Yamunacharya

(10th c.) According to tradition, a devotee
(bhakta) of the god Vishnu, who is
claimed to be the grandson of Nathamuni,
and the teacher of Ramanuja. Nathamuni
was the compiler of the Nalayira
Divyaprabandham, the collected hymns
of the Alvars, a group of poet-saints who
lived in southern India between the seventh and the tenth centuries. All the Alvars
were devotees of Vishnu, and they
expressed this devotion in passionate
hymns sung in the Tamil language; among
southern Indian Vaishnavas (devotees of
Vishnu), these hymns are so holy that they
are referred to as the “Tamil Veda.”
Ramanuja, on the other hand, was a
philosopher who organized and systematized this devotional outpouring into a
coherent philosophical position and thus
is considered the founder of the
Shrivaishnava religious community.
It is generally believed that Yamunacharya was Nathamuni’s grandson, and
thus he was heir to the religious tradition his grandfather had helped create.
There is much more doubt about the
claim that he was Ramanuja’s religious
preceptor (guru) because it seems more
likely that Yamuna’s influence on
Ramanuja was transmitted by Yamuna’s
disciples. Still, what is indisputable is
that these three are the three main figures in the development of the Shrivaishnava tradition, and thus that
Yamunacharya occupies a pivotal spot.