The Sri Vaishnava sect is divided into two sub-sects, Thenkalai and Vadakalai.  Vadakalais follow the teachings of Vedanta Desikan, whereas Thenkalais follow the teachings of Pillai Lokacharya and Manavala Mamunigal. My question is about Manavala Mamunigal. He was a 14th century Acharya considered by Thenkalais to be an incarnation of Vishnu's serpent Adiseshan and a rebirth of Ramanujacharya.  Here is how this webpage describes him:

[![enter image description here][1]][1]

> After some time periya perumAL orders AdhisEshan to re-appear in this samsAram to bring many jIvAthmAs to paramapadham. thiruvananthAzhwAn accepts his swamy’s orders and takes birth as azhagiya maNavALa perumAL nAyanAr (who eventually becomes azhagiya maNavALa mAmunigaL) as the son of thigazha kidanthAn thirunAvIrudaya pirAn **(coming in the lineage of gOmadathAzhwAn who was one of the 74 simhAsanAdhipathis established by emperumAnAr [Ramanujacharya])** and sriranga nAchiAr on ippasi thirumUlam in AzhwAr thirunagari.

I'm interested in the part in bold.  My question is, what is the story of Ramanujacharya's shishya Gomadathalwan, ancestor of Manavala Mamunigal?

Here is all [this list](http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/nov2000/0044.html) of Ramanujacharya's shishya says:

> GOMATHAARYA ( GOMATATHU AAZHWAAN) bore the bowl and slippers of his 
master.

But what is Gomadathalwan's background, how did he become Ramanujacharya's shishya, and how did he get the rare opportunity to Ramanujacharya's bowl and slippers?


  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/z9eRI.jpg