Raja Mannargudi Mahamahopadhyaya Thyagaraja Mahi Raju Sastrigal (28 May 1815 – 4 March 1903), also known as Mannargudi Raju Sastri or Mannargudi Periyaval, was a Hindu scholar. He was born in the Bharadwaja Vamsa, as a descendant of Adayappaalam Sri Appayya Dikshitar. Raju Sastri was born in the village of Kuthambadi in today's Thiruvarur district as son of Maragathavalli Janakiammal and Sri Markasahaya Appa Dikshitar
Gurukul
Sastri went back to Mannargudi and set up his gurukul and started teaching many students. He lived in Agraharam First Street, door number 73, and taught veda sastra, anushtanams and granta for thousands of students for over sixty years. Scholars, disciples and devotees address him with reverence as Mannargudi Periyaval with great respect even today. Students flocked to learn from this scholar. People came from Maharashtra, Telugu Desam, Palakadu and from far away places to live and learn from him. Many rich vidwans and scholars saw his sincere teachings and funded the gurukul and made food donations to the students who lived there. Raju Sastri conducted Somayagam for his father Sri Appa Dikshitar in 1864. As per his father's wish, Raju Sastri adopted his brother Appaiya Dikshitar]s son Neelakanda Sastri. Raju Sastri had many disciples in his Gurukul and he loved to teach them. His adopted son Neelakanta Sastrigal looked after the administration of the Gurukul. Raju Sastri divided his students into different sections according to their knowledge and taught them the Sastras according to their level. There were even sanyasis who were his students. The house on the East Main Road in Rajamannargudi town where he lived later became Sankara Mutt, thanks to the Paramacharya.
Students
Many of Sastri's students went on to become famous scholars. The following is a list of some of these students.
Paiganadu Ganapathy Sastri
Nadukaveri Srinivasa Sastri
Pazhavaneri Sundara Sastri
Goshtipuram Harihara Sastri
Thirupathy Venkatasubramanya Sastri
Mallari Ramakrishna Sastri
Paruthiyur Krishna Sastrigal
Kasi Brahmananda Swamigal
Balakrishnananda Swamigal
Ramakrishannanda Swamigal
Mahadevasramigal
Dakshinamurthy Swamigal
Maharashtra Swamigal
Satchidananda Swamigal
Tenaangulam Vaishnavas
Neelakanda Sastri
Yegnaswami Sastri
Sithamalli Sri Subramanya Shastrigal Yateendral
Teachings
Initially Raju Sastri was a very different teacher. He was very particular that all his students followed his instructions and would be very upset if a student made even a small mistake. He would yell at them with anger and the whole neighbourhood could hear him being annoyed. Then after a while he would explain and correct the mistake very elaborately to the whole class so that no student would make the same mistake again ever. He did not encourage arguments and discussion and wanted students to follow very strict class procedures. He would dismiss students who did not follow his strict code of conduct. Early in the morning, Guru Raju Sastri would go north to the river near Kailasanathar temple for his daily bath. While all his students went south to the river Padithurai near Meenakshi Amman temple for their bath. It is even said that Raju Sastri once dismissed and suspended his student Paruthiyur Krishna Sastri mistaking his arguments to be an act of arrogance. Krishna Sastri left the Gurukul to do Ramayana Pravachans, which became very popular. Raju Sastri happened to listen to this pravachan, after hearing about it from his other students. The discourses were on the virtues of Sri Rama. Sastri listened to the discourse on "Patience" as the greatest virtue of all. Raju Sastri was very impressed and said that Krishna Sastri's Pravachan had opened his eyes. 'I have myself learnt a lot from his description of Sri Rama's virtues. Krishna Sastri you are a Mahaanubhavan, you will bring great joy to many people. Raju Sastri recognised Krishna Sastri's scholarship and decided to train and teach him and mould him to become a great scholar. Raju Sastri became a different man after that. Raju Sastri was famed as a teacher known for his simplicity, patience and compassion.