A Doctrine That Shaped Temple Recitation and Divided a Tradition

Holding the Tamil hymns as scripture rather than as commentary had a direct institutional consequence: major Sri Vaishnava temples such as Srirangam built formal recitation of the Divya Prabandham, performed by a hereditary reciter class, the araiyar, into the same festival calendar that already carried Sanskrit Vedic recitation, giving the vernacular canon a liturgical standing few regional language texts anywhere in Hindu practice have received. The Theology of Ramanuja notes that this equal standing did not settle every question the dual canon raised, and the tradition later split into two schools that read Ubhaya Vedanta's implications differently, Vadakalai, associated with the philosopher Vedanta Desika and a stronger continuing emphasis on Sanskrit learning, and Tenkalai, associated with Manavala Mamuni and a stronger emphasis on the Tamil hymns' own devotional immediacy. The Srivaisnava Theological Dispute, John Carman's study of the debate between these two teachers, situates their disagreement as building directly on the dual scripture doctrine rather than departing from it, since both schools accept both canons as revelation and argue instead over how the relationship between Sanskrit learning and Tamil devotion, and between human effort and divine grace, should be understood within a framework neither side rejects.