Birth of Sri Ramanuja Sanskruthi Bhavana
It was during the 1970’s that the elders of the Mandayam community desired to have our own marriage and Prapatti Hall in Malleshwaram to be built by collecting contributions from the community members in India and abroad. But the proposal did not come through till 1992. In the year 1992, Sri R.A Krishnaswamy held a meeting with members of the community and a trust was formed to achieve the goal. The Trust was named as ‘Sri Yathiraja Ramanuja Trust’.
The following were the founder trustees.
1. Sri R. A Krishnaswamy (Chairman)
2. Sri M.K. Thirunarayana Iyengar (Secretary)
3. Sri M.B. Varadarajan
4. Sri R.M. Parthasarathy
5. Sri M.D. Ramanuja
6. Sri S. Rangarajan
7. Sri M.A. Narasimhan
8. Sri M.R. Narasimhachar
Sri Yathiraja Ramanuja Sampathkumara Jeeyar, the then Peethadhipathi, was designated as the patron of the Trust. The Mathadhipathi agreed to lease the vacant land adjacent to the present Yathiraja Mutt for a period of 30 years. In addition to initial contributions, the Trustees borrowed Rs Thirty lakhs against pledging the land and giving personal sureties to the bank. An additional Thirty lakhs was collected as donations from various persons and firms (Including non Mandayams). Sri M.C. Venkatesh collected donations from community members in U.S.A and sent the same to the Trust. All this money helped the trust in starting the construction work in full force.
At the beginning, the digging of the cellar was a herculean task as it was a Rocky Terrain and this excavation had to be done manually. Late Sri M.A. Parthasarathy Supervised the complete digging and excavation process. Sri S. Rangarajan prepared the plans and was totally involved in the entire construction of the building. Due to this manual process, the work was delayed and hence the Project cost too went up. However, after the building construction started, there were financial problems and the trustees gave interest free loans to the trust to overcome the financial crisis. The building was completed at a cost of 1.2 Crores and the building was formally named as ‘Sri Ramanuja Samskruthi Bhavana’ and was opened in November 1998 by Sri Yathiraja Ramanuja Sampathkumara Jeeyar. It was also an occasion to remember and celebrate as this opening ceremony coincided with the 90th Birthday celebrations of our Jeeyar.
It is sad to note that four of the founder trustees have passed away viz. Sriyuts R.A Krishnaswamy, M.B. Varadarajan, S.Rangarajan, M.K. Thirunarayana Iyengar (as also Sri M.A. Parthasarathy). In their places Srimathi Sushila Rajagopal, Sri M.K. Sitharam, Sri S.P. Koushik and Sri S. Srinivasan have been coopted as Trustees. In addition to the Kalyan Mantap area, two other floors have been added and let out to commercial firms. The income from the above helped the trust to clear the bank loan fully. Now the Bhavana has fulfilled the desire of the elders and is serving the community people in their social cultural and religious activities.