Lokācārya

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Lokācārya (Skt., ‘teacher of the people’). A theologian of Śrīvaiṣṇavism and regarded as the figure-head of the Teṉkaḷai. To distinguish him from an older teacher in the same tradition, he is called Piḷḷai, ‘junior’ (his personal name was Vāraṇādrīśa). He died during the earlier part of the 14th cent. CE. Eighteen treatises are ascribed to him, all in a highly Sanskritized form of Tamil, of which the Mumukṣuppaṭi, Śrīvacaṉabhūṣaṇam, and Tattvatraya are the most important. Lokācārya emphasized the commitment of God to those who seek him with devotion and love.