About this stamp
A Thousand Years of Ramanuja
India Post issued this ₹25 stamp on 1 May 2017 for the thousandth birth anniversary of Ramanujacharya, the philosopher and saint of the bhakti tradition, born at Sriperumbudur near present-day Chennai in 1017. Building on his predecessors Nathamuni and Yamunacharya, he gave the Visishtadvaita school of Vedanta its formal shape, and his Sri Bhashya, a commentary on Badarayana’s Brahma Sutras, is counted a landmark of exegesis.
Teaching for All
Ramanuja is remembered above all for crossing the barriers of caste. Breaking with the custom of teaching the scriptures to one examined student at a time, he sent out seventy-four disciples to carry the teaching to all who wanted it. He opened temples to people of every caste, and many of his changes to the administration of the Srirangam temple are followed to this day. He held his disciple Pillai Urangavilli Dasa, of a marginalised caste, in high esteem, and was so devoted to the poet-saint Parankusa (Nammalvar) that he was called Parankusa-pada-bhakta; he drew on Parankusa’s Tiruvaimoli to support his teaching. Service to humanity, he taught, and not birth, raises a person to the Lord.
The stamp was designed by Subir Das; Security Printing Press, Hyderabad printed 301,590.
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