Sri Manavala Mamunigal Sri ManavALa Maamunigal revered also under the names of Sri Vara Vara Munni, YathIndhra pravaNar is one of the greatest Sri ViashNavite AchAryAs. He was born in the village of Kidaram in the year 1370 AD and ascended paramapadham in the year 1443 AD. He has blessed us with 19 granthams. Three of them are in Sanskrit. The rest are in Tamil and ManipravALam. The three works in Sanskrit are: YathirAja Vimsathi, Sri DevarAja mangalam and Sri Kaanchi DevapperumAL SthOthram. His ninteen granthams can be classified under three major categories: (A) VyAkyAna Granthams or commentaries on the works of earlier AchAryAs like Sri PiLLai Lokaachaar, PeriyavaacchAN PiLLai and Thiruvarangatthu Amudanaar. These eight VyAkhyAna granthams are: 1. Sri Vachana BhUshaNam 2. Mumukshuppadi 3. Tattvathrayam 4. AchArya Hrudhayam 5. Jn~Ana Saaram 6. PramEya Saaram 7. PeriyAzhwAr Thirumozhi 8. RaamAnuja NooRRanthAdhi (B) Three granthams known as PramANa Thirattu are: 1. Eedu 2. Sri Vachana BhUshaNam 3. Tattvathrayam (C) His Own Granthams in Sanskrit (3) and Tamil (5) add up to the remaining Eight : 1. UpadEsa Rathna Maalai 2. ThiruvAimozhi NooRRanthAdhi 3. Iyalc ChaaRRu 4. ThiruvArAdhana Kramam 5. YathirAja Vimsathi 6. DevarAja MangaLam 7. Sri Kanchi DevapperumAL SthOthram 8. Aaarthi Prabhandham, his last grantham .
He lived for 73 years on this earth performing many Kaimkaryams and undertook many pilgrimages to many Sri VishNavite Dhivya dEsams. Most of his life was spent however at Srirangam. The work known as "YathIndhra pravaNa PrabhAvam" records the life and accomplishments of this important AchAryA. His devotion to AchArya RaamAnujA, Swami NammAzhwAr and NammperumAL was extraordinary. He spent a significant portion of his life at Srirangam worshipping Sri Ranganaathan and peforming KaalakshEpams on AzhwAr-AchAryAL aruLiccheyalkaL. When he was 60, Sri RanganAthA wanted to honor Sri ManavALa Maamunigal for all his kaimkaryams in spreading the message of NaalAyira Dhivya prabhandham. He commanded Sri MM to conduct an year long lecture series on SatAri Soori's ThiruvAimozhi at Srirangam in His presence. All the regular uthsavams for the Lord of Srirangam was cancelled that year, while He heard the pravachanams on ThiruvAimozhi based on all the five commentaries starting from aRAyirappadi. At the conclusion of these pravachanams, a small boy with dhivys tEjas came from the back of the sadas and sang a verse that has come to be known as the Taniyan for Sri MaNavALa MaamunigaL: srIsailEsa dayaapaatram dhIbhakthyAdhi guNArNavam YathIndhra pravaNam VandhE RamyajAmAtharam munim The audience and Sri MM were wonderstruck after the small boy disappeared as fast as he came on the scene. Later, through His archakAs, Sri RanganAthA revealed that it was He who appeared as a boy to pronounce the famous Taniyan for Sri ManavALa Maamunigal, who is considered as a reincarnation of AchArya RaamAnujA. Earlier at Thirukkurungudi, the Lord had appeared before RaamAnujA and requested for UpadEsams on rahasyArhtams and took on the name of Sri VaishNava Nambi as a result of these upadEsams.
Thanian of Sri Manavala Mamunigal (Invocatory verse) by Sri Sri U.Ve Velukkudi Krishnan Swami
It is known to one and all that the above srisukti was submitted to the feet of Swami MM by none other than Lord Ranganatha. Namperumal wanted to hear tiruvoimozhi kalakshepam from Swamy MM. He conducted kalakshepam of tiruvoimozhi starting on the paritapi year 31st day of avani sukla caturdasi friday. It continued for 1 year and the sattumurai was on aani moolam. For this one year all the utsavams of namperumal were stopped. During the sattumurai, namperumal appeared as a 5 year old archaka boy and recited this sloka in praise of his acharyan i.e. MM. Why did he choose MM as his acharyan.
Here is an interesting logic.During Ramavatara Viswamitra was Rama's guru who teached mantras. But was he the right guru for such a great being like Rama ? No. He himself was a person who fell prey to kama and krodha. We know that he became the father of Sakuntala and in another instance he even forgot his nitya anushthana. So Rama was not fortunate enough to get a right guru who would be apt for his prabhavam. Rama waited till the next avatara.
Saandipana was Krishna's guru. When the vidyabhyasa was over , Krishna wanted to give guru dakshina anything that his guru wanted. Initially, saandipana refused to accept anything. When Krishna insisted, he consulted his wife and kept a request to Krishna. To search and bring back his lost son. (odu vaimayumuvaniyarpirappum unakku mun tanda anthanan oruvan - kaadal en magan pugalidam kanen - kandu nee taruvai - kodil vaymayinan). Krishna even though fulfilled the wish of his guru, was sad. Why ? Would it not be fitting for a guru to request Krishna for moksham and kainkarya. Leaving that he requested for a wordly pleasure - son. So, krishna had to again wait till his next avatara.
Lord Ranganatha is the representative of Rama and Krishna. Thondaradippodi alwar in his tirumalai first says " silayinal ilangai setra devane dev