Adi Shankara | |
|---|---|
 Painting of Adi Shankara, exponent of Advaita Vedanta with his disciples by Raja Ravi Varma | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Shankara 8th Century CE CE |
| Died | 9th century CE |
| Known for | Expounded Advaita Vedanta |
| Honors | Jagadguru |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Philosophy | Advaita Vedanta |
| Religious career | |
| Guru | Govinda Bhagavatpada |
Adi Shankara (788 CE-820 CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya (Sanskrit: आदि शङ्कर, आदि शङ्कराचार्य, romanized: Ādi Śaṅkara, Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, lit. 'First Shankaracharya', sa), was an Indian Vedic scholar, philosopher and teacher (acharya) of Advaita Vedanta. While he is often revered as the most important Indian philosopher in the history of Hinduism, reliable information on Shankara's actual life is scant, and the historical influence of his works on Hindu intellectual thought has been questioned by scholars. The historical Shankara was probably relatively unknown until his school expanded some centuries later and he was also Vaishnava-oriented. His true impact lies in his "iconic representation of Hindu religion and culture He wrote many books such as Saundarya laharifor lauding Lakshmi. He also wrote many hymns including the Bhavani Ashtaka and Mahishasuramardini stotra in praise of goddess Durga. Shankara gave explanations for Brahma Sutra, Bhagavat Geeta, etc. His first guru was Gaudapada, who lived as a seer on the banks of river Narmada. He established for Maths in four extreme corner to spread the message of Advaita other all over the country. They are namely Jyotirmatha at Badrinath, Shardapitha at Dwarka, Govardhanmatha at Puri and Sringeri matha at Sringeri.
Until the 10th century Shankara was overshadowed by his older contemporary Maṇḍana Miśra, and there is no mention of him in concurrent Hindu, Buddhist or Jain sources until the 11th century except for philosophers from his own school and his immediate disciples like Padmapada and Sureshvara who revere him in their respective commentaries., this may however wasn't done out of respect as other scholars point out The legendary Shankara was popularized for the first tme in the 14th century when Vidyaranya wrote one of the earliest biographies after him, centuries after his death, based over earlier sources by other biographers when Sringeri matha started to receive patronage from the emperors of the Vijayanagara Empire and shifted their allegiance from Advaitic Agamic Shaivism to Brahmanical Advaita orthodoxy. Hagiographies compiled and recorded by the tradition, dating from the 12th-17th centuries deified him as a ruler-renunciate, travelling on a digvijaya (conquest of the four quarters) across the Indian subcontinent to propagate his philosophy, defeating his opponents in theological debates. These hagiographies portray him as founding four mathas (monasteries), and Adi Shankara also came to be regarded as the organiser of the Dashanami monastic order, and the unifier of the Shanmata tradition of worship. The title of Shankaracharya, used by heads of certain monasteries in India, is derived from his name. Tradition also portrays him as the one who reconciled the various sects (Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism) with the introduction of the panchayatana puja form of worship, the simultaneous worship of five deities – Ganesha, Surya, Vishnu, Shiva and Devi, arguing that all deities were but different forms of the one Brahman, the invisible Supreme Being.
