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