Rāmānuja or Rāmānujācārya is one of the most important thinkers of traditional Vedānta – the perspective of theology based mainly on an exegesis of the early Upaniṣads, the Brahmasūtra (see Sūtras), and the Bhagavadgītā (Lipner, 2012). Within this tradition, he is generally regarded as the first to have articulated a systematic defense for devotion to a personal, provident, and loving god of Vaiṣṇava provenance. His traditional dates are given as 1017–1137 CE. This can hardly be historically accurate; perhaps these dates signi…