Yamunacharya was lived from around 918 to 1038 and grew up learning
Vedic texts from Rama Misra, and was skilled in the concept of
mimamsa. According to Sri Vaishnava tradition, as a teenager, he challenged the royal priest of a
Pandya king, Akkiyalvan, to a debate. Akkiyalvan, when he saw the age of the youth, sarcastically asked "
Alavandara?", meaning "Has he come to rule me?". He defeated Akkiyalvan by logically proving that Akkiyalvan's mother was barren, the king was not righteous, and the queen was unchaste. The king and queen, impressed that the boy had understood the shortcomings of logic, adopted him. The queen hailed the boy as "Alavandar". In other versions of the legend, he is given half the kingdom. There is no historical record to show his reign, so it is possible that this happened in a small village, rather than the kingdom of Pandya. After years of rule, Rama Misra tricked him into visiting the temple of
Ranganatha. There, he had an epiphany, gave up the material duties of a king and became a
sanyasin, embracing the convention of
saranagati. He is believed to have composed the
Chatushloki and
Strotra Ratna at that spot. Rama Misra handed over the reins of Nathamuni's school to him, including the collected
Naalayira Divya Prabandham, and offered him the epithet of Yamunacharya. After the demise of Alavandar,
Srirangam was led by the latter's son Thiruvarangan. According to a legend, the deity
Ranganatha himself instructed Yamunacharya to go to
Kanchipuram and invite Ramanuja to
Srirangam. He is also regarded to have received the following instructions: • The names of
Parashara and Veda
Vyasa should be commemorated on the earth by giving it to a person worthy to bear it. • Compose a commentary on Tiruvaymoli of
Nammalvar, the most prolific of the
Alvars. • Compose a commentary on
Upanishads,
Vedanta Sutras, and
Bhagavad Gita. ==Works==