Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level : Vedanta Desikan
Mains level : Socio-religious movements in South India
- Vice-President has unveiled commemorative postage stamps on the 750th birth anniversary of ‘Vedanta Desikan’ a religious philosopher.
Vedanta Desikan (1268–1369)
- Sri Vedanta Desikan was a Sri Vaishnava philosopher and one of the most brilliant stalwarts of Vaishnavism in the post-Ramanuja period.
- He was a poet, devotee, philosopher and master-teacher (desikan).
- He was the disciple of Kidambi Appullar, also known as Aathreya Ramanujachariar, who was of a master-disciple lineage that began with Ramanuja.
- He composed many different works in languages such as Tamil, Sanskrit, Prakrit and Manipravala (a mixture of Sanskrit and Tamil).
His work
- He was know by various titles such as ‘Kavitarkika-kesari’ and ‘Kavitarkika-simham’, the lion amongst poets; and ‘Ramanuja-daya-patram’, the recipient of Ramanuja’s causeless mercy, given in a laudatory verse composed by the famous Brahma Tantra Svatantra Swami.
- He is known as Sarva-tantra-svatantra or a master of science, philosophy, arts and crafts.