ii INTRODUCTION Candamöruta commentary on the most brilliaut controversial work Šatadūšami of Venkatanātha. He also coutroverts the writings of Appayya Dikşita limself. It is claimed that Appayya Diksita and he were contemporaries, and it is probable that Rangarāmānuja was an younger coutemporary of both these writers. Appayya Dikṣita's date is variously fixed between 1552-1626 A D. (A. V. Gopalacharya) or 1520-1592 A.D. (Mahālinga śästri). That Raigarāmānuja lived about this time appears plate- sible from two facts. Raigarāmānuja was a native of Velāmūr, a village in the North Arcot District, South India. He belong.' cd to the Sāmaveda. After his studies under Anantācārya (15th occupant of the Gurnpitha after śri Rāmānuja) be was directly initiated into Sannyāsa, without going through the second aśrama of Gțbastha. It is said that he was given the sandyāsa by the 15th occupant of the Parakäla Mutt pontificate, Mysore :- Yatsevāvaibhavallabdhā mayā paramahamsatā Tam aham sirasă vande Parakālamuuiśvaram. (Chānd Up. Bhāsya introductory verse 4) According to the history of the Parakāla Mutt we get at only one definite date, namely, that the 21st occupant of the Parakāla seat was born in the year 1577 $aka corresponding to 1655 A D. He came to the seat in liis 22nd year, that is in 1677 A.D. Allowing ronghly 20 years to each occupant we find that its 15th occupant must have lived about 1577 A.D. This is a date which corresponds with that of Appayya Diksita. Radgarānāuuja inight have been aged about 25 years about this time. We can therefore conjecture that Rangarāmānuja was born somewhere about the middle of the 16th century. There is a story current amongst the acāryas of a neeting Letween Raigarāmāpuja and Doddayācārya. Doddayācārya 1. Taltro Berdu; ed. Ramaswami Sastri, pr. 99-101. cf. Appayya Džsiļa's Siddhantaieśasarigraha: ed. by S. Satyanarayana Sastri, Iotrodaction y. .
