Sringeri Sharada Peetham
Dakṣiṇāmnāya Śrī Śāradā Pīṭham or Śri Śṛṅgagiri Maṭha ;, ) is one of the four cardinal pīthams following the Daśanāmi Sampradaya. The peetham or matha is traditionally believed to have been established by Ādi Śaṅkara to preserve and propagate Sanātana Dharma and Advaita Vedānta, the doctrine of non-dualism. Located in Śringerī in Chikmagalur district in Karnataka, India, it is the Southern Āmnāya Pīṭham amongst the four Chaturāmnāya Pīthams, with the others being the Dvārakā Śāradā Pītham in the West, Purī Govardhana Pīṭhaṃ in the East, Badri Jyotishpīṭhaṃ in the North. The head of the matha is called Shankaracharya, the title derives from Adi Shankara.
The peetham is situated on the banks of the Tuṅgā River in Śringerī. The northern bank of the river Tunga houses three prominent shrines dedicated to Śrī Śāradā, Śrī Ādi Śaṅkara, and Jagadguru Śrī Vidyāśankara Tīrtha, the 10th Jagadguru of the Pītham. The southern bank houses the residence of the reigning pontiff, the adhisthānam shrines of the previous pontiffs, and the Sadvidyā Sañjīvini Samskrita Mahāpāthashālā.
The Pītham is traditionally headed by an ascetic pontiff belonging to the order of the Jagadguru Śankarāchārya. According to tradition, the first pontiff of the Pītham was Śrī Ādi Śaṅkara's eldest disciple, Śrī Sureshvarāchārya, renowned for his treatises on Vedānta - Mānasollāsa and Naishkarmya-Siddhi. The current pontiff, Śrī Bhārathī Tīrtha Svāmin is the 36th Jagadguru in the since-unbroken spiritual succession of pontiffs.
The Pītham is one of the major Hindu institutions that has historically coordinated Smārta tradition and monastic activities through satellite institutions in South India, preserved Sanskrit literature and pursued Advaita studies. The Pītham runs several vedic schools, maintains libraries and repositories of historic Sanskrit manuscripts. The Śringerī Mutt has been active in preserving Vedas, sponsoring students and recitals, Sanskrit scholarship, and celebrating traditional annual festivals such as Śaṅkara Jayanti and Guru Purnima. The Pītham has branches across India and maintains temples at several locations. It also has a social outreach programme.
Location
Sri Sharada Peetham is located in Sringeri about east of Udupi and northeast from Mangaluru across the Western Ghats, and about west-northwest from the state capital, Bengaluru. Sringeri can be reached from Bangalore and Mangalore via road.History
Establishment
Traditional accounts
According to tradition, Adi Shankara, the principal exponent of Advaita Vedanta, established four pithams in India to preserve and propagate Sanatana Dharma and Advaita Vedanta. These are Sringeri Sri Sharada Peetham, Dvārakā Śāradā Pītham, Purī Govardhan Pīṭhaṃ, and Badri Jyotishpīṭhaṃ.A hagiographic legend states that Adi Shankara, during His travels across India, witnessed a snake unveiling its hood like an umbrella to shield a pregnant frog from the hot sun on the banks of the river Tunga in Sringeri. Deducing that non-violence amongst natural predators was innate to a holy spot, Adi Shankara decided to establish His first Peetham in Sringeri. Sringeri is independently associated with Sage Rishyasringa of Ramayana fame, son of Sage Vibhandaka.
According to tradition, Shankara also instituted the tradition of appointing a succession of monastic pontifical heads, called the Jagadgurus, to each of the four monasteries, installing Sri Sureshvaracharya, Sri Hastamalakacharya, Sri Padmapadacharya and Sri Totakacharya as the first Jagadgurus of the Peethams at Sringeri, Dvaraka, Puri and Badri respectively. According to tradition, Adi Shankara installed Sri Sureshwaracharya, believed by tradition to be the same as Maṇḍana Miśra, as the first acharya of the Peetham at Sringeri before resuming his tour to establish the three remaining Peethams at Puri, Dwaraka and Badarinath. The math holds one of the four Mahavaakyas, Aham-Bramhasmi. The math claims to have a lineage of Jagadgurus, stretching back straight to Adi Shankara himself. The present and 36th Jagadguru acharya of this peetham is Jagadguru Sri Sri Bharathi Teertha Mahaswami. His guru was Jagadguru Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha Mahaswami. The successor-designate was appointed in 2015, and was given the Yogapatta Sri Vidhushekhara Bharati Mahaswami.
Historical accounts
While tradition attributes the establishment of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham to Adi Shankara, the early history of the Sringeri Peetham from Shankara to about the 14th century is unknown. This may be because the sources are contradictory about the dates and events, in part because of the loss of records, and also because the pontiffs of the monastery adopted the same name which has created confusion in understanding the surviving records.The early inscriptions that mention Sringeri, in the regional Kannada language, are donative or commemorative. Though useful in establishing the significance of the matha, they lack details to help establish the early history. According to Hermann Kulke, the early history of Sringeri is unknown and the earliest epigraphical evidence in the region is from the 12th century and belongs to the Jain tradition. According to Paul Hacker, no mention of the mathas can be found before the 14th century CE. Until the 15th century, the timespan of the directors of Sringeri Math are unrealistically long, spanning 60+ or even 105 years. After 1386, these timespans become much shorter. According to Hacker, these mathas were probably established in the 14th century, to propagate Shankara's view of Advaita., However most of the other scholars like Goodding concur with Hacker on the prominence of Sringeri matha in the Vijayanagara Empire, but argue that Sringeri matha already existed, but rapidly gained prominence in the second half of the 14th century.
Vijayanagara Empire - Vidyaranya
The history of Sringeri Peetha is recorded in the matha's literature as well as in kadatas and sanads from the 14th century onwards.A pivotal figure in the history of the matha is Vidyaranya who was an ideological support and the intellectual inspiration for the founders of the Vijayanagara Empire. He helped Harihara I and his brother Bukka to build a Hindu army to overthrow the Muslim rule in the Deccan region, and re-establish a powerful Hindu kingdom from Hampi. In his counsel, the Vijayanagara founders lead an expansive conquest of much of the southern Indian peninsula, taking over lands from the Sultanates that had formed after several invasions by the Delhi Sultanate. According to tradition, the monk's efforts were supported by the 10th and 11th pontiff of Sringeri peetham. Vidyaranya later became the 12th acharya of the Sringeri peetham in 1375 CE. Shortly after the start of the Vijayanagara empire in 1336 CE, the rulers began building the Vidyashankara temple at the Sringeri peetham site. This temple was completed in 1338. The Vijayanagara rulers repaired and built numerous more Hindu and Jain temples in and around the Sringeri matha and elsewhere in their empire. This is a period where numerous inscriptions help establish the existence of the Sringeri peetham from the 14th century onwards.
The Vijayanagara rulers Harihara and Bukka gave a sarvamanya gift of land in and around Sringeri in 1346 CE to the Sringeri matha guru Bharati Tirtha, in a manner common in the Indian tradition for centuries, to help defray the costs of operating the monastery and temples. The grant is evidenced by a stone inscription by the king who reverentially refers to the 10th pontiff of Sringeri matha as a guru. This grant became a six-century tradition that ended in the 1960s and 1970s when the Indian central government introduced and enforced a land-reform law that redistributed the land. The Vijayanagara empire gift also began a regional philanthropic tradition of endowments by the wealthy and the elderly population to the Sringeri matha. The matha managed the land and therefore operated as a sociopolitical network and land-grant institution for over 600 years beyond its religious role and spiritual scholarship. This relationship between the monastery and the regional population has been guided by a mutual upcara guideline between the matha and the populace. According to Leela Prasad, this upcara has been guided by the Hindu Dharmasutras and Dharmasastras texts preserved and interpreted by the matha, one composed by a range of authors and generally dated to be from the second half of the 1st-millennium BCE through about 400 CE.
In the late 15th century, the patronage of the Vijayanagara kings shifted to Vaisnavism. Following this loss of patronage, Sringeri matha had to find other means to propagate its former status, and the story of Shankara establishing the four cardinal mathas may have originated in the 16th century. However, this does not apply to sringeri matha since the madhaviya Sankaravijaya and other earliest biographies give a general description of the establishment of mathas, at Sringeri and other places, but they do not specifically mention the number 'four'.
According to Shastri, following the traditional accounts, the Vijayanagara kings visited the Sringeri monastery many times over some 200 years and left inscriptions praising the monks, revering their knowledge of the Vedas and their scholarship. The monastery also provided the Vijayanagara empire administration with guidance on governance. The descendant rulers of the Vijayanagara empire regularly visited the monastery and made a series of endowments to the Sringeri matha as evidenced by various inscriptions. They also established the agrahara of Vidyaranyapuram with a land grant for the Brahmins, and in the 15th century established the earliest version of the Saradamba temple found at the Sringeri peetham site. The tradition of establishing satellite institutions under the supervision of the Sringeri peetham started in the Vijayanagara empire period. For example, Vidyaranya organized a matha in Hampi.