Abstracts

Visions of Vaikuṇṭha: Salvation in Viṣṇu-Nārāyana’s Supreme Abode
Sucharita Adluri, Cleveland State University

In Śrīvaiṣṇavism Vaikuṇṭha is imagined as the one of the 108 beloved places (divyadeśa). Distinct yet in some sense, homologous to pilgrimage sites that comprise the sacred geography of this tradition, it was the ultimate goal of all liberative practices. While the theological commentaries argued its ontological reality and soteriological significance the Śrīvaiṣṇava devotional works provide emotionally-charged and visually descriptive formulations of Viṣṇu’s abode that manifests his magnificent glory. Comparing Rāmānuja’s (~11th CE) discussions and descriptions of Vaikuṇṭha in his theo-philosophical works and in his devotional prose hymn the Vaikuṇṭhagadya including its attendant commentaries by Periyāvāccān Piḷḷai (12h-13th CE) and Vedānta Deśika (13th-14th CE), this paper maps a comprehensive vision of the philosophical and devotional articulations of Viṣṇu’s supreme heaven as the goal of salvation in the early history of this tradition.

Vaikuntam Pukuvatu Maṇṇavar Vitiyē: The journey to Vaikuṇṭha in Tiruvāymoḻi 10.9
Suganya Anandakichenin

In the last but one decade of the Tiruvāymoḻi, Nammaḻvār (ca. 9th century) describes the tamar (“His people”) travelling through what the Śrīvaiṣṇava Ācāryas later refer to as the arcirādi way to reach Vaikuṇṭha. In this paper, I will focus on this travelogue of sorts, which (at times turning into a veritable “Vaikunta-v-āṟṟuppaṭai”) allows us to have a glimpse of Nammaḻvār’s imagination of a devotee’s progress to the Sacred Land, giving us a vivid description of the various landscapes, people, sounds, smells and so forth that appeals to all our senses.

It will also be interesting to see what the five commenting Ācāryas (ca. 12th to 15th centuries) make of this decade. Do they have their theology coincide with the Āḻvār’s, or do they adapt the latter to fit their own reading? Does the journey described in Tiruvāymoḻi 10.9 and their reading of it equally involve a description of the metamorphosis of the mumukṣu into a mukta, in regards with, for example, the (ex)change of the physical body and the different states/stages of liberation? Do these topics find expression in the original work and/or the paratextual material? If so, what is the importance that they are granted?

I will try to seek answers to such questions while exploring this decade in which the legendary loving bhakti of the Āḻvār seems to take the back seat for a while.

Life after Liberation: Vedāntadeśika’s Tamil Portrayal of Vaikuṇṭha in the Paramapatasōpāṉam
Manasicha Akepiyapornchai, Cornell University

In this paper, I explore Vedāntadeśika’s characterization of liberation and the status of liberated souls in Vaikuṇṭha in his Tamil composition, the Paramapatasōpāṉam. I specifically compare Vedāntadeśika’s portrayal of the souls and their relationships to God in Vaikuṇṭha with his philosophical understanding of the status of the souls based on Sanskrit and Tamil scriptures in chapter 22 on the complete enjoyment of God (paripūrṇabrahmānubhava) in his Maṇipravāḷa magnum opus, the Rahasyatrayasāra. In the Paramapatasōpāṉam which consists of twenty verses plus one concluding verse, Vedāntadeśika emphasized the souls’ devotion and service to God, who enables the liberation and enjoyment of Himself for the souls. I argue that the Paramapatasōpāṉam pays attention to the psychological state of the liberated souls, especially their devotion and intimacy toward God, unlike the Maṇipravāḷa account of Vaikuṇṭha which is based on scriptures and focuses on various qualities the souls attain in Vaikuṇṭha. Importantly, Vedāntadeśika’s narration of the lives of the souls in Vaikuṇṭha is parallel to their lives of service to God on earth. Through the medium of Tamil, Vaikuṇṭha is not defined as a scriptural constructed space that is distant in time and place, but it is indeed heaven on earth.

Gateway to Heaven: portals and processions in the Śrīvaiṣṇava temple
Crispin Branfoot, SOAS, London

For ten days each year, beginning on Vaikuntha ekadasi in December, a temple gateway is opened in most Tamil Vaishnava temples. But this is not simply another entrance for pilgrims but the ‘heaven’s gate’ (corkkavacal, svargavacal or paramapatavacal) for deities to leave the temple in a grand, festive procession for ten days each year. Sometimes an unassuming gateway or modest pyramidal gopuram, these portals are always placed on the north side of a Vishnu temple. In my presentation, I wish to examine the location and historical development of these ‘gateways to heaven’ and their spatial relationship with other structures, in order to emphasise the increasing significance of festival processions to an understanding of temple architecture, layout and design from the 15th century and later. Furthermore, I will explore the structure and design of the paired wooden doorways and their ornament, the plain interior contrasting with the elaborate exterior, often with images of deities and acharyas in the rows of square, coffered exterior panels. This will enable the devotees’ views of the closed doors at rest to be contrasted with the ecstatic vision of God emerging through the open gateway to heaven in the cool dawn of Vaikuntha ekadasi each year.

The Significance of Vaikuṇṭha in Rāmānuja’s Srivaikuṇṭhagadyam and Nityagrantham
Francis X. Clooney, Harvard University

Vaikuṇṭha, as the highest abode (paramaṁ padam) is not absent from any of Rāmānuja’s writings, but the place receives particular notice in two of his lesser studied works. In the Srivaikuṇṭhagadyam, the longest of his gadyas, an elaborate description of Vaikuntha, seen by yogic meditation (dhyānayoga), precedes the act of taking refuge with the Lord, and serves to maximize the reader’s appreciation of refuge, now enacted eternally in the ideal locale. In the Nityagrantham, Rāmānuja’s manual of daily worship, two lengthy sets of mantras detail the worshipper’s mental ascent to the abode of the Lord and descent back to the worshipper’s place for daily pūjā, thus enhancing the local, daily worship by posing a cosmic frame extending even to Vaikuntha. This paper also takes into account the full commentary on the Srivaikuṇṭhagadyam by Periyavaccanpillai and the brief treatment of it by Vedanta Desika in his Gadyatrayabhāṣyam.

The multisensorial experience of Vaikuṇṭha in Veṅkaṭanātha's works
Elisa Freschi, University of Toronto

Veṅkaṭanātha (also known as Vedānta Deśika, traditional dates 1269--1370) was the foremost systematiser of the school now known as Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta. One finds descriptions of Vaikuṇṭha in several of his works, e.g., in his Rahasyatrayasāra, composed in Maṇipravāḷa. These descriptions involve festooned cities and welcoming deities, they are detailed and pictorial. What is the purpose of such descriptions? Veṅkaṭanātha is a refined theologian and philosopher, why does he depict Vaikuṇṭha in a way which seems closer to Purāṇic mythology than to Vedāntic speculations? One might answer that Veṅkaṭanātha was just following what most devout Vaiṣṇavas believed about Vaikuṇṭha, but this answer is not enough for a sophisticated theologian like Veṅkaṭanātha, for whom even the depiction of a deity in a religious hymn becomes a short theological treatise. This paper will investigate the thesis that such depictions serve a theological agenda, namely showing that the soul in the condition of liberation is neither disembodied nor a pure ātman, but is rather able to enjoy all sorts of sense-perceptions and emotions. This conclusion is explicitly anti-Advaita Vedānta and supports a richer view of subjectivity and of God.

The Supreme Realm of Vishnu: The Vaikuntha Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram and Preah Vishnulok (Angkor Wat)
Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida

My paper explores how the Vaikuntha Perumal temple and Angkor Wat (popularly known in Khmer culture as Preah Vishnulok or the sacred Land of Vishnu) are considered to be the abodes of Vishnu. Nandivarman Pallavamalla built the Vaikuntha-Perumal Temple (Paramesvara Vinnakaram/Vishnu-griha) in Kanchipuram around 770 CE and several centuries later, in around 1135, Suryavarman II, whose posthumous name was Parama Vishnuloka, built Angkor Wat. Although these are the only two Vishnu temples which have three floors and are west-facing, Angkor Wat is a unique product of the Khmer genius. Surrounded by a moat filled with water, like Vaikuntha encircled by the Viraja river, one could see why it is called Preah Vishnulok. Does the eight-armed Vishnu who is said to have been the primary deity in Angkor invoke connections with Kanchipuram or the Bhagavata Purana? In what ways did these places of piety also function as state-temples or places of power? I will address several questions including these and argue that both sides of the monsoon-basin were probably plugged into a larger network of cultural connections from which they drew ideas, concepts, and an ideology of architecture which are associated with Vishnu’s supreme realm.

Vaikuṇṭham in this very world: Śrīvaikuṇṭham beside the Tamraparni River
Leslie C. Orr, Concordia University

“[This is] the eternal decree of Viṣṇu who dwells in Srivaikuntham, the cause of creation, maintenance and destruction of the whole universe.” These words are engraved on the wall of the inner gopura of the Kallappiran temple in the town of Srivaikuntham, in the far south of Tamilnadu, as an introduction to the god’s command concerning the appointment of a temple manager. These words, likely incised in the 15th century, encapsulate the idea of the supreme lord Viṣṇu’s presence and agency at this particular place, which served as his home just as did the heavenly Vaikuntham. Through an examination of the stone inscriptions at his temple, dating from the 13th to 17th centuries, I will examine the ways in which this emplacement was conceptualized, and how the deity’s relationships with devotees, rulers, donors, and temple personnel (and other gods, including Śiva, inhabiting a nearby temple) – who were part of the landscape of the earthly Vaikuntham – were conceived and sustained.

The Sky that is Beyond the Darkness – Vaikuṇṭha in the Poetry of Rāmānuja’s Disciples
Srilata Raman, University of Toronto

In this paper I consider the Vaikuṇṭhastava, a lengthy poem of one hundred and one verses, composed Rāmānuja’s disciple Kūrattālvāṉ, which is a conscious successor to Rāmānuja’s own poem on Vaikuṇṭha, the Vaikuṇṭhagadyam. Examining the poem’s imagery of Vaikuṇṭha, its relationship to Purāṇic and epic sources such as the Viṣṇu Purāṇa or the Nārāyaṇīya section of the Mahābhārata, the paper considers the framing of Vaikuṇṭha as a spatial, imagined and emotional realm within the praise poetry of the Śrīvaiṣṇava ācāryas.

Pāñcarātrikas on their way to Vaikuṇṭha: Catching a glimpse into the formation of Śrīvaiṣṇavism
Marion Rastelli

In a paper published several years ago (On the concept of Vaikuṇṭha in Viśiṣṭādvaitavedānta and Pāñcarātra, Cracow Indological Studies IV-V [2002/2003]), I showed that the notion of the heavenly world Vaikuṇṭha only gradually found entrance into the Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās, and that this did not occur earlier than the 12th c. CE.
In this paper, I will explore the Śrīpraśnasaṃhitā, a Pāñcarātra Saṃhitā that was composed a few centuries later, probably after Vedānta Deśika’s lifetime, that is, in the 14th c. at the earliest. In this Samhitā, the notion of Vaikuṇṭha is already fully integrated into its theological and ritual concepts. In addition, the text also mentions other teachings and rituals often considered characteristic of Śrīvaiṣṇavism, but that probably did not have their origin in the Pāñcarātra tradition, such as the five forms (prakāra) of God (para, vyūha, vibhava, antaryāmin, arcā), the five saṃskāras (tāpa, puṇḍra, nāman, mantra, yāga), and taking refuge (śaraṇāgati).
The paper will offer a thorough examination of the notions related to Vaikuṇṭha presented in the Śrīpraśnasaṃhitā. In addition, it will attempt to shed light on the historical background of the text, the community in which it was composed and which followed it, and on the manifold concepts incorporated into this text from various sources. In this way, the Śrīpraśnasaṃhitā might serve as a case study for discerning and understanding the specific role played by the concept of Vaikuṇṭha in the formation of Śrīvaiṣṇavism.

Vaikuṇṭha, Arca, and the Body – On Earth as they are in Heaven?
Anna Seastrand, University of Minnesota

Bhakti and the emotions it inspires are famously expressed in Tamil poetics through the body. This is all the more true in the Sri Vaiṣṇava tradition, in the replication of heaven in earthly sites visited by devotees, in the presence of the ārca in those temples, and in an aesthetics of participation through embodied experience, anubhāva. The preeminence of embodiment in Sri Vaiṣṇava theology and aesthetics opens the question of how to understand the body beyond the well-documented domain of literature. This paper will explore the meanings of the body and embodied experience at the interconnected temples of Sri Vaikuntham and Tirukkurukur, Tamil Nadu, focusing on paintings in circumambulatory passages and sculptures hidden within their gopuras. While the paintings express right action—devotees engaged in worship, donation, and service—the sculptures are irreverently focused on the body in plays of iconography: a phallic revision of the Trivikrama form; a Seshasayana Vishnu that dissolves on close inspection into an amorous union of bodies. Starting from the position that temples are where the bodies of devotees and the body of god are both primary audiences for the participatory aesthetic of the temple’s adornment, this paper explores the range of meanings of the body in Sri Vaiṣṇava art and devotion.

Cosmic Doorway: Time, Space and Transformation in ‘Goodbye, Mokṣa’ at Tirukkurungudi
Archana Venkatesan, University of California, Davis

On the eleventh day of the waxing moon in Mārkaḻi (December-January), the doorway to heaven opens, and Viṣṇu descends to earth. This is Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī, the most sacred day for Śrīvaiṣṇavas. Viṣṇu repeats this descent every evening for ten days, transforming himself into an earthly form, and earth into heaven. During these ten days, he listens to the sweet Tamil songs of Nammāḻvār, who petitions him for mokṣa. On the tenth and final day, Viṣṇu grants Nammāḻvār his desire, and god and devotee return to heaven, leaving earth and all her people, bereft. The temple of Tirukkurungudi in Tirunelveli district marks these ten days much like other important Tamil Vaiṣṇava sites—with the recitation of the Nālāyira Divya Prabandham, with spectacular ornamentations of gods and devotees, noisy processions and copious amounts of food. However, there is one significant difference. On the eleventh day, after the festival has purportedly concluded, Viṣṇu descends one last time, because his devotee (Nammāḻvār) has decided that heaven isn’t for him. He wants to return, back to earth, even if that earth is now absent the god. Viṣṇu accedes to this rejection of mokṣa, and goes back to Vaikuṇṭha, leaving his devotee behind. If the pretext for Viṣṇu’s descent following Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī is to grant mokṣa, what purpose does this festival, known as Vīṭu Viṭai (Goodbye, Mokṣa), which rejects that very goal, serve? In this paper, I chart the temporal and spatial transformations of the Vaikuṇṭha Ekādaśī Festival at the Tirukkurungudi temple that continually destabilize the boundaries between god and devotee. In doing so, I demonstrate that the Vīṭu Viṭai (Goodbye, Mokṣa) ultimately resolves to vest authority in the stable body of the Maṭha attached to the temple and its titular head.