Raghavendra Swamy Mutt, Shenbakkam – History
This
place is famous for more than 800 years. This place is fortunate to get the
foot prints of various holy Madhava Saints. History has it that on his way from
Rameswaram during the 13th century, Sri Madhwacharya stayed at
Shenbakkam and wrote a Grantha (commentary) on Sri Vishnu Sahashra Namam. He is
supposed to have visited this place when he toured many pilgrim places in South
India between 1256 and 1259. A renowned philosopher, he was the first to treat
all Hindu scriptures equally and give all of them equal importance. While
philosophers before him distinguished between Vedas and Upanishads, he treated
them as one. He was the first philosopher to formulate a philosophical
interpretation of the Rig Veda.
Sri
Vyasaraja, the previous incarnation of Sri Raghavendra installed a Sanjeeviraya
Hanuman Idol here. This is one of his 732 Vyasa Pradhishta Hanuman. He too
stayed on here and made arrangements for the pooja of the Hanuman idol. Kalyyuga
Kalpatharu / Kamdhenu Mantralaya Sri Raghavendra Swamiji stayed in this
place for 14 days and did pooja of the holy saints. Raghavendra Swamy
(1591-1671) is believed to have acquired a high level of scholarship on reading
Kambalur Ramachandra Theertha’s Granthas.
Interestingly,
Kambalur was a disciple of Vijendra Theertha of Kumbakonam who in turn was a
disciple of Vyasa Raja. Sripathi Theertha, tenth in the order of descendants of
Madhwacharya, stayed at Shenbakkam for Chathurmasyam and attained Brindavanastha
in 1612. His disciple Kambalur Ramachandra Theertha (1575-1635) too entered
Brindavana here. Apart from them, several other Madhwa saints choose to enter
Brindavana.
When the
devotees of Sri Guru Raghavendra wanted to establish a Mrithika Brindavanam for
the saint, they decided to install it in the vicinity of the above eight Moola
Brindavanams in order to renovate and popularize them among the followers of
the Dwaita philosophy. The Mrithika Brindavanam was consecrated in June 1991 in
what is today known as the Nava Brindavanam Complex. The 334th Aradhana
celebrations of Sri Guru Raghavendra are to be held in the complex on August
21.
