Karnataka: Saligrama, Thondanur, and the Defeat of the Jains

Having traversed the Nilagiri range, Bhagavad Ramanuja and his disciples pressed northwest with great toil, reached Vahni-Pushkarini, rested briefly, and then made their way to Mithila Saligrama.

Here they found the village filled with staunch Saivites, who gave the newcomers scant welcome. Bhagavad Ramanuja devised a way to turn their minds.

He called Dasarathi to his side. "Son, here is the fountain from which the villagers draw their drinking water. Unnoticed, dip your feet into it and watch the effect."

Dasarathi did so. The villagers drank, and their hostility turned into courtesy. They even went so far as to become followers of Bhagavad Ramanuja's faith. To this day a memento of that miracle — the water sanctified by the feet of his foremost disciple — stands as a small shrine on the spot. The feet of Bhagavad Ramanuja are installed there for devout worship, and the holy fountain stands nearby, connected by a flight of steps. Every pilgrim descends and reverently sprinkles the water over his head.

"The town deserves the name Saligrama — the stone symbol of Vishnu," said Bhagavad Ramanuja with joy, recalling this strange event.

Of the many who embraced the faith at Saligrama, the foremost was Vaduganambi, also known as Andhrapurna. He became one of Bhagavad Ramanuja's most devoted and intimate followers. For many days, in the temple of Lord Narasimha on the outskirts of the village, the Acharya taught him the arcane truths of religion.

It is also recorded that here Bhagavad Ramanuja fervently prayed to Lord Srinivasa of Tirupati to put an end to the cruel Chola king Parantaka — heretic, tormentor, and declared enemy of the Sri Vaishnava faith. The prayer took effect. The king developed a carbuncle (the disease known as "king's evil") on the nape of his neck. It festered with worms and at last killed him after much torment. He has since been called Krimikantha Chola — the worm-necked Chola.

Leaving Saligrama, Bhagavad Ramanuja proceeded eastward to Thondanur, which was then the capital — or a capital outpost — of the Hoysala Ballala kings of the Jain persuasion, who ruled at Dvara-samudra (Halebidu). The reigning king was Vitthala-Deva-Raya, and his headquarters at the time were Thondanur.

His daughter had been possessed by an evil spirit. Many physicians and magicians had been called, all in vain. The king was deeply grieved.

In the town lived a devout man named Thondanur-Nambi, who subsisted on alms. He frequented the palace, and one day found queen Santala-Devi in tears. She explained her daughter's condition.

"Noble Queen, may I tell you that a great and holy man, by name Ramanuja, has arrived in our town? I have become his disciple. I have learned that he once cured a similar case — delivering a princess from a Brahma-rakshas (a powerful evil spirit). If he would look on your daughter with his gracious eyes, I have hopes of a speedy cure."

The overjoyed queen told her husband. "Lady," said the king, "if Ramanuja casts the devil out of our daughter and restores her to her senses, we shall fall at his feet and accept him as our Guru."

Meanwhile, the king was planning a feast for his caste-men, the many Jains of the country. The queen warned him: "My lord, they will refuse your invitation on the ground that you lack a finger of your hand."

"How can they dare refuse a king's invitation?" said the enraged king, and he consulted his kinsmen. They replied: "The Turushka emperor of Delhi captured you and your country and, to mark your loss of independence, deprived you of a finger. Our custom forbids us to eat in the house of a finger-less man. Have you forgotten — you are called Bitti-deva, the finger-lord? We cannot dine at your table."

Incensed, the king vowed vengeance.

The queen then came to him: "My lord, why be troubled? Let us leave their community and join the Vaishnava ranks by becoming disciples of Bhagavad Ramanuja. Have you forgotten what our Nambi told us? And is not our daughter also to be cured?"

"Well said. I shall send for Ramanuja at once." He dispatched men to invite him.

But when they delivered the message to Bhagavad Ramanuja, who had camped outside the town, he said he would not enter a king's city. Nambi was there, and falling before his Guru he pleaded:

"Holy sire, do not be so determined. Enter the king's house. He will be an invaluable gain to our faith. Melukote, or Tiru-Narayana-puram, of which you have been dreaming, lies in this king's dominions. You wish to restore that old and forgotten place of worship. For this, we need a king to advocate the cause. Pray, do not reject the king's overtures."

Won by this plea, Bhagavad Ramanuja entered the city and the king's mansion. Bitti-deva, elated, ran to him and threw himself at his feet. The Acharya made kind inquiries and was soon told of the princess's plight.

He had the girl brought before him and sprinkled with water sanctified by the washing of his holy feet. At once, the evil spirit left her. Her madness vanished; a sense of shame returned. She ran into the inner apartments, covered herself in garments, and came back to fall at Bhagavad Ramanuja's feet.

"Holy Saint, you are no ordinary mortal. You are a celestial being descended from heaven. Else I could not have recovered. Praise be to you. I bow to you."

Vitthala-Deva was overcome. He became a disciple of Bhagavad Ramanuja at once and devoted himself to his service forever. Bhagavad Ramanuja bestowed upon him the new name Vishnuvardhana-Raya.

The Jains rose in revolt. It is said a body of twelve thousand of them marched to Bhagavad Ramanuja, who had taken abode in Lord Narasimha's temple at Thondanur, and demanded he debate them on religion and philosophy before he interfered further with their king.

Seeing this infuriated crowd bearing down on him, Bhagavad Ramanuja reflected: "To escape lightning I have courted thunder; fearing the scorpion I have fallen to the cobra's fangs; breaking my fetters I have thrust myself into stocks. What is the way now?"

Nambi, finding his Guru thus hard-pressed, said, "Holy sir, you are no ordinary mortal. Is this not the moment to reveal your true celestial nature, that all men may realize your greatness and be saved?"

"Let it be so, then." Bhagavad Ramanuja retired into an ante-chamber of the temple, commanded a curtain be hung between him and the crowd, and — manifesting as a thousand-headed serpent — argued with the Jain disputants in a thousand ways at once, vanquishing them completely.

To this day this incident is memorialized in a painting of Bhagavad Ramanuja overshadowed by the thousand heads of Sesha, preserved on a wall of the Narasimha temple at Thondanur (also called Chaturvedi-mangalam), which still stands in good repair.

Most of the Jains embraced the Vaishnava faith and became Bhagavad Ramanuja's disciples. Vishnuvardhana, king of the Hoysala country, grew ever more attached to him. Out of the materials of the Jain temples pulled down, he built a great tank that intercepted the drainage of the Yadava river flowing down from Melukote, or Yadavagiri, ten miles to the north.