Sri Ramanuja’s work referencing poems of alwars?

Question

Has Ramanuja quoted any verses from the Alwars in any of his works? If yes, please provide some details and example.

In case anyone not aware, the alwars or azhwars are 12 devotional saints who wrote devotional poems in Tamil in the praise of Vishnu or his incarnations. Sri Nathamuni compiled all these poems (4000 stanzas) which is called as “Divya Prabandham”. One of the alwars, Sadagopan is considered as guru of Sri Nathamuni so it seems obvious that Ramanuja may have had some influence of alwars poem since he belongs to same sect as Nathamuni.

Answer 1

Ramanuja doesn't make any reference to the works of the Azvars in his works. However his primary disciple and first cousin Thirukkurugai Piraan Pillaan is said to have written the first commentary on Nammazvar's Tiruvaymozhi upon command of Ramanuja.

Both the Thengalai and Vadagalai Guruparamparas as well as the post-Ramanuja commentaries on the 4000 Divya Prabandhams record many anecdotes where Ramanuja has quoted from the works of the Azvars (usually when teaching the Sribhashya or the Tiruvaymozi). Here is one example from Vasudha Narayanan's "The Vernacular Veda".