Sri Arulalap Perumal Emperumanar

Sri Arulalap perumal emperumanar's birth name was Yajnamurthi. He was a great scholar and an expert in maayaavaada doctrine. He visited the holy Ganges and engaged in debates with many scholars, who were defeated easily. This resulted in a huge following at kasi and eventually, he became a Sanyaasin.

Yajnamurthi was confident that he would defeat anyone in a debate. In the meantime, Sri Ramanuja had set up his ministry at Srirangam and his popularity reached Kasi. Hearing the great ministry set up by Ramanuja, Yajnamurthi wanted to debate him. Hence the traveled from Kasi to Srirangam with a group of his disciples and great fanfare. He met Ramanuja and they agreed to debate for 18 days.

The first 16 days of debate resulted in deadlock. On the 17th day the balance shifted in favor of Yajnamurthi. By the end of that day, they both realized that Yajnamurthi had an advantage over Ramanuja. Yajnamurthi was proud and left the ministry for the day. Ramanuja, was however, disturbed by the turn of events and went into meditating on Sri Varadharaja of Kanchi. The Lord appeared to him in his dream that night and instructed Ramanuja to use Sri Alavandar's work on the incorrectness and illusion of Maayaavaada.

On the final day when Ramanuja entered the debate hall, Yajnamurthi was waiting for him. On seeing the posture of Ramanuja, the energy and his majestic approach, Yajnamurthi was taken aback and accepted defeat, saying that Ramanuja was one with God and no one can defeat him. Ramanuja, lectured him on deficiencies of Maayaavaada, while Yajnamurthi listened with great attention. At the end, he fell to Sri Ramanuja's feet and requested to be accepted into his order.

Ramanuja accepted him and gave him the title Arulaalap perumaaL emperumaanaar, performed the pancha-samskaram and started teaching him the 4000 Divya Prabandam. Since he was a Sanyaasin, he has set up a monastery at Srirangam. During this time, many Sri vaishnavas from far reaching places traveled to Srirangam, with a desire to meet emperumaanaar. Soon there was confusion as to which emperumaanaar were they willing to meet, as there were two of them. On hearing this Yajnamurthi was distraught, tore down his monastery and requested Ramanuja to take him into his fold permanently. So did Ramanuja and named him Devaraat. Ramanuja also composed a work called Nityam, or the methods of worshiping the God, and appointed Yajnamurthi to the daily worship duty at the ministry. Since then, A.P. emperumaanaar never left Ramanuja's side and learned all the truths of Vedanta.