Conversations with Sri Swamiji – 1

Below I share some pearls of knowledge during a few of my conversations with our Guru Maharaj…

– K. Janakiraman.

Originally, before the advent of Bhagavat Shri Ramanuja, the Brahmins were known only as ‘Smartha-s’ because they followed the injunctions of the ‘Smriti-s’. Even Swami Ramanuja was a Smartha by birth. But, after his incarnation, there came to be two sects namely the ‘Iyengaar-s’ and the ‘Smartha-s'(Iyer-s). How did the new name ‘Iyengaar’ come to be?

Long back, the states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra were a single province unlike they are now. The word ‘Chennai’ itself, for instance, is not a Tamil word!

In Telugu, the word ‘Iyya’ is used to refer a reverential person. Even in the Kirtan ‘Charanamule Nammidi’ of Swami Bhadrachala Ramadas, he addresses Sri Rama as ‘Iyya, Iyya ,Iyya – nee divya’.

Moreover, In Telugu language, the word ‘garu’ is used after the name of a person to address him with respect, just as in Tamil we use ‘Avargal’. The Telugu speaking people of Sri Ramanuja’s time were greatly influenced by his teachings and held him in high esteem.
So, they named him ‘Iyya’ and hence called him ‘Iyya-Garu’ just as the ladies of great respect were called Amma-Garu.

This title of Sri Ramanuja slowly got transformed into ‘Iyyangaar’ and since then, the followers of Shri Ramanuja even in Tamilnadu came to be known as ‘Iyyangaar-s’!