Krishna is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is widely revered among Hindu divinities. Krishna's birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Krishna Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar.
Radha, also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. In scriptures, Radha is mentioned as the avatar of Lakshmi and also as the Mūlaprakriti, the Supreme goddess, who is the feminine counterpart and internal potency of Krishna. Radha accompanies Krishna in all his incarnations. Radha's birthday is celebrated every year on the occasion of Radhashtami.
Perumal or Tirumal is a Hindu deity. Perumal is worshipped mainly among Tamil Hindus in South India and the Tamil diaspora, who consider Perumal to be a form of Vishnu.
Appayya Dikshita, 1520–1593 CE, was a performer of yajñas as well as an expositor and practitioner of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy but with a focus on Shiva or Shiva Advaita.
Vedanta Desika (1268–1369), also rendered Vedanta Desikan, Swami Vedanta Desika, and Thoopul Nigamantha Desikan, was an Indian polymath who wrote philosophical as well as religious and poetical works in several languages, including Sanskrit, Manipravaḷam, Tamil and Prakrit. He was an Indian philosopher, Sri Vaishnava guru, and one of the most brilliant stalwarts of Sri Vaishnavism in the post-Ramanuja period. He was a Hindu devotee, poet, Master of Acharyas (desikan) and a logician and mathematician. He was the disciple of Kidambi Appullar, also known as Athreya Ramanujachariar, who himself was of a master-disciple lineage that began with Ramanuja. Vedanta Desika is considered to be avatar (incarnation) of the divine bell of Venkateshvara of Tirumala by the Vadakalai sect of Sri Vaishnavism. Vedanta Desika belongs to Vishvamitra/Kaushika gotra.
Kāvya refers to the Sanskrit literary style used by Indian court poets flourishing between c.200 BCE and 1200 CE.
Radha-Krishna is the combined form of the Hindu god Krishna with his chief consort and shakti Radha. They are regarded as the feminine as well as the masculine realities of God, in several Krishnaite traditions of Vaishnavism.
Goloka or Goloka Vrindavan is the celestial abode of the Hindu god Krishna and his chief consort goddess Radha. In the Bhagavata Purana, Krishna is portrayed as the highest person who resides in Goloka. Goloka is often represented as the celestial realm containing flowing streams and lovely gardens, and is inhabited by cows and enchanting maidens - Gopis.
The Mukundamala is a Sanskrit hymn composed by the Hindu poet-saint Kulasekhara, seventh of the twelve Alvars of the Sri Vaishnava tradition. Comprising 40 verses, the hymn is addressed to the deity Krishna.
The Raslila, also rendered the Rasalila or the Ras dance, is part of a traditional story described in Hindu texts such as the Bhagavata Purana and Gita Govinda, where Krishna dances with Radha and the gopis of Braj. Rasalila has also been a popular theme for other India classical dances including Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Manipuri Raas Leela, Kuchipudi, and Kathak.
Rukminisha Vijaya, is a Vaishnava work composed by the 16th-century Hindu, Madhava saint, Vadiraja Tirtha. It is an important work of Sanskrit literature, containing 19 chapters and 1,241 verses in various metres. The text is written in the Vaidarbhi style.
Mangalasasanam refers to a Vaishnava concept in Hinduism, where a devotee offers their salutations and felicitations upon God due to a profound sense of concern for the latter, and also as an exercise of forgetting their sense of self.
The Ahobila Matam is a Vadakalai Sri Vaishnava monastery established around 1400 CE at Ahobilam in Andhra Pradesh, India following the Vadakalai tradition of Vedanta Desika. It is attributed to Sri Adivan Satakopa Swami.
Brihad-bhagavatamrita is a sacred text for followers of the Hindu tradition of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Along with Hari-bhakti-vilasa, it is one of the most important works of Vaishnava theologian Sanatana Goswami. While Hari-bhakti-vilasa sets out guidance for Vaishnava behavior and ritual, Brihad-bhagavatamrita contains an analysis of the teachings of Chaitanya from an ontological and metaphysical perspective.
The Hamsa Sandesha or "The message of the Swan" is a Sanskrit love poem written by Vedanta Desika in the 13th century CE. A short lyric poem of 110 verses, it describes how Rama, hero of the Ramayana epic, sends a message via a swan to his beloved wife, Sita, who has been abducted by the demon king Ravana. The poem belongs to the sandeśa kāvya "messenger poem" genre and is very closely modeled upon the Meghadūta of Kālidāsa. It has particular significance for Sri Vaishnavas, whose god, Vishnu, it celebrates.
Hinduism in Tamil Nadu finds its earliest literary mention in the Sangam literature dated to the 5th century BCE. The total number of Tamil Hindus as per 2011 Indian census is 63,188,168 which forms 87.58% of the total population of Tamil Nadu. Hinduism is the largest religion in Tamil Nadu.
The Paduka Sahasra is a Sanskrit stotrakavya written by the Hindu philosopher Vedanta Desika in the 14th century CE. Comprising one thousand verses, the subject of the poem are the paduka (sandals) of the deity Ranganatha of Srirangam, a form of Vishnu. The verses of the poem extol and associate these sandals with those of Rama, the protagonist of the Ramayana. The poem is regarded to be one of Vedanta Desika's greatest works.
The Dayashataka is a Sanskrit hymn composed by the Hindu philosopher Vedanta Desika. Comprising one hundred verses in ten decads, the hymn was written in praise of Venkateshvara, a form of Vishnu who is the principal deity of the Venkateshvara Temple, Tirupati.
The Gopalavimshati is a Sanskrit hymn written by the Hindu philosopher Vedanta Desika. Comprising 21 verses, the Gopalavimshati extols Krishna, an avatar of the deity Vishnu. The hymn is composed in a number of poetic metres, expressive of the themes of faith and the philosophical idealisation of the deity. The first stanza of the hymn forms the prologue of Vedanta Desika's epic poem, theYadavabhyudaya.
