Sri Ramauja distilled Si Vaishnavaites concepts from works of earlier acharyas, aazhwars, puranas and veda's and organised it into a distinct sect within the Hindu fold..
The emphasis on strict adherence to only one god Narayana even forbidding the followers to worship another by persuasion and not coercion, embossing Shanku, chakram on forearm on all who belong to this sect and the acceptance of any one to this fold irrespective of caste or creed with the only rider that of total devotion toVishnu/narayana and injunction to consider the true devotees of Narayana at par with Narayana himself and directing all others to show them greatest respect and standardising temple rituals , makes me wonder if such reforms that includes conversion and absorption which was unthinkable 1000 years back emanating from a Brahmin at his times was all due to reaction to Ghazni and earlier Arab invasions.
Whilst Adi Shanakara had to contend with Buddhist influence and tried to counter it by debates and setting up mutts an idea that may have been borrowed from very same religion he tried to counter --buddists monastries, to propagate Hinduism systematically Sri ramanuja had to contend with influence of Islam and probably had the far sight to quickly adapt some of its salient feature like one god ,equality and, conversion so as to counter its spread.
Sri Ramanuja and his views were welcomed and adapted by the high and low in Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra but was repugnant to the higher class and castes in kashmir, Kerala and Orissa ,when he went their with his views and was physically thrashed and was chased away from their domains since they wanted the existing inflexible order to continue much to the detriment of the religion and its influence they so much wanted to preserve.
The emphasis on strict adherence to only one god Narayana even forbidding the followers to worship another by persuasion and not coercion, embossing Shanku, chakram on forearm on all who belong to this sect and the acceptance of any one to this fold irrespective of caste or creed with the only rider that of total devotion toVishnu/narayana and injunction to consider the true devotees of Narayana at par with Narayana himself and directing all others to show them greatest respect and standardising temple rituals , makes me wonder if such reforms that includes conversion and absorption which was unthinkable 1000 years back emanating from a Brahmin at his times was all due to reaction to Ghazni and earlier Arab invasions.
Whilst Adi Shanakara had to contend with Buddhist influence and tried to counter it by debates and setting up mutts an idea that may have been borrowed from very same religion he tried to counter --buddists monastries, to propagate Hinduism systematically Sri ramanuja had to contend with influence of Islam and probably had the far sight to quickly adapt some of its salient feature like one god ,equality and, conversion so as to counter its spread.
Sri Ramanuja and his views were welcomed and adapted by the high and low in Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andhra but was repugnant to the higher class and castes in kashmir, Kerala and Orissa ,when he went their with his views and was physically thrashed and was chased away from their domains since they wanted the existing inflexible order to continue much to the detriment of the religion and its influence they so much wanted to preserve.
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