When Ramanuja first climbed the Hill — on his knees, at the flight still called muḻaṅkāl maṭippāṉ — he walked the garden named for him and said, “I have many jñāna-putras; only because of you is there glory to me.” Before returning to Srirangam he embraced an exact replica of himself and gave the image to Ananthalvan.
Scholars hold this the earliest Ramanuja vigraha. The images at Sriperumbudur, Srirangam, and Melkote were consecrated around the Acharya’s last days. This one was presented in his middle years, on his first visit.
When news came that Emberumānār had rested in God, Ananthalvan did not worship Srinivasa for a year. The Lord Himself consoled him and granted two boons: that Irāmānuja Nūṟṟantāti — the prapanna-gāyatrī — be recited one day of Adhyayanotsava, and that Ramanuja’s idol stand close to the garbhagṛha. It was installed, by Vaikhānasa rite, the day after Kaṇṇinuṇ ciṟuttāmpu, on the left of the sanctum.