Sankara

Sankara, or SANKARA ACHARYA ('the spiritual teacher Sankara'), is the name of one of the most renowned theologians of India. His date, as is the case with most celebrities of that country, is unknown. Tradition places him about 200 B.C., but the best authorities assign him to the 8th or 9th century after Christ. Most accounts agree in making him a native of Malabar, and a member of the caste of the Nambūri Brahmins. All accounts represent him as having led an erratic life, and engaged in successful controversies with other sects. He may be regarded as having finally brought into its completed form the Vedanta philosophy or Mīmāṃsā; he taught that there was one sole supreme God, and is the origin of the sect of Smarta Brahmins. Towards the close of his life he repaired to Cashmere, and finally to Kedarnáth, in the Himalayas, where he died at the early age of thirty-two. His principal works, which exercised a great influence on the religious history of India, are his commentary on the Vedanta Sútras and his commentaries on the Bhagavad-gítâ and the principal Upanishads. His learning and personal eminence were so great that he was looked upon as an incarnation of the god Siva, and was fabled to have worked several astounding miracles.