I am a VADAMA Brahmin owing allegiance to Adi Sankaracharya,i.e., we belong to the SMARTA sect. I am a native of North Arcot District & belong to the Kaundinya Gotra. North Arcot & Chengalpattu Districts & northern parts of South Arcot constitute one zone known as Thondai Nadu. My maternal grandmother was from Tanjavur. Sri RAMANUJA, EMBAR & KOORATHAAZHVAN were all Vadama Brahmins. When Sri Ramanuja founded Visishtadvaita Vaishnavam, most of the Vadama Brahmins refused to embrace Vaishnavism & remained loyal to Adi Sankaracharya. The main reason why they rejected Ramanuja was that the Vadamas, like other followers of Adi Sankara, were neither fanatical Saivites nor fanatical Vaishnavites, and worshipped Shiva, Vishnu, Ganesh, Karthikeya (Subrahmanya), Shakti & Soorya (Sun) as different forms of one and the same Parabrahman or Paramatma. This is known as SHANMATA in Sanskrit and ARUSAMAYAM in Tamil (worship of six deities as one and the same Parabrahman), whereas Sri Ramanuja advocated that only Vishnu was Parabrahman and other deities should not be worshipped. But subsequently during the reign of Telugu-speaking Naicker (Naidu) Kings in Tanjavur & Madurai, KUMAARA THATHACHARYA, the rajaguru of the Naicker kings, converted many Vadamas to Sri Vaishnavism, made them settle down in Chola Nadu (Tanjavur & Tiruchi areas) & gave them houses and lands.
One of Sri Ramanuja's gurus, PERIYA NAMBI and the Thenkalai Acharya MANAVALA MAAMUNIGAL were BRIHACHCHARANAM Brahmins. Tirukoshtiyoor Nambi, another guru of Sri Ramanuja, was a SOZHIYA BRAHMIN. KAARPASA RAMAN who is mentioned in the biography of Ramanuja was a ASHTASAHASRAM Brahmin.
