TENGALAI, lit. the southern branch, a sect among the Southern Vaishnava, distinct from the Vadagalai or northern branch.
The Tengala follow the precepts of one Manavala Manumi or Ramyaja Matri, and the Vadagala claim Vedanta-chari or Vedanta Desica as their authority. Both of these saints were pupils of the same master, Ramanuja-chari, and neither sect speaks disrespectfully of the apostle of the other. Both sects worship Vishnu, and use the same rites, with some minor differences.
The Tengala and Vadagala, if of the same caste, may eat together and intermarry ; but among no other sects are there such frequent and bitter quarrels. Tencalei means Southern Veda, and Vadacalei Northern, and in all probability the existing disputes have reference to the assumption of superionty of ritual on the part of some northern Brahmans settling in the south. The Tengala are most numerous in the southern provinces, and this fact would seem to confirm the view that the quarrel primarily arose from the northern people, the Vadagala, attempting to interfere with the established practices of the southern sect.
The great and really serious- matter in dispute between the two sects is in regard to the mode of wearing the trident or caste mark. -All Vaishnava wear their caste marks on the forehead in longitudinal form, while the Saiva wear theirs horizontally or as round dots.
Some old Sanskrit authority has laid down that the Vaishnava marks shall extend from the nose to the hair, but no one seems to know who the authority was, or in what book the statement was made.
This very dubious authority seems to have been the cause of the quarrels of the sects. .The Vada gala or Northern Vaishnava say that frbm the nose means any part of the nose, and so begin their marks at the root of the organ, between the eye brows. The Tengala argue that everything has a beginning, a middle, and an ending, so they begin their marks on the upper part of the nose itself, considering that the organ is divisible into three parts. The trident is the same in both sects, only that one carries the middle line a little way down the nose, while the other stops short at the root of the nose. 1Vomen of the Vaishnava sects do not wear the trident, but a single stmight yellow line from the hair to the nose. This weighty matter is a cause of constant clashing between the sects. If an old temple of Vishnu is found with the .trident carved upon it after the fashion of the Vadagala sect, they claim the temple and endowments as belongino. to their party, and appeals are sometimes made to the law courts for the settlement of these disputes. All Vaishnava resort to all Vaishnu temples without any sectarian differences.