Adi Shankara
The life and teachings of Adi Shankara, the philosopher of Advaita Vedanta: his travels and debates, his monasteries, his works and his lasting influence on Hinduism.
Adi Shankara, also called Shankaracharya, is one of the most influential philosophers in Indian history. He is the great teacher of Advaita Vedanta, the philosophy that the true self is identical with Brahman, the one ultimate reality. According to tradition, he travelled across India debating rival schools, revived Vedic religion, founded monasteries that still exist today and died at the age of just 32.
Dates
Shankara's dates are uncertain. A traditional date is 788–820 CE, but many scholars place him somewhat earlier, in the late 7th or early 8th century. Most accounts of his life come from hagiographies (Shankara Digvijaya, “Shankara's conquest of the directions”) written centuries after his death, so details should be read as tradition rather than history.
Life according to tradition
Early years
Shankara was born into a Brahmin family at Kalady in present-day Kerala. His father died when he was young, and he showed extraordinary learning as a child. Determined to become a renunciant, he could not obtain his mother's permission, until one day, while he was bathing, a crocodile seized his leg. He begged his mother to let him take sannyasa before he died; she agreed, and the crocodile released him. He promised to return to perform her funeral rites, a promise he later kept.
Teacher and travels
Shankara found his teacher, Govinda Bhagavatpada, a disciple of the Advaita philosopher Gaudapada, on the banks of the river Narmada. He then went to Varanasi and began teaching and writing. He is said to have travelled the length and breadth of India, debating with Buddhist, Mimamsa and other philosophers. His most famous debate was with the ritualist Mandana Mishra, whose learned wife Ubhaya Bharati acted as judge; when Shankara won, Mandana Mishra became his disciple.
The outcaste at Varanasi
A well-known story tells that in Varanasi, Shankara ordered an outcaste (chandala) to move out of his way. The man asked whether Shankara wanted the body to move away from another body, or the self to move away from the self, which is the same in all. Recognising the truth of his own teaching, Shankara bowed to him and composed a short poem, the Manisha Panchakam, in response.
The four monasteries
Shankara is credited with founding four great monasteries (mathas), at Sringeri in Karnataka, Dwarka in Gujarat, Puri in Odisha and Jyotirmath near Badrinath in the Himalaya. He also organised renunciants into ten orders, the Dashanami Sampradaya, whose names, such as Giri, Puri, Bharati and Saraswati, are still borne by monks today. The heads of the mathas carry the title Shankaracharya. Tradition holds that Shankara died at Kedarnath in the Himalaya.
Works
Shankara's major works are his commentaries (bhashyas) on the Brahma Sutras, the principal Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, together with the Upadeshasahasri (“A Thousand Teachings”). Many other works are traditionally attributed to him, including the Vivekachudamani (“Crest-Jewel of Discrimination”) and popular devotional hymns such as Bhaja Govindam and the Saundarya Lahari, although scholars doubt that he wrote all of them.
Teachings
Shankara taught that Brahman alone is real; that the world of multiplicity is an appearance produced by maya and ignorance; that the individual self is identical with Brahman; and that liberation comes through knowledge of this truth, gained through study under a teacher, reflection and meditation. He accepted ritual and devotion as valuable for purifying the mind, and is credited with establishing the Smarta worship of five deities.
Legacy
Shankara's interpretation of Vedanta became the most widely known form of Hindu philosophy, and his monasteries remain important religious centres. In the modern era, teachers such as Swami Vivekananda drew heavily on his thought.
Sources and further reading
- Natalia Isayeva, Shankara and Indian Philosophy (SUNY Press, 1993).
- A. J. Alston (trans.), A Sankara Source-Book, 6 vols (Shanti Sadan, 1980–89).
- Sengaku Mayeda (trans.), A Thousand Teachings: The Upadesasahasri of Sankara (SUNY Press, 1992).