. Texts from acharya.org.
Open the sourceStotras page · Devanagari taniyans; Tamil vaḻi and tirunāḷ in full.
Sanskrit taniyans in Devanagari from the Hindu Vedic Temple of Virginia and acharya.org/an/staniyan-skt.html. Tamil taniyans and the Tiruvāymoḻi taniyan from acharya.org/an. Anantarya Mangala Dasashloki of Varadacharya, and the Thirumanjana Kattiyam recited at his sacred bath. Full eight-line vaḻi-tirunāmam and tirunāḷ pāṭṭu as printed at acharya.org.
Open the sourceprapatti.com · four verses each, as printed.
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.
Open the sourceVeṅkaṭeśa Kāvyakalāpa · both colophons name Śrīraṅga Sūri of the Ānanta Sūri line.
Both hymns close śrīraṅgasūriṇedaṃ śrīśailānantasurivaṃśyena. The Śrīnivāsa Gadyam asks Veṅkaṭeśa to accept it; the Lakṣmī Gadyam asks Padmāvatī. Sanskrit of the first as in the Telugu Veṅkaṭeśa Kāvyakalāpa, encoded by Malleswara Rao Yellapragada. The Lakṣmī Gadyam is the same print: verse 3 is Ananthalvan and the campaka. Cūrṇikā 28 of the Śrīnivāsa Gadyam is the crowbar on the chin.
Open the sourceSthala-ācārya of the Hill · colophon of both gadyams · 1882 mahimā.
Sri U.Ve. Mahavidvan Thirumalai Ananthanpillai Purisai Srirangachariyar Swami. Chief sthala-ācārya of TTD. Of Ananthalvan’s line — the Puriśai ācārya-puruṣa family of Tirumala, not the Nadadur village of Cheyyar. Composer of the Śrīnivāsa Gadyam and the Lakṣmī Gadyam. Author of the Sanskrit and Telugu Ananthalvan mahimā, 1882. Aiyangar names MM. Srirangacharya of Tirupati as the scholar of the Telugu Itihāsamālā.
Open the source