One of the greatest Hindu philosophers, Adi Shankara (700–750) lived for less than fifty years but is considered a key figure in Hindu thought. In his short career, he helped end long-standing religious divisions in India and founded four monasteries that would have enormous impact on Hindu theology.
Shankara was born in southern India to parents of the Brahmin, or priestly, caste. A brilliant child, he reportedly had the ability to memorize texts after only one reading. Shankara’s father died when he was seven, and the child decided to become a monk at age sixteen after a near-death experience in a crocodile attack.
At the time of Shankara’s birth, India was divided into dozens of competing Hindu sects, each of which interpreted the Vedas—Hinduism’s four major sacred texts, thought to be more than 3,000 years old—in a different way. Some even rejected the traditional Vedas altogether. The enduring popularity of Buddhism and emergence of Jainism in India also contributed to a sense that Hinduism was in decline.
Shankara wrote his first commentaries on the Vedas while still a teenager and toured present-day India, Nepal, and Pakistan on foot, holding debates with other monks and philosophers. He preached mostly in the countryside, avoiding cities. He founded four monasteries, each devoted to one of the Vedas. Shankara ended up in the Himalayas, which is where he is believed to have died.
The religious tradition Shankara founded is known as Advaita Vedânta, and it remains one of the major forces within Hinduism. He also instructed his followers to worship all six of Hinduism’s major deities, rather than separating into factions devoted to one of the six. By bridging divisions within the religion, he helped revitalize Hinduism and stem the spread of rival religions in India.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- According to legend, his mother had a vision that Shiva would reincarnate in the form of her son, Shankara. Shiva is one of Hinduism’s principal deities.
- The subject of one of Shankara’s first theological debates was the Kama Sutra, the Hindu manual of sex and love. As a celibate monk, however, he had no firsthand experience on the subject. According to legend, he was able to win the debate anyway by inhabiting the body of a recently deceased king and acquiring his ample experience.
- In 1983, Indian director G. V. Iyer (1917–2003) made a critically acclaimed film about the philosopher’s life entitled Adi Shankaracharya. It was the first movie filmed entirely in classical Sanskrit, the language spoken in eighth-century India.
