Sri Venkata Sesharya Mahadesikan

Sri Venkata Sesharya was the first son of  Sri Varadacharya popularly called ‘Ammal Acharya’. He was born  on Margazhi Uththiradam star in the year 1855 A.D.(Tamil year  Rakshasa)  .He had his adhyayana under his father and studied Vyakarana under Goshtipuram Thiruvenkatacharya Swami and Vyakarana Simham Venkatacharya Swami. A shrewd and intelligent student, he was the beloved of all his teachers. He became the court poet for Sanskrit at the court of Ramnad Setupati.

Sri Venkata Sesharya almost performed a miracle at the Thirupullani temple. Every year a car festival was celebrated in Darbhasayana Rama shrine and invariably there used to be a fire accident. The King Setupati wanted to put an end to this ill omen and when he consulted Sri Swami, the preceptor believed that the cause for the recurrent fire accident must be absence of Sita Devi’s image in the shrine. Once she was restored with her Consort Lord Rama, the festival would go on without any impediments. Opinions differed, many scholars viewed that it was the place where Sri Rama visited without Sita, to build the Sethu. But Sri Swami felt that as the temple had been built according to the Agama Sastras, the devotees should pray to the Lord with His Consort only. The king could not take any decision. That night Sri Swami had a dream in which he saw a beautiful image of Sri Sita Devi in an underground floor. The next morning when he rushed to the palace to convey this strange experience to the king, the king himself was waiting to narrate a similar experience he had had. Both the king and the Acharya, without exchanging their dream experience lest it would influence one another, wrote in a piece of paper .Surprisingly both of them had the same dream. When they searched the underground floor in the temple, they could find out the separated Sita Devi and restored Her to Her Lord. Needless to say that thereafter there was no fire accident during the car festival.

Once an astrologer predicted that Sri Swami would not live long and to avert this calamity he had to give away six white horses. Swami took the symbolic meaning of this warning and within six months taught all Sastras to six persons. Thus with all his shrewdness he crossed over a dire predicament.

When Sri Swami decided to leave the service and go to his native village, Villur, he went to see his Acharya at Srirangam who advised him to install a small vigraha in his daily aradhana. Sri Swami too was longing to install a small idol of Sri Krishna in a dancing posture with butter in his hands. To his surprise, the next morning when he was performing his morning rituals at the river bank, an aged priest of Srirangam offered him to give a vigraha, given to him by an unknown person some forty years ago for safe custody and kept by him with Lord Ranganatha and the idol was what he yearned for – the Navaneetha Nata Krishnan. Likewise by sheer accident he could secure a beautiful ’Kovilazhvar’ for his Navaneetha Natan.

By the command of Lord Rama in a dream, Sri Swami shifted his residence to Vaduvoor. His son Sri Srinivasaraghavan was born to him there by the Grace of the Lord.

Sri Venkata Sesharya Swami has written many Slokas and Kavyas which include:

1)      Sri Bhashyartha Sangraham

2)      Pratibimba Lahari (Sanskrit translation of Thiruvaimozhi)

3)      Sangatimanimala

4)      Grhya Agni Sodana

5)      Ramayana in  Prakrit language  and many Stotras

He left for his heavenly abode in the year 1933 at Devanarvilagam near Thiruvinnagar.