Alkondaville Govindacharya's work on the life of Ramanujacharya mentions that Nathamuni lived for a total of 540 years (pg 12). The book begins by stating that in the year 916 A.D. when Yamunacharya was born, his grandfather Nathamuni was still alive (pg 2). However, in the same book, we find that considering that he would not be alive to name and train Yamunacharya, he delegates the responsibility first to his immediate disciple Pundarikaksha (Uyyakkondar), who also, not being able to accomplish that during his lifetime, delegates it further to Rama Misra who actually names and trains Yamunacharya. The book also mentions that when Nathamuni reached Azhwar Tirunagari to retrieve the lost prabandham, he meets a person by name Parankusa Dasa, who is a disciple of Madhurakavi (Azhwar?). We know Yamunacharya continued to live into Ramanujacharya's time and so, a date of 916 A.D to his birth is likely to make sense, assuming he also lived over a hundred years. However, if it were true that Parankusa dasar were indeed a disciple of Madhurakavi (Azhwar?) then either
- Nathamuni should have lived for a substantially long time, like 540 years, as the claim is, or
Madhurakavi (Azhwar?) should have lived for a long time from the beginning of Kaliyuga in ~3000 BC as he was a contemporary of Nammazhwar who lived only for a short time of 32 years, or
the Madhurakavi mentioned here is really not Madhurakavi Azhwar. A few questions arise here as I put all of these together. If it were true that Nathamuni lived for 540 years, why did his son Isvara muni take a long time to beget Yamunacharya? If this were true, was Nathamuni alive during the time of Shankaracharya (788-820 AD)?
