Tengalai

One of the two main subsects in
the Shrivaishnava religious community,
the other being the Vadagalai. The
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Tengalai
Temple car from the city of Shrirangapatnam, in the state of Karnataka. It is used to transport an image of
the temple’s primary deity during festival processions.
Shrivaishnavas are devotees (bhakta) of
the god Vishnu, and their roots lie in the
devotional hymns of the Alvars, a group
of twelve poet-saints who lived in
southern India between the seventh
and tenth centuries. Two centuries
later, the Alvars’ devotional outpouring
was organized and systematized by
the philosopher Ramanuja (11th c.),
who is considered the Shrivaishnava
founder. Ramanuja was convinced that
Brahman, or Supreme Reality, was a
personal deity rather than an impersonal
abstract principle, and he was also
convinced that devotion (bhakti) was
the most important form of religious
practice. Vishishthadvaita Vedanta, his
philosophical position, stressed both of
these convictions and thus opposed the
Advaita Vedanta school, founded by the
philosopher Shankaracharya, which
believed that the Supreme Being was
impersonal and that realization (jnana)
was the best spiritual path.
The split between the Tengalais and
the Vadagalais came several centuries
after Ramanuja and stemmed from differing perspectives on what the individual must do to gain final liberation of the
soul (moksha). The Tengalais emphasize the need for absolute surrender
(prapatti) to the grace of God, through
which devotees will be saved with no
action of their own; the Vadagalais stress
that devotees must also exert themselves on their own behalf. The Tengalai
founder was Pillai Lokacharya (14th c.),
who is also the community’s most
important figure.