Piḷḷai Lokācārya

Piḷḷai Lokācārya was a leading Śrī Vaiṣṇava ācārya who wrote in Maṇipravāḷa (a blend of Tamil and Sanskrit) rather than pure Sanskrit. His 'eighteen secrets' (Aṣṭādaśa Rahasya), especially the Śrīvacana-bhūṣaṇam and Mumukṣuppaṭi, articulate the theology of prapatti (self-surrender) and the primacy of divine grace, becoming the doctrinal backbone of the Teṉkalai sub-tradition — which holds that liberation is the spontaneous gift of God's compassion (the 'cat-hold' analogy), in contrast to the Vaḍakalai stress on the soul's cooperative effort (the 'monkey-hold' analogy) associated with Vedānta Deśika. He lived during the period of Muslim incursions into the south and tradition recounts his role in protecting the Śrīraṅgam temple's deity. His dates are traditional and uncertain.