Sri Ramanujacharya with Narayana
Description
Sri Ramanujacharya lived from 1017–1137 AD. He was deeply moved by the bhakti (devotion) of the Alvar poet saints and formalised the oldest and largest Vaishnava lineage, the Sri Sampradaya, based on the idea of devotion to a personal God in the form of Sriman Narayana. He is probably most known for making the once-secret mantra of om namo narayanaya available to the world. This is now the main mantra of Sri Vaishnavism and Bhakti Marga.
This is a very special murti of Sri Ramanujacharya, holding the deity of Sriman Narayana known as Chella Pillai Perumal (in Tamil, Chella Pillai means ‘beloved child’, while Perumal is another name for Narayana: ‘The one who is great and rules the universe’). It signifies the time when Sri Ramanujacharya found this deity in the unlawful possession of a sultan’s daughter and made a deal with her that if the deity would come when he called him, the deity would return to its rightful place with Ramanujacharya. (Of course, the deity came and actually sat on Sri Ramanujacharya’s lap!)
Material: Solid Copper
Colour: Bronze
Height full: approximately 90 mm. Size is measured from bottom of the base to top of head.
Base: 55 mm (L) x 40 mm (W)