[Advaita-l] Ayyappa and Venkateshvara

[Abhishek RK]

Namaste,

Regarding a few questions regarding ayyappa and venkaTeshvara that
were recently raised, the pramANa for both these deities are the
purANas and/or the sthaLa purANas. Now since the purANas have
themselves been mentioned in the vedas along with nItis, kalpas,
gAthas (which are records or genealogies of royal dynasties or may
refer to the Zend Avesta of which gAthas are an important part. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gathas) and other texts, all these texts
are held as perfectly valid pramANas. But a word of caution here:
those smR^itis that are against the vedas cannot be followed.

Of course, apart from the purANas, we have the local traditions of
keraLa and Andhra, which certainly stretch hundreds of years or more
in age, that affirm the status of ayyappa as being an aMsha of viShNu
and shiva and of venkaTeshvara being viShNu. ayyappa was primarily a
deity of the natives of keraLa and venkaTeshavara of Andhra. It is
only recently that people from all over bhArata and indeed all over
the world have started visiting these temples in shabarimala and
tirupati. Of course, apart from these temples, there are temples for
these deities all over bhArata and recently all over the world too.

Regards,
Abhishek

On 11 Sep 2006 08:17:59 -0000, Santhosh  Nair
<santhosh_twin at rediffmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> Since we are talking about whether Venketashwar is Vishnu himself, I have
> another question. What do you all think about Swami Ayyappa (Sabarimala,
> Kerala)? I guess this would be a relevant question in this list. The board
> on the temple reads "Tatvamasi". Ayyappa is not worshipped in any other
> states other than Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. Why is
> this so? Please do share your opinions...
>
>
> Thank you,
> Santhosh


-- 
tasmAttvamuttiShTha yasho labhasva
jitvA shatrUn bhu~NkShva rAjyaM samR^iddham|
mayyaivaite nihatAH pUrvameva
nimittamAtraM bhava savyasAchin||11.33||
-bhagavAn shrIkR^iShNa, bhagavadgIta