Ramanujacharya – UPSC Prelims

Sri Ramanujacharya was born in 1017 in SriPerumbudur, Tamil Nadu.

He was one of the most important exponents of the Sri Vaishnavism tradition within Hinduism.

He is famous as the chief proponent of Vishishtadvaita subschool of Vedānta.

He was also referred to as Ilaya Perumal, which means the radiant one.

He worked tirelessly against casteism and social hierarchies, proclaiming that all living beings had the right to Realization.

He also enacted several reforms in temple administration. For instance, at one time the entire administration in the Srirangam Temple in Tiruchirappalli was controlled by a specific caste. He included persons from different castes in the Temple administration. A number of responsibilities were given to women also.

He wrote nine works that came to be known as the Navratnas including three major commentaries, the Vedartha-Sangraha, the Sribhasya and the Bhagavadgita-bhasya aimed at providing a philosophical foundation for devotional worship.

Vishishtadvaita is a non-dualistic school of Vedanta philosophy. It is non-dualism of the qualified whole, in which Brahman alone is seen as the Supreme Reality, but is characterized by multiplicity.

It can be described as qualified monism or qualified non-dualism or attributive monism. It is a school of Vedanta philosophy that believes in all diversity subsuming to an underlying unity.