[Advaita-l] On the suffix 'AchArya/AchAri'

[V Subrahmanian]

Namaste.

It is common to see some south-Indian names among madhva-s and srIvaiShNavas
such as 'GaruDAchAr', 'HayavadanAchAr/ya', 'KrishNamAchAri', 'Varadaachari',
'LakshmInarasimhAchAriyAr'.  Such names are hardly seen among smarta-s
either of the Tamil region or the Kannada/Telugu regions. The suffix
'AchAri' is found in some people of the carpenter profession. There is a
'shivAchAriyar' sect known as 'G/kurukkaL' in Tamil Nadu.

Even though the name 'ShankarachArya' is as popular as  'MadhvaachArya' and
'RamanujAchArya' is there anything exclusively 'vaiShNavite' about the word
'AchArya/AchAri' ?

Although not strictly 'Advaitic' this question came to my mind and I have
expressed it.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v