Śriyaḥpati — 'the Lord of Śrī', 'the consort of Śrī Mahālakṣmī' — is formed from Śriyaḥ (the genitive of Śrī) and pati (lord, husband, master). It is not a biographical epithet but a condensed theological declaration: it asserts that Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa is defined in His very being by His eternal, inseparable relationship with Śrī Mahālakṣmī, and that this union is the structural foundation upon which the entire Śrī-sampradāya rests.
In Viśiṣṭādvaita, Śrī Mahālakṣmī is nitya-vibhūti — of eternal, uncreated glory co-extensive with Bhagavān's own eternity. She is not a being who occasionally accompanies Bhagavān or who appears only in His cosmic descents; she is perpetually present, pervading and beautifying His being, expressed visually in every icon and murti as the Śrīvatsa mark on His chest and the lotus in His hand. The name 'Śriyaḥpati' — the Lord whose very identity is constituted by His possession-and-union with Śrī — encodes this permanent non-separation.
The puruṣakāra function of Śrī is soteriologically decisive. When the jīva performs prapatti, it does not directly approach the all-knowing, all-powerful Bhagavān in His unmediated absolute sovereignty, which would be overwhelming for a being conditioned by karma. Instead, Śrī stands as eternal intercessor, ever pleading the jīva's case before Her Lord. Because Bhagavān is Śriyaḥpati — Her husband who cannot refuse Her — Śrī's intercession is the guarantee of the devotee's acceptance. This is precisely why the Dvaya Mantra opens with Śrīman and pivots on Śrīmate: both names invoke Śrī precisely because She is the enabling condition of the surrender's success.
The Āzhvārs celebrate Śriyaḥpati throughout the Divya Prabandham with inexhaustible love. Tirumangai Āzhvār's Periya Tirumozhi is rich with the image of Bhagavān standing with Lakṣmī on His chest, Her presence lending an additional tenderness to His sovereignty. Nammāzhvār in Tiruvaymozhi praises 'tiruvin manam magizhum selvam' — 'the treasure that gladdens Śrī's heart'. Āṇḍāḷ's longing for Kṛṣṇa is simultaneously a longing for Śriyaḥpati: for the Lord whose infinite beauty is inseparable from the beauty of His eternal consort. The divine couple is the single locus of all beauty, power, grace, and joy.
For the practitioner, the name Śriyaḥpati carries an immediate and practical assurance: to approach Bhagavān is to approach Śrī as well — the mother, the intercessor, the one who never grows weary of compassion. The eternal inseparability of Śrī and Nārāyaṇa is the metaphysical basis for the viśvāsa (confident assurance that Bhagavān will accept) that the Āchāryas list as an essential component of authentic prapatti.