Pillai Urangavilli Dasar (Dhanurdasa)
Pillai Urangavilli Dasar, called Dhanurdasa, was a native of Uraiyur, near Tiruchirappalli and he was a renowned Gymnast. He was born in the Tamil month Masi, in Ayilya Star. He was a fine archer belonging to the Malla caste. He was one among the three Villis serving King Akalanka Chola in Urayiur.
Pillai Urangavilli Dasar wrote a Tanlyan for Iyal Sattu which pays encomium to Sri Ramanuja. This is being recited at the end when Sri Vaishnavites complete the four thousand hymns of Alwars. His annotations for Alwars hymns, particularly Nammalvar’s Tiruvoymozhi are very familiar and recorded in the Edu commentary.
Marrying Kanakangi
He married a very beautiful girl by the name of Kanakangi whose eyes, he considered, more beautiful than the lotus. He never left her side for a moment and never took his eyes off her moon-like face.
At one time, when he was en route to Tiruvellarai, in the mid-noon, on the Kaveri river sand, he was assisting his wife who suffered in the scorching sun. Sri Ramanuja, noticed this loving pair, particularly Dhanurdasa’s intense care for his beloved’s eyes by holding an umbrella to avoid the scorching sun. He called him and asked him for this doing.
He said that he was very much attached to her beautiful eyes which should not fade. Sri Ramanuja told him that there are eyes more beautiful than his wife’s. He took the unbelieving Dhanurdasa to the temple of Lord Ranganatha and showed him the Lord’s bewitching eyes.
Dhanurdasa realized his ignorance and he gave up his food, slept from that day, and daily found in the temple, looking at Lord Ranganatha’s beautiful eyes. He became the disciple of Sri Ramanuja. He gave away all the wealth that he earned as Chief of Malla in Chola Raja Palace, Uraiyur, to Sri Ramanuja Mutt. He used to wake all through the night and do service to the King and daytime without sleep did kainkarya in Sri Ramanuja’s Mutt.
Like Lakshmana, he became Urangavilli and earned the name Urangavilli Dasar. His wife Kanakangi excelled her husband in wisdom and all other spiritual perfections, due to the wonderful grace of Sri Ramanuja. He used to march before the Utsavamurti Namperumal of Srirangam with a sword to safeguard the deity, from any untoward incident.
If anything untoward happened, he wanted to kill himself with that sword. This is explained by Mamunigal in the commentary for Pillai Lokacharya’s Srivachana Bhushanam Sutra 46. Such is the intention of Dhanurdasa being a devotee of Lord and Sri Ramanuja having known the harmonious way of life learnt from Sri Ramanuja.
Kanakangi – extraordinary devotee of Sri Ramanuja
Kanakangi, though belonging to a low caste, proved herself an extraordinary devotee of Sri Ramanuja. At one time, Sri Ramanuja’s disciples asked him if there were many Acharyas, whom they should consider true saviours. He asked them to ask Kanakangi. They approached her and expressed their doubt as to who they should look up to as their true saviour when there are many Acharyas. With all humility, she told them that only Sri Ramanuja could answer this.
They went to Sri Ramanuja and asked him. He asked them what she was doing when they entered her house. They told that she was gathering her hair to gather into knot, tied it up with a red thread and kept silent. Then Sri Ramanuja interpreted this incident as follows: the countless black hairs signified many teachers and the red thread indicated only one saviour that is Sri Ramanuja. Then the disciples were surprised at her steadfastness and fidelity to Sri Ramanuja. They went to her house to compliment her spiritual excellence.
At one time, Lord Ranganatha’s festival was coming to an end. Sri Ramanuja, while going to take a path, held the hand of Acharya Mudaliyandan and after taking bath, he held the hand of Pillai Urangavilli Dasar. Sri Ramanuja feels that holding his hand is the more mental object of contemplation than the complete purification of taking a bath in the Kaveri River.
It is said that Sri Ramanuja felt that like the iron with the touch of the art of alchemy made into gold, the selfishness that came from his upper caste would be redeemed by holding Pillai Urangavilli Dasar’s hand.
In the commentary of Manavala Mamunigal on the Sutra 85 of Acharya Hridya, it is said that Sri Ramanuja before doing Tiruvaradhanam (performing Puja to his Mutt deity) used to purify himself by touching Pillai Urangavilli Dasar. Hence, Dasar is well known as Ramanuja Sparsavedhi. There was a dispute among his disciples for Sri Ramanuja giving much importance to Pillai Urangavilli Dasar. He played a drama to rectify their intentions.
On another occasion, also Sri Ramanuja made his sceptic disciples realize the detachment of Kanakangi. Sri Ramanuja asked somebody to tear out the clothes of his disciples without knowing them. Having seen this, they were very much angered and blamed those who did this. On the same night, Sri Ramanuja asked some disciples to bring the jewels from the body of Kanakangi when she was sleeping.
While they were taking away the jewels from her body, she noticed and kept quiet till they took away one side jewel by dissimulating herself in sleep. Then she rolled down the next side to give an advantage to them to take away from another side. They thought that she woke up from sleep and ran away from her place. They handed over the jewels to Sri Ramanuja.
After his return from the service in the Palace, Dasar came to his house and having known the news, he blamed his wife Kanakangi for not keeping quite like a stone to take away the jewels from the other side also by them.
He prayed to Sri Ramanuja to give punishment to her. The disciples who witnessed this head down before Sri Ramanuja and informed them of the drama played by him. Then he returned the jewels to her.
He had two nephews viz. Vandavilli and Sendavilli. Both became the disciples of Sri Ramanuja and Sri Ramanuja named them Vandalankara Dasar and Sendalankara Dasar. They stayed in Srirangam by doing service to his Acharya Sri Ramanuja, besides working in the Palace at Uraiyur. He used to give the salary earned by their service at the Palace, to Sri Ramanuja, who accepted it and utilized it for the kainkarya.
