There are two possible answers for me to provide you with. Instead of offering my own, I will present to you, MB's and Ved Vyasa's explanation.
Context: Hastinapur's army became desolated after Drona's death. Super angry, Ashwatthama rallied the troops behind him for one final push. Let's just...
@ChinmayaB - haha ,I am nowhere near even to the first word "s" ,in saintly , just now started to read scriptures , currently i am reading puranas , so with comparing to all you people , I am in just kindergarten. Most people here are much more serious devotee's and are much much more spiritual than myself.So i am nowhere near to saintly personality 😀👍👍👍 And yes नक्की भेटु परत परत ,thanks😉
@TheDestroyer Yes ,voted 😊
@SreeCharan - Do you know who is "Vishvaksenar" is it a form of lord vishnu @ChinmayaB
It is well-known that Shiva's son Ganesha is the general of Shiva's army of Ganas. What's not as well-known, however, is that Vishnu also has an army, led by the god Vishvaksena. Vishvaksena plays an important role in the Sri Vaishnava sect; as I discuss here, Vishvaksena learnt the all-importa...
Vishwakse:na and Vina:yaka were not one and the same. Vishwakse:na appears just like Lord Na:ra:yana Himself. Colour will be ordinary not blue. Along with Sankha and Chakra he will be holding a long stick in his left hand and showing index finger with right hand, to fear all the evil powers. Several elephant headed (gaja mukhas) gana:dhipathis are in his force, to obey his instructions in removing the hurdles of Vishnu devotees. Vishwak Se:na is the whole and sole to look after the administration of the entire Universe and also the Paramapadam. Here is a verse says that
@KeshavSrinivasan @SreeCharan - In Vaishnava temples First Vishvaksenar is Worshipped for removing obstacles, then Shriman Narayana is worshipped. And yes, same thought came into my mind - is he same as Vinayaka or worshiped as ganapati😀
@TheDestroyer Krishna also tamed an elephant, defeated a mighty snake and killed some cruel creatures. Should we start those competetions too? Ha Ha 😀
@SwiftPushkar Yes there are many attendants of Vishweksena perumal. Among them, there are lion faced, elephant faced, monkey faced etc., But the elephant faced are double tusked and hold shankha chakras.
@SreeCharan @KeshavSrinivasan - One more thing , Who is "Vighanaraja" mentioned in Bhagvat Purana? I think i asked this Question here on chat , but he is mentioned in Shamudra Manthan story .Skandha 8 Chapter 7 shloka 8
@SreeCharan Oh ok , so they are different from Ganesha representation 👍
@SreeCharan Jai Sriman Narayana! By the way, I think only followers of Chinna Jeeyar Swami say that. Most Sri Vaishnavas I know greet each other with Namo Narayana.
@TheDestroyer They greet each other with Narayana.
@SwiftPushkar Yes, Vishvaksena is worshipped first by Sri Vaishnavas. In fact some Sri Vaishnavas believe the Shuklam Bharadharam Vishnum verse in the beginningvof the Vishnu Sahasranamam is about Vishavksena, whereas other Sri Vaishnavas believe it's about Vishnu. And of course many non-Vaishnavas interpret it as a verse about Ganesha.
@KeshavSrinivasan Suklam Bharadarama.. verse fits more Ganesha than Vishnu. This can be reconciled if we can prove something like "Vishnu born as son of Shiva (Ganesha) just like Karthikeya". haha.
@TheDestroyer In this kalpa, the Ganesha is the son of Shiva parvati. But in the other kalpas, the vignesha were others I think. Because there is also a shloka "apavitra pavitrova ...". Here the vighnesa is Vishnu.
@TheDestroyer It is agajaanana padmarkam gajanana maharnisham anekadantam bhaktanam ekadantam upaasmahe. It is added by non-vaishnavates after Shuklambaradharam.
@KeshavSrinivasan But Vishnu is Pitamabari, it says "Sukla ambaram" white clothed not yellow. Varna too Sashi Varnam. We know Vishnu is Dark blue or Megha varnam.
@TheDestroyer Shukla ambaram also mean white umbrellas. You may see when Brahmotsavas are performed, Vishwaksena pooja is performed. He is seated under white umbrellas.
@TheDestroyer In ancient times neither Ganesha nor Vishvaksena were very popular. But then Ganesha rose to popularity later on, in part because of being included in the Panchayatana system. Vishvaksena, on the other hand, didn't rise to popularity, except among Sri Vaishnavas because he is one of the Acharyas of the Sri Vaishnava Guru Parampara.
@TheDestroyer Well, he is famous among Sri Vaishnavas. Festivals involving Ganesha became very famous these days. Lokamanya tilak started Ganesh navaratri samoohik puja. This also made Ganesha famous.
@TheDestroyer Here's how the Sri Vaishnava Guru Parampara goes: Vishnu's shishya is Lakshmi, Lakshmi's shishya is Vishvaksena, Vishvaksena's shishya was Nammalwar, and Nammalwar's shishya was Nathamuni the founder of the Sri Vaishnava sect.
@SreeCharan Well, the Sri Vaishnava Sampradayam was there before him, and the Rahasya Traya was there before him. And the ideas of Visistadvaita were already there in the poems of the Alwars. But Nathamuni was the one who took these ideas and used them as the basis of a sect of Hinduism.
@SreeCharan By the way, before Nathamuni's time, and even after Nathamuni's time, the term Vaishnava wasn't really used, instead people used the term Bhagavata to describe the followers of Pancharatra. Also during Nathamuni's time the Sri Vaishnava sect was a very tiny group of people mainly living in the Sri Rangam area. It was Ramanujacharya who turned Sri Vaishnavism into a major sect of Hinduism with large numbers of followers.
@SreeCharan Also, it's only after the time of Ramanujacharya that Sri Vaishnava Brahmins started being referred to as Iyengars. The word Iyengar comes from Ay meaning 5 and Anga meaning limb. So it means "he who performs the five limbs of Sharanagati."
@KeshavSrinivasan I think you may know the poem "Bhootam sarascha mahadahvaya bhattanatha..." written by Parasara bhattar. In that poem, Why didn't Parasara bhattar include Andal?
@SreeCharan I've seen some websites that say Mishra in that verse refers to Madhurakavi Alwar, whereas other websites say that it refers to Kurathalwan.
@SreeCharan By the way, often instead of the usual list of 12 Alwars, some people make an abbreviated list of 10 Alwars, excluding Andal and Madhurakavi Alwar.
I am familiar with some of the Bhakti Parampara Poet-saints from Western and Northen part of India and their works. Some of them are -:
Saint Dyaneshwar - commetry on Shree Bhagvat Gita (Dyneshwari, Bhavarthdeepika)
Saint Tukaram - Abhanga , Kirtan (community-oriented group singing and dancing ...
The alvars, also spelt as alwars or azhwars (āḻvārkaḷ [aːɻʋaːr], ‘those immersed in god’) were Tamil poet-saints of South India who espoused bhakti (devotion) to the Hindu Supreme god Vishnu or his avatar Krishna in their songs of longing, ecstasy and service. They are venerated especially in Vaishnavism, which regards Vishnu or Krishna as the Supreme Being.
Many modern academics place the Alvars date between 5th century to 10th century CE, however traditionally the Alvars are considered to have lived between 4200 BCE - 2700 BCE. Orthodoxy posits the number of alvars as ten, though there are other...
@SreeCharan - You can give answer of above Question , by mentioning some of the alwar saints which you know , and the books or poem they have written , as this question is itself on Alwar saints.😊
@Pandya Well, the number of Swaminarayan people and Ramanandis in the world is tiny, so your question basically reduces to "Is the Sri Vaishnava sect more popular in South India than in other parts?", to which the answer is unequivocally yes.
@Pandya When today's shankaracharyas and jeeyars speak about politics and adharma, people (especially media) appear from nowhere saying Why do monks speak about society and politics? They should move to forests and do penance Ignorant peope and media.
@SreeCharan @KeshavSrinivasan I want to know about jeeyars
@SwiftPushkar Namaste, fine and you?
I do know nothing about jeeyar except the idea that they may be related to Ramanujacharya.
@Pandya "Jeeyar" is the Tamil word for "Sri Vaishnava Acharya". As you probably know, the Sri Vaishnava sect has two sub-sects, Thenkalai and Vadakalai. Now each of these sub-sects has a bunch of Mathams belonging to it, and each Matham is headed by a Sri Vaishnava Acharya, just like the four Shankaracharya Mathams in Advaita.
@TheDestroyer - ok 👍 @Pandya - me fine too , by the way some time ago u have given names of 3 upanishad books by gitapress ,can u pls give them again , i will see if they are avaliabl in book store's here.Sanskrit+hindi
@KeshavSrinivasan Manavala maha muni initiated ashta diggajas(his eight disciples) and initiated mathas at different paces Thiru vengada jeyar was one of them. Chinna jeeyar swami is my acharya. He is the one in the acharya lineage of the matha.
@Pandya Yes, all Sri Vaishnava Acharyas are called Jeeyars. There are only four Shankaracharyas for Advaitins whereas there are many Jeeyars for Sri Vaishnavas.
@Pandya Also, there are some Sri Vaishnavas who don't belong to any Matham at all. They're called "Swayam Acharya" people. For them their father functions as their Acharya. Swayam Acharya people are rare. Usually only the families descended from famous Sri Vaishnava Acharyas are Swayam Acharya people.
@Pandya By the way, one difference is that Adi Shankaracharya established Mathams at different places, whereas Ramanujacharya did not. Ramanujacharya just stayed in Sri Rangam, it's only later Sri Vaishnava Acharyas that established Mathams in different places.
@Pandya I like view's of Advaita vedanta more so i am more inclined towards it , but honestly currently i am in a kind state which is mixed-up ,or diffused.
@SreeCharan It's not known what caused the Thenkalai-Vadakalai split or who was responsible. But what ultimately led to the split was the philosophical differences between the ideas of Vedanta Desikan on the one hand, and Pillai Lokacharya and Manavala Mamunigal on the other hand.
@Pandya The split happened hundreds of years after the time of Vedanta Desikan and Pillai Lokacharya, but their philosophical differences are what are responsible for the split.
@KeshavSrinivasan I have once seen a table explaining the mathams started by manavala mahamuni besides the ashta diggajas. The one at muktinath is also one of them. Now I lost that link. So manavala mahamuni initiated many maths at many places in India.
@Pandya @KeshavSrinivasan Not only Manavala Mahamuni, but Ramanauajcharya also started Simhasana adhisas to maintain the temples at different places. May be the other jeeyars are among them.
@SreeCharan Well, all Thenkalai Jeeyars are in the Guru Parampara of Manavala Mamunigal, and all Vadakali Jeeyars are in the Guru Parampara of Vedanta Desikan. The Guru Paramparas of the rest of Ramanujacharya's 74 disciples have died out.
@KeshavSrinivasan May be they don't include Andal because she was the incarnation of Bhudevi. Madhurakavi alwar because he was a staunch devotee of nammalwar and didn't compose poems of lord. Did he?
@Pandya The term Dravida is used in many Hindu scriptures to refer to South India. Like the Pandavas visited the Dravida land in this chapter of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata: sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03118.htm
Bishop Robert Caldwell (7 May 1814 – 28 August 1891) was a missionary and linguist, who academically established the Dravidian family of languages. He served as Assistant Bishop of Tirunelveli from 1877. He was described in The Hindu as a 'pioneering champion of the downtrodden' and an 'avant-garde social reformer'. The Government of Tamil Nadu has created a memorial in his honor and a postage stamp has been issued in his name. On the Madras Marina, a statue of Caldwell was erected as a gift of the Church of South India in 1967.
== Early life ==
Robert Caldwell was born at Clady, then in County...
@TheDestroyer - can we answer below question , from padma purana? The Op is asking whether its a vedic or puranic tradition ? can we give the answer and say that its puranic tradition also? without mentioning anything about vedas
@TheDestroyer - it seems my theory is working , we can bring out old Questions , and they will be answered😀 this way , atleast some of the old Questions will be cleared , its good for our site 😊👍👍
@TheDestroyer -in padma purana book 2 chapter 59 , There is detail explanation about worshiping the Planets as you said 👍👍👍👍✡✡✡✡✡ 5 stars to u , i have prepared the answer 😀
@Pandya What does Gita verse 10.15 have to do with Advaita? Even Adi Shankaracharya doesn't make a connection between that verse and Advaita.
@Pandya That's why in Visistadvaita we say that there's a Prakara-Prakari relationship between Jivatma and Paramatma, i.e. the Jivatma is an attribute of Brahman.
@Pandya There's not absolute separation between Jivatma and Paramatma as in Dvaita.
@SwiftPushkar I am your mate from Kindergarden! I haven't read purana's, in any case did you know that the crescent moon tilak Shivaji Maharaj and many Devi Idols wear is an Urdhwapundra for Kshatriyas prescribed in Shastras.