Wandering ācāryas, converted kings, and the making of a religious network: a study on śrīvaiṣṇava priesthood (15th to 17th century)

The present thesis centers around the emergence of Śrīvaiṣṇavism as the main socio-cultural glue in the far-away provinces of the Vijayanagara empire, namely present-day Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Tamil Nadu (TN). I use both inscriptional and literary sources to treat two case-studies set in different timeframes. The first part of my work focuses on the reign of Kṛṣṇadevarāya (1509-1529): after an introductory survey on the inscriptional production under Kṛṣṇadevarāya, I focus on a three-inscription cluster in the Guntur district (AP). Together with their spatial contextualization, I analize the inscriptional texts and focus on their Śrīvaiṣṇava myhtological references and vocabulary. The second part, set within a broader timeframe, focuses on the process of identity formation of the Tātācāryas, a relevant family of Śrīvaiṣṇava rājagurus active especially in southern Andhra, Tamil Nadu, and partially Karnataka. Here, I take into consideration both the inscriptional material and the Prapannāmṛta (“Ambrosia for the devotees”), a sacred biography on Rāmānuja, the āḻvārs and the ācāryas, the four ending chapters (123-126) of which introduce and narrate about the Tātācāryas, thier role as rājagurus and their lineage. A comparison between the epigraphic material and the narration of the Prapannāmṛta reveals the Tātācāryas’ need to glorify their own past and to enforce their position both in the local and the royal public scenarios. After the narrative analysis of these chapters, I focus on the manuscripts of the Prapannāmṛta: thier the study reveals some meaningful elements on the textual transmission of this text as well as on its authorship attribution.