Ramanuja ([ɽaːmaːnʊdʑɐ]; Middle Tamil: Rāmāṉujam; Classical Sanskrit: Rāmānuja; c. 1017[b] – 1137), also known as Ramanujacharya, was an Indian Hindu philosopher, guru and social reformer.

[9] Ramanuja is famous as the chief proponent of Vishishtadvaita school of Vedānta,[15][16] and his disciples were likely authors of texts such as the Shatyayaniya Upanishad.

[10] The traditional hagiographies of Ramanuja state he was born to mother Kānthimathi and father Asuri Keshava Somayāji,[22] in Sriperumbudur, near modern Chennai, Tamil Nādu.

[24] However, based on 11th- and 12th-century temple records and regional literature outside the Sri Vaishnava tradition, modern era scholars suggest that Ramanuja might have lived from 1077–1157.

[10] One hagiography states that after leaving Yādava Prakāśa, Ramanuja was initiated into Sri Vaishnavism by Periya Nambi, also called Mahapurna, another Vedānta scholar.

[25] Prior to Ramanuja, the Sri Vaishnava sampradaya was already an established organization under Yamunāchārya, and bhakti songs and devotional ideas were already a part of Tamil culture because of the twelve Alvārs.

[35] Ramanuja's fame grew because he was considered the first thinker in centuries that disputed Shankara's theories, and offered an alternative interpretation of Upanishadic scriptures.

Yamunacharya, the Vaishnavite acharya and the religious head of the Ranganathasamy temple at Srirangam had been closely following Ramanuja from a very young age.

Heart-broken, Ramanuja then left for Kanchi and refused to worship Sri Ranganatha for he held him responsible for taking away Yamunacharya from this world.

While on his way to Kanchi, Mahapurna and his wife decided to take some rest at Maduranthakam, a place that is located 40 km from present day Chennai.

[38] Some hagiographies, composed centuries after Ramanuja died, state that a Chola king, Kulothunga II,[39] had immense hatred towards Sri Vaishnavism.

Sri Rāmānujā then moved to Hoysala kingdom for 14 years, wherein he converted a Jain king, Bitti Deva to Hinduism after miraculously healing his daughter.

[37] So when Ramanuja revolted against the discrimination that had crept within the caste system, he was simply following the same lines as the Alwars and helped the people who were considered to be untouchables (dasa, dasulu, dasu), to get absorbed into the Sri Vaishnava Bhakti Movement, encouraging them to attain Spiritual enlightenment by teaching them Sri Alwar Divyaprabandham.

He called these downtrodden classes as Tirukulattar, meaning "of noble descent" in Tamil, and was instrumental in admitting them into the temple in Melukote.

[51][52] Ramanuja's liberal views also led to the reorganization of rituals in Srirangam and the involvement of non-Brahmin people in the Vaishnava worship.

This policy change contributed to the enhancement of social status for artisanal and other non-Brahmin caste groups, especially the weavers (SenguntharKaikola Mudaliyar) who were one of the chief beneficiaries.

After the period of Ramanuja, the Sri Vaishnava community split on this issue and formed the Vadakalai (northern and Sanskritic) and Thenkalai (southern and Tamil) sects.

[19][62] His ideas are one of three subschools in Vedānta, the other two are known as Ādi Shankara's Advaita (absolute monism) and Madhvāchārya's Dvaita (dualism).

The third source of knowledge is the testimony of scripture, or more strictly, śabda ("eternal sound"), which helps to establish much that is uncertain on the basis of sense perception and inference, notably the existence and nature of the ultimate reality (brahman).

Each of these categories possesses a different degree of awareness, from the non-aware material world to the fully-aware Brahman, but they are all equally real.

Rāmānuja's conception of bhakti maintains that there must always be a separation between the lover (the soul) and the beloved (Vishnu), for true love cannot exist without distinct identities.

In Rāmānuja's philosophy, the foundational concept of the soul-body model revolves around the idea that the entire universe, including both souls (jivas) and matter (prakrti), serves as the body (sarira) of God, referred to as "sarira-sariri-bhava", where "sarira" means body and "sariri" means the indwelling soul or consciousness.

This joy is attained by a life of exclusive devotion (bhakti) to Brahman, singing his praise, performing adulatory acts in temple and private worship, and constantly dwelling on his perfections.

Instrumentally, morality serves as a means to alleviate the karmic burdens of past wrongdoings and to appease the divine, thus facilitating spiritual liberation.

[76] He had four major objections: Ramanuja accepted that the Vedas are a reliable source of knowledge, then critiqued other schools of Hindu philosophy, including Advaita Vedānta, as having failed in interpreting all of the Vedic texts.

[79] Shankara's exegetical approach Samanvayat Tatparya Linga with Anvaya-Vyatireka,[80] states that for proper understanding, all texts must be examined in their entirety, and then their intent established by six characteristics.

[92][93] Shankara's theory posits that only Brahman and causes are metaphysical unchanging reality, while the empirical world (Maya) and observed effects are changing, illusive and of relative existence.

[96][97][98] Ramanuja reformed the Srirangam Ranganathaswamy temple complex, undertook India-wide tours and expanded the reach of his organization.

[11] Ramanuja set up centers of studies for his philosophy during the 11th and 12th centuries, by traveling through India in that era, and these influenced generations of poet saints devoted to the Bhakti movement.

[102] Ramanuja is also known as Śrī Rāmānujāchārya, Udaiyavar, Ethirājar (Yatirāja, king of monks), Bhashyakara (Bhashyakarulu in Telugu),[103] Godāgrajar, Thiruppavai Jeeyar, Emberumānār and Lakshmana Muni[1] Biographies Works Others