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Rāmānuja

Rāmānuja

1017 CE–1137 CE · Śrīperumbudūr

traditionally 1017–1137 CE (a 120-year lifespan — hagiographic); modern scholarship favors c. 1077–1157 CE; disputed

Rāmānuja is the central figure of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta and the great systematizer of Śrī Vaiṣṇava theology. Against Śaṅkara's strict non-dualism, he taught a 'qualified non-dualism': Brahman is the personal God Viṣṇu-Nārāyaṇa, and the multiplicity of conscious souls (cit) and matter (acit) are real, forming the 'body' of God while remaining distinct from him. His major works — the Śrī-bhāṣya (commentary on the Brahma-sūtra), the Vedārtha-saṃgraha, the Gītā-bhāṣya, and the three Gadyas — grounded devotion (bhakti) and self-surrender (prapatti) as the path to liberation. Born at Śrīperumbudūr, he studied Advaita under Yādava Prakāśa at Kāñcīpuram before breaking with him, took up leadership of the community at Śrīraṅgam, and is said to have reorganized its temple worship. Persecution (traditionally by a Cōḻa king) drove him into exile in the Hoysala country at Melkote, where he stayed many years before returning to Śrīraṅgam. His traditional dates (1017–1137) imply a 120-year life and are hagiographic; modern scholarship commonly shifts the span to c. 1077–1157.

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Did you know?

  • Alive for the Norman Conquest — and for seventy years after

    The philosopher Rāmānuja is traditionally dated 1017–1137, which would place him at about 49 years old in 1066 — the year William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings and reshaped England — with, by that same tradition, roughly seven more decades of life still ahead of him. (Modern scholars, working from temple records, instead suggest c. 1077–1157.)

    How we know

    Rāmānuja: traditional dates 1017–1137 CE (hagiographic ~120-yr lifespan); modern scholarly estimate c. 1077–1157. Battle of Hastings / Norman Conquest = 1066 (William the Conqueror). Age in 1066 = 49; 1137 is 71 years after 1066.

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Stop 1 of 5Born

Śrīperumbudūr

What they did here

Birthplace; born to a Tamil Brāhmaṇa family.

About Śrīperumbudūr

Śrīperumbudūr is a town in the Kāñcīpuram district of Tamil Nadu, south India, west of Chennai. It is the birthplace of Rāmānuja (traditionally 1017–1137), the foremost teacher of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta and the Śrī Vaiṣṇava tradition.

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Rāmānuja’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.