The Hindu : Pedda Jeeyangar passes away

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 08, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Pedda Jeeyangar passes away

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI. Feb. 7. Sri Tiruvengada Ramanuja Pedda Jeeyanger, the 91- year-old senior pontiff of the Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), passed away in the small hours of Saturday ending his 74 years of uninterrupted association with the two TTD Jeeyangar Mutts based at Tirumala and Tirupati.

Born in 1914 with his `poorvasrama' name as Chakravarthy Srinivasacharya, the jeeyar had the unique distinction of becoming the head of the Jeeyangar Mutts having joined it as an ordinary `Divya Prabandha Adhyapaka' more than seven decades ago. He became the Chinna Jeeyangar of the mutt on June 16, 1988, and later became the Pedda Jeeyangar on May 3, 1995, when he ascended the peetham, as is the custom of the mutt, on the demise of the then Pedda Jeeyar. He was the 42nd jeeyar of the mutt, said to have been established by Bhagavad Ramanuja, the founder of the Srivaishnavite Sampradaya.

The seer's end came at 5.40 a.m. today shortly after being admitted in the TTD's super specialities hospital - Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences, Tirupati, following complaints of breathlessness and exhaustion. His mortal remains were later brought to the Pedda Jeeyar Mutt here and kept there in sitting posture, as is the tradition, for disciples of the mutt and the general public to pay their last respects.

Amid temple honours received from the TTD and several other leading temples of Tamil Nadu, the body of the swamiji was later laid to rest in the `Brindavanam', a special enclosure behind the Varadarajaswamy temple here where the bodies of those who headed the mutt were buried as per the custom among the `yathis' (sanyasis).

In fact, it was during the headship of the departed jeeyar that the Varadarajaswamy temple was built and the Brindavanam in the backyard spruced up. The present Chinna Jeeyangar would ascend the peetham as the Pedda Jeeyar on an auspicious day after completion of the fortnight-long last rites of the departed seer. Once the junior pontiff became the senior, he would nominate his junior.

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