Biography
From Siruputtur to the Seven Hills
Ananthan, son of Kesavacharya. Āḻvān to the world. Āṇ Piḷḷai to Ramanuja. Madhurakavidāsa to the Lord. Gardener, chronicler, and the man who would not come down.
Bronze of Ananthalvan — from the 1882 biography of Puriśai Srīrāngācāriyār.
A quiet birth, a loud courage
He was born in 1053 — Kali 4154, Tamil year Vijaya, month Cittirai, star Cittirai — at Siruputtur on the Kaveri, near Mysore, to a Śrīvaiṣṇava of the Yajur Veda and Bhāradvāja gotra. The child was named Ananthan. Śrī Rāmānuja, thirty-six years older, was already the teacher of this sampradāya.
The sampradāya does not call this chance. Ādiśeṣa, bidden to take human birth, came as the teacher and as the one who lived the teaching: Śrī Rāmānuja for upadeśa, Ananthalvan for anuṣṭhāna — as Nara and Nārāyaṇa had once sat together at Badari. The boy grew deep in śāstra and in bhagavad-bhāgavata bhakti. For that the Śrīvaiṣṇavas called him Āḻvān — one who has gone deep. They had already given that word to Śrī Kūrattāḻvān, Kūreśa of Kūram, the disciple who stood beside Śrī Rāmānuja.
He went to Srirangam. Śrī Rāmānuja first sent him to Śrī Aruḷāḷapperumāḷ Emberumānār, who sent him back: the charge was a palm-fruit on a sparrow’s neck. From then he held every word of Śrī Emberumānār as his śāstra.
In the ghoṣṭhi at Srirangam, Śrī Rāmānuja asked who would climb the forest of Tirumala — tiger, fever, and cold — to lay a garden for the Lord. The seventy-four simhāsanādhipatis kept silent. Ananthalvan alone stood. He would not leave his ācārya’s wish undone. Śrī Rāmānuja embraced him and named him āṇ piḷḷai, the one man of courage in that assembly.
The years
Stations of a life
1053 CE
Birth at Siruputtur
Born in Kali 4154, Tamil year Vijaya, month Cittirai, star Cittirai, to Kesavacharya of the Yajur Veda, Bhāradvāja gotra, at Siruputtur (Kirangur) on the Kaveri near Mysore. Named Ananthan. Ramanuja had been born thirty-six years earlier at Sriperumbudur. Tradition holds both as twin aṃśas of Ādiśeṣa — one for upadeśa, one for anuṣṭhāna.
Youth
The silent scholar
He mastered śāstra and Veda and was lost in bhagavad-bhāgavata-ācārya bhakti, unconcerned with the outer world. The Śrīvaiṣṇavas therefore called him Āḻvān — one gone deep — as they had called Śrī Kūrattāḻvān (Kūreśa of Kūram), Eṅgaḻ Āḻvān, and Nādātur Āḻvān.
Srirangam
At Ramanuja’s feet
He went to Srirangam with Eccan, Tondanur Nambi, and Marudur Nambi. Śrī Rāmānuja first sent him to Śrī Aruḷāḷapperumāḷ Emberumānār, who refused the charge as a palm-fruit on a sparrow’s neck. Ananthalvan returned and remained in Śrī Rāmānuja’s ghoṣṭhi.
The call
Āṇ Piḷḷai
During a discourse on Tiruvāymoḻi 3.3.2, Ramanuja asked who would lay a garden on Tirumala. None of the seventy-four would go. Ananthalvan rose. Ramanuja named him āṇ piḷḷai and sent him to the Hills for puṣpa-kainkarya.
Tirumala
Ramanuja nandavanam
He laid the garden at the south-west of the temple, dug a lake and a tank, and named the garden Irāmānusan — lake and tank likewise for Ramanuja. Hearing that Yāmunāchārya had once kept a cottage there for flower service, he built a maṇṭapa on that spot, set up Yāmunāchārya’s image, and strung the daily garlands in that pavilion — the Yamunatturai maṇḍapa of the Madhurakavidāsa episode. Vakula, pāṭala, punnāga, and śenbaga filled the groves. The crowbar līlā and pacchaikarpuram belong to this labour.
First visit
Ramanuja on his knees
Ramanuja hesitated to profane a Hill walked by Āḻvārs. Ananthalvan said that if the Acharya did not climb, generations of disciples would take it as śiṣṭācāra and abandon kainkarya. Ramanuja ascended on his knees — the flight still called muḻaṅkāl maṭippāṉ. Periya Tirumalai Nambi met him with tīrtha: “I searched the four mada streets; there is no one younger than me.” In the garden Ramanuja said, “Having nursed thee, I now reap the fruit.” He stayed three days; the worship of the Lord was his food.
Second visit
Embar, and the Acharya’s image
After the three days Śrī Rāmānuja stayed a year at Tirupati and learnt the Rāmāyaṇa rahasyārthas from Periya Tirumalai Nambi. At the end he asked a favour: the service of Govinda Bhaṭṭa — Embar. Nambi obliged. Śrī Rāmānuja and Embar ascended again. At Ananthalvan’s request the Acharya consented for an exact replica of himself to be made, embraced the vigraha, and gave it into the gardener’s hands. The sampradāya takes this as the first image of Śrī Rāmānuja.
Third visit
Temple order
With Periya Tirumalai Nambi, Śrī Rāmānuja set the Pedda Jeeyangar Mutt to regulate Vaikhānasa worship. The 1882 life and the colophon of the grantha name the Veṅkaṭācala Itihāsamālā as Ananthalvan’s — to Tirupati what Kōyil Oḻugu is to Srirangam. Aiyangar, printing it in 1937, noted that the colophon is not beyond doubt, and still kept the book. Śrī Rāmānuja opened the Śrībhāṣya with an invocation to Brahmaṇi Śrīnīvāse.
After 1137
The shrine of the Acharya
After Śrī Rāmānuja’s passing, Ananthalvan did not worship Srinivasa for a year. The Lord consoled him and granted two boons: that Irāmānuja Nūṟṟantāti — the prapanna-gāyatrī — be recited one day of Adhyayanotsava, and that Śrī Rāmānuja’s idol stand close to the garbhagṛha. It was installed, by Vaikhānasa rite, the day after Kaṇṇinuṇ ciṟuttāmpu, on the left of the sanctum. In his last days his son Ramanujacharya assisted the puṣpa-kainkarya. He asked a disciple of Bhattar which name of the Lord was dear to Bhattar. The answer came: Aḻagiya Maṇavāḷapperumāḷ. No year of leaving the body is written. From Kali 4154 to the image after 1137 he had reached his eighty-fourth year.
Āḍi Pūram
Under the magizha tree
He joined the Lord on Andal’s birthday, Āḍi Pūram. His brindāvanam stands in the garden. The Āṟāyirappaṭi Guruparamparāprabhāvam records that on both his star (Cittirai Cittirai) and this tīrtha day, Srinivasa still visits the garden and honours the magizha (vakula) tree — under which his body was given to the fire — with His own garland and Śaṭhakopa. Tradition treats the tree as Ananthalvan remaining on the Hill.
Puṣpa-maṇṭapam
Ramanuja named three halls: Srirangam for enjoyment, Kanchi for sacrifice, Tirumala for flowers. The garden Ananthalvan laid at the south-west of the temple was named Irāmānusan, with its lake and tank. He became to Srinivasa what Tirukkacchi Nambi was to Varadarāja — the friend who spoke with the archā as with a person.
He lived to install his Acharya’s image after 1137. Counted from Kali 4154, that is his eighty-fourth year. He died on Āḍi Pūram in the garden, his son Ramanujacharya at the kainkarya. In those last days he asked a disciple of Bhattar which sacred name of the Lord was dear to Bhattar. The answer was Aḻagiya Maṇavāḷapperumāḷ — the name by which Srivaishnavas refer to Ranganatha. The very mention produced immense ecstatic delicacy. Then he shed his mortal coil.
Names
How he is known
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 Śrīvaiṣṇavas called him Āḻvān — one gone deep in bhagavad-bhāgavata-ācārya bhakti. They had given the same word to Śrī Kūrattāḻvān, Kūreśa of Kūram, the disciple who stood beside Śrī Rāmānuja. Sanskrit Anantārya, Tamil Anandazhvar, Telugu Anantalwar: one man, the gardener of the Hill.
Āṇ Piḷḷai · Ananta-puruṣārya
Ramanuja’s title before the Srirangam assembly: the only man who would climb the forested Hill for puṣpa-kainkarya. Aiyangar’s English of the Itihāsamālā records the same title in Sanskrit — Ananta-puruṣārya, puruṣa a manly man. 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.
श्रीमद् रामानुजाचार्य श्रीपादाम्भोरुहद्वयम् । सदुत्तमाङ्गसन्धार्यम् अनन्तार्यमहं भजे ॥
I worship Anantharya, who is equal to the two lotus feet of Sri Ramanuja, and whom the good bear upon their heads.
Second taniyan of Ananthalvan