॥ श्रीः॥
ु
॥ श्रलक्ष्मरहयवदन लक्ष्मरनारायण वेणगोपाल परब्रह्मणे नमीः॥
ु
॥ श्र शठकोप रामानज देशशके भ्यो नमीः॥
ु
॥ श्र ब्रह्मतन्त्र स्वतन्त्र परकाल गरुपरम्परायै नमीः॥
Brief history of establishment of
Sri Brahmatantra Swatantra Parakala Swamy Matham
It is a well known fact that Sri Brahmatantra Swatantra Parakala Swamy Matham is one of
the foremost institutions of Srisampradayam, the origin of which enjoys its time podium
with that of the vibhavam of our paramacharya Swamy Deshika himself. With the
niyamanam and anugrahams of Swamy Deshika, this samsthanam was established at
Kanchipuram in the year 1338 ACE, by Sri Brahmatantra Swatantra jeeyar, who was one of
the foremost disciples of Swamy Deshika. It may also be noted that the establishment of the
matham at Kanchipuram also coincided with the sanyasa sweekaram of Sri Brahmatantra
Swatantra Swamy.
This is an established fact and is in full force as per the parama-vaidika Srivaishnava
Srisampradayam of Swamy Bhagavad Ramanuja. All the acharyas of this samsthanam right
from the very first jeeyar have unequivocally attested to this fact in their works invariably.
The details of these vaibhavams are also enshrined in the ancient and avichchinna
Guruparampara records dated as old as 13th century ACE.
Several of these facts are also immortalized in many stone and copper inscriptions that are
found in the temples of Varadaraja and elsewhere. The most important of these inscriptions
are the ones that are found on the northern wall of the second prakara of Sri
Varadarajaswamy temple in Kanchipuram. These inscriptions delineated in traditional Tamil
script mixed with Sanskrit are very important in the history of Srivaishnavism, as it stands a
witness to the Srivaishnava history of those days.
The inscription does not appear to refer to the reign of any king, but purports to have been
issued directly by the deity Himself. The inscription begins with a mangalacharanam and
continues to state that on the representation made by Perumaltatan, who supervises the
sacred business of the temple and the koil bhattacharyas, the Lord, while seated in an
imperial bearing along with his divine consorts in the abhisheka mantapa of the temple
under the canopy of Ariyenavallan-pandal, enjoying the divine chanting of the songs of
Shathakopa, was pleased to confer a holy dispensation (padi) on a Vaishnavadasa by name
Sri Brahmatantra-Swatantra-Jiyan, who had received this sobriquet from the Lord earlier,
and to put him in charge of the matha established there and its properties, to enable him to
conduct the worship of the deity unhindered, to maintain the library of works that he had
collected and to enable him to propagate the tenets of Ramanuja-darshanam to the
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