Aadhi Kesava
Perumal Temple, Kooram – Legends
Koorathazhwar, also known as Kuresa and Srivatsanka
Mishra, was the chief disciple of the great Vaishnavite acharya Ramanuja.
He assisted Ramanuja in all his endeavours. He was born as Kuresan in a small
hamlet Kooram
near Kanchipuram, in the year of 1010 A.D (Sowmya year, Thai month,
Hastham star), in an affluent family. He belonged to the clan of Haritha,
who were popular landlords. Koorathazhwar was married at a young age to Andal,
a devoted and pious lady. Both of them led a happy and peaceful life. They were
deeply devoted to Lord Varadaraja Perumal.
The pious couple were very famous in the holy town of
Kanchipuram, for their unstinting philanthropy and kindness. Their
children were Parasara Bhattar and Veda Vyasa Bhattar. Kuresan was heavily
influenced by the teachings of Ramanujacharya, who was staying in Kanchipuram
at that time. It was the time when Ramanuja's teachings were growing popular
and his fame was slowly spreading. Kuresan quickly approached Ramanuja and
became his disciple. A bond was established between them and under the
effective guidance of Ramanuja, Kuresan was initiated into rigorous study of Vedic
scriptures and other holy works.
Meanwhile, due to other plans of the Lord, Ramanuja
moved to Srirangam and the friendship between Ramanuja and Koorathazhwar came
to a temporary end. Later Koorathazhwar continued his earlier philanthropic
works. Once, it happened that Lord Varadaraja Perumal and his Consort Perundevi
Piratti heard a heavy sound of a door being closed. The actual reason was that,
Kuresan had closed the brass doors of his home, after completing his daily
routine of feeding the poor. By the order of the Lord, who appeared in the
dream, the chief priest arrived at the door step of Kuresan to bring him to the
Lord.
On hearing this news, rather than feeling happy, Kuresan
was extremely saddened, as he thought that it was a sin on his part to disturb
the Lord and his consort at the night time, by announcing his charity
activities. This incident created a turmoil in the mind of Kuresan, which was a
turning point in his life. At once he and his wife decided to renounce all
their belongings and move to Srirangam, where Ramanuja was staying. On reaching
Srirangam, the couple were given a warm welcome and Ramanuja was very happy to
have his old friend again.
Kuresan became a disciple of Ramanuja and assisted him
in all his works such as spiritual study, management of the temple,
philosophical compositions and many others. Soon Koorathazhwar became the hand
and eye of Sri Ramanujacharya. One of the main aims of Ramanujacharya was to
compose the Sri Bhashya. To compose this work, he wanted to refer
Bodhayana's vritti Brahma Sutras, an ancient parchment. This work was
available in the royal library of the state of Kashmir. Ramanujacharya and
Koorathazhwar, along with certain other disciples undertook the tedious journey
to Kashmir and met the king of that state.
The king was very much pleased with these men of divine
nature and immediately granted them access to the library. But the pundits of
that place were not pleased with the outsiders and troubled them a lot. They
put forth a condition that the vritti shall not leave the library. So,
Ramanujacharya and Koorathazhwar decided to read the vritti within the premises
of the library itself. To incur more trouble, the pundits went still further to
put a condition that no notes must be taken, by reading the vritti. Then
Ramanujacharya decided to return to Srirangam and they started their journey
back south.
Ramanujacharya was disappointed for not making adequate
reading of the vritti. But after reaching Srirangam he realized that he had
lost nothing. Koorathazhwar had read the entire text of the vritti and had
memorized it completely. He was able to recall the vritti, instantly and
accurately word-by-word. With great sense of fulfilment, Ramanujacharya
completed the Sri Bhashya, which was a commentary on the Brahmasutras. Sri
Bhashya was completed mainly because of the involvement of Koorathazhwar.
His works include Sri Vaikunta Stavam, Athimanusha Stavam, Sundarabahu
Stavam, Varadaraja Stavam and Sri Stavam. These five works were
collectively known as Panchastavee.
After a certain period of time, the glory of Sri
Ramanujacharya spread far and wide. Along with it, grew the number of enemies,
i.e. the people who became jealous on Sri Ramanujacharya. At that time, the
present Chola king was influenced by certain groups and he ordered Sri
Ramanujacharya to be brought to his court. Coming to know this, Koorathazhwar
immediately rushed back to the mutt in Srirangam and requested Sri
Ramanujacharya and the others to move away to some safer place.
Though not interested in moving, Sri Ramanujacharya had
to oblige to his adamant disciples. When the soldiers came to the mutt,
Koorathazhwar was dressed up as Ramanujacharya. Mistaken they took him along
with Sri Mahapurna (Periya Nambi) to the royal court in Gangaikonda
Cholapuram. At the court the King thrust a written declaration which read:
"Nothing higher than Siva exists” and commanded them both to affix their
signatures to it without protest.
But both of them refused and argued the supremacy
of Lord Vishnu, quoting from the Vedas, Upanishads and
various other holy texts. At a stage, the king got furious and ordered their
eyes to be pulled out. On hearing the statement, Koorathazhwar replied that he
doesn't need the eyes which have seen a sinner like the king and he pulled away
his eyes himself. The eyes of Mahapurna were also gorged by the soldiers and
they were sent away from the court.
The ripe-aged Mahapurna died on the way to Srirangam. Sri
Ramanujacharya meanwhile had moved to Melkote in Karnataka along with
his disciples and established Vaishnavism there with the support of the local
king. After the turbulence period of over 12 years had got over, Sri
Ramanujacharya returned to Srirangam and the old friends reunited.
Koorathazhwar lived for some more years and attained the holy feet of the Lord.
It is said that Lord Rama took birth as Koorathazhwar to serve Ramanuja who was
nothing but Lakshmana as a gratitude to all the services rendered by Lakshmana
to Rama.