Totakacharya (IAST ') 8th century CE) was a disciple of ÃÂdi à Âaá¹ kara, the Advaita Vedanta teacher. He was made the first Jagadguru (head) of the Jyotir Pëthaá¹Â, the original northern maá¹Âha founded by ÃÂdi à Âaá¹ kara in Uttarakhand. He founded a maá¹Âha by name Vadakke modam in Thrissur, Kerala.
The states that when ÃÂdi à Âaá¹ kara was at à Âá¹Âá¹ geri, he met a boy named Giri. ÃÂdi à Âaá¹ kara accepted the boy as his disciple. Giri was a hard-working and loyal disciple of his Guru, ÃÂdi à Âaá¹ kara, though he did not appear bright to the other disciples. One day, Giri was busy plucking flowers for pooja, when ÃÂdi à Âaá¹ kara sat down to begin a lesson on Advaita VedÃÂnta. He however did not start the lesson saying he was waiting for Giri to come back from his chores and singing lessons. At this, Padmapada pointed to a wall and said that it would be the same if ÃÂdi à Âaá¹ kara taught to this dumb object as he taught to Giri. Now, ÃÂdi à Âaá¹ kara wanted to reward Giri for his loyalty and devotion. Thus he mentally granted Giri the complete knowledge of all the à ÂÃÂstras (sciences). The enlightened Giri composed extempore the Toá¹ÂakÃÂá¹£á¹Âakam, a Sanskrit poem in the toá¹Âaka metre, in praise of the Guru ÃÂdi à Âaá¹ kara. Thus the humble disciple Giri became Toá¹ÂakÃÂcÃÂrya.
The Toá¹ÂakÃÂá¹£á¹Âakam was composed by Giri in praise of his Guru ÃÂdià Âaá¹ kara. Literally, it means a rhyme of eight (Sanskrit: ) verses (à Âlokas) composed by Toá¹Âaka. The poem's meter is anapestic tetrameter, with four feet of unstressed-unstressed-stressed syllables (laghu-laghu-guru characters) per line, and four lines per stanza.