Ramanuja Vaibhavam Chapter - 015

Sri AalavandAr Mutt and the legendary MAraNer Nambi

As rAmAnujA faced all these experiences, his spiritual preceptor Sri ALavandAr was laying the groundwork for the resurgence of VaishNavA thought in the country. He had constructed a Mutt near the temple at SriRangam and fixed a date for the warming ceremony of the Mutt. On hearing the dates, MAraNer Nambi, who was an adherent follower and disciple of AalavandAr, belonging to a supposedly ‘lower’ varNa, decided to visit the Mutt one day before the ceremony as he thought that it may not be appropriate for a person of his social standing to enter the Mutt after the warming ceremony. Hence he visited the Mutt the night before the warming ceremony taking care not to be noticed. However he was indeed noticed and the news reached SriYAmunA. The latter called off the ‘mutt-warming’ adding with love, that Maaraner Nambi’s feet had rendered the premises auspicious and that there was no need for any rituals anymore.

ALavandAr’s Mutt was situated in the East Chitraveedhi in SriRangam and was later gifted to Periya Nambi by ALavandAr. Thereafter it came to be known as Periya Nambi TiruMaLigai.