Sri Venkatanatha (Vedanta Desika) (1268-1309 A.D.) was a great post-Ramanuja writer of the Visistadvaita School of thought. He was a polymath with more than one hundred works to his credit, covering several branches of learning like Nyaya, Mimamsa, Vedanta and Sahitya. His Yadavabhyudaya was commented upon by the great Advaitin Sri Appaya Diksita who paid beautiful encomia to the poetic genius of Desika. Desika wrote in Sanskrit, in Manipravala (Sanskritized Tamil), Prakrit and pure Tamil. He reinforced Sri Ramanuja’s Philosophy and strode like a colossus among contemporary scholars and was an uncompromising critic of (lie rival Schools of thought. Desika was an embodiment of humility and simplicity, detachment from worldly enjoyments and unalloyed devotion to the Divine couple, Sriman-Narayana. A great exponent of the Dravida Veda (Divyaprabandha of the Azhvars) as also the Sanskrit Vedanta, Desika was also responsible for the establishment of two important. Srivaisnava Mathas-Sri Ahohila Matha and Sri Parakala Matha. He resloved the processional Deity of Srirarigam after the threat receded. The world of scholars remembers him with gratitude for the role he played in saving the sole manuscript of Sudarsana Suri’s Commentary Srutaprakasika on the Sribhasya of Sri Ramanuja, during the sack of Srirangam.
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