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18-2 VICTORY ovan .iaixas. ch. xxviu.
The Jainas rose in rerolfc against RAmAnuja. It is said
that a body of 12,000 of them marched to R-Ebrailnuja, who had
taken his abode in Lord Nrisimha's temple at Tondanur, and
demanded of him that he should first argue with them on
religion and philosophy, before he interfered with their king.
Rfi,m4nuja seeing this tremendous onslaught of an infuriated
crowd, thought to himself thus :— " In order to escape from
lightning, I have courted thunder ; fearing the scorpion, I
have fallen a victim to the fangs of a cobra ; breaking awaj'
from fetters, I have thrust myself into stocks. What is tiie
way now ? " Nambi, finding his guru thus embarassed, said :
" Holy Sire, thou art no ordinai-y mortal. Is not it thy
worth while at such a crisis to reveal thy true celestial nature ?
May not all men realize thy greatness and be saved ? " Ramd.-
nuja, saying : "let it be so then," retired into an ante-chamber
in the temple, and commanding a curtain to be hung up
between him and the crowd, became a thousand-headed sej--
pent,' and argued with the Jaina disputants in a thousand
ways, vanquishing them completely. This incident is memorialized
to this day by means of a painting of R^mtknaja, overshadowed
by the thousand heads of Sdsha, on a wall in the
I^risimha temple, existing to this day in good repair in Tonda-