Srimathe Rangaramanuja Mahadesikaya Namaha
This was asked by one bhaktha here in comments dasan putting as main title question
What is the differenCe between acharyan and swayamacharyan?? Will the swayamAcharyan comes under 74 disciples of Sri ramanujar.why they are as swayamacharyan??
Dasanudasan
Adiyen dAsan, adiyen did some search few years back on the same topic and this is what i got from the internet. Hope this answers your question
Who are suyamacharyas?
The term is “svayam AchArya purusha”. “AchArya purusha” is a learned, tradition person who administers the rite of pancasamskAra (samASrayaNam) to others. “svayam” means “oneself”. So, the term “svayam AchArya purusha” means “having an acharya from one’s own”.
svayamAchAryapurusha is term used for people who do not follow a maTham (Parakala, Ahobila, Vaanamaamalai, Andavan, etc.) and who also do not have an Acharya outside their family (mudaliyaandaan, kOyil kandAdai, etc.)
This term is used for Sri Vaishnavas who are descendants of the original 74 disciples of Ramanuja, and who continue to have association with learned members of their extended family who administer the pancasamskAra (samASrayaNam) and minister to their needs. Many of our most learned acharyas came from “svayamAchArya” families Desika, Pillai Lokacharya, etc. This is because the concept of a maTha and therefore a sampradAya based on the maTha dates from the 14th century, much after Sri Ramanuja’s time.
Some notable svayamAchArya families are Prativaadi Bhayankaram, Tatacharya, Tirumalai Anandaanpillai, Nallaan Chakravarti, etc. There are many scholars among these families even today, as they have a strong sense of connection to the tradition and maintain a certain level of scholarship.
Not all descendants of the 74 original disciples are still considered “svayam AchArya”. At some point, some of the descendants drifted away from their traditional acharya or did not have a strong scholar in their family, and consequently became associated with some maTham or other swami. So there will be Sri Vaishnavas who bear the appellation “Kidambi”,”Vangipuram”, “Tatacharya”, etc., who at one point belonged
to svayam AchArya purusha families, but who now follow some other swami.
It should be pointed out that some people object to the term “svayam AchArya purusha” (not the concept behind it) with the feeling that only one person is truly a “svayam AchArya”, an acharya for himself the Lord.
