Shrivaishnavas are devotees (bhakta) of
the god Vishnu, and their roots lie in the
devotional hymns of the Alvars, a group
of twelve poet-saints who lived in
southern India between the seventh
and tenth centuries. Two centuries
later, the Alvars’ devotional outpouring
was organized and systematized by
the philosopher Ramanuja (11th c.),
who is considered the Shrivaishnava
founder. Ramanuja was convinced that
Brahman, or Supreme Reality, was a
personal deityrather than an impersonal
abstract principle, and he was also
convinced that devotion (bhakti) was
the most important form of religious
practice. Vishishthadvaita Vedanta, his
philosophical position, stressed both of
these convictions and thus opposed the
Advaita Vedantaschool, founded by the
philosopher Shankaracharya, which
believed that the Supreme Being was
impersonal and that realization (jnana)
was the best spiritual path.
The split between the Tengalais and
the Vadagalais came several centuries
after Ramanuja and stemmed from dif-
fering perspectives on what the individ-
ual must do to gain final liberation of the
soul (moksha). The Tengalais empha-
size the need for absolute surrender
(prapatti) to the graceof God, through
which devotees will be saved with no
action of their own; the Vadagalais stress
that devotees must also exert them-
selves on their own behalf. The Tengalai
founder was Pillai Lokacharya(14th c.),
who is also the community’s most
important figure.
Thakur
(“master”) The model for traditional
Indian society was as a collection of
endogamoussubgroups (i.e., groups in
which marriages occurred only between
members of the same group) known as
jatis (“birth”). These jatis were orga-
nized (and their social status deter-
mined) by the group’s hereditary
occupation, over which each group had
a monopoly. In northern India, the
Thakurs were a jati considered to be
kshatriyas, who have traditionally func-
tioned as landlords and village leaders.
Its most famous member was the Nobel
laureate Rabindranath Tagore.Thandai
(“cooling”) A refreshing sweetened drink
made of milk or yogurt, ground nuts,
and spices often used as the medium
for the consumption of ground marijuana
(bhang). As with all milk products, the
thandai is considered to have cooling
properties; this effect may be intended
to balance the bhang, which is
considered to be “hot” because of its
intoxicating properties.Thanesar
City and sacred site (tirtha) adjoining
the sacred site of Kurukshetrain the
northern part of the state of Haryana.
Thanesar is a famous site in the
Mahabharata, the later of the two
Sanskrit epics. The epic’s climax comes
at Kurukshetra in an eighteen-day battle
between two factions of an extended
family, along with their allies and sup-
porters. On one side, there are the five
Pandavabrothers, who are the epic’s
protagonists, and on the other, their
cousins the Kauravas, who are the
antagonists. According to the epic, on
the eve of the battle, the Pandavas wor-
shiped the god Shiva in a temple at
Thanesar, and after their worshipShiva
assured them that they would be victori-
ous. Aside from the temple, Thanesar
also has a renowned bathing tank said to
contain all the sacred rivers of India, at
which the primary bathing (snana) day
is Sunday. Nearby is the Gita Mandir,
at which Arjuna, one of the Pandava
brothers, is said to have received
the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita
from Krishnain the moments before
the battle began.Thanjavur
A variant name for the southern Indian
city of Tanjore. See Tanjore.Thakur