Shankaracharya (also rendered Śaṅkarācārya; c. 788-820 CE, dates disputed) was an Indian philosopher, theologian, and religious reformer who systematized the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. The title Shankaracharya (Sanskrit: śaṅkara + ācārya, “teacher”) is also an honorific applied to the heads of the four monastic institutions (mathas) he is credited with founding across the Indian subcontinent. The historical Shankara and the institutional office bearing his name are related but distinct subjects.

Shankara is traditionally said to have been born in Kaladi, in what is now Kerala, and to have traveled extensively across the Indian subcontinent during a short life. His biography is transmitted primarily through hagiographic sources - the Śaṅkara-digvijaya attributed to Madhava-Vidyaranya being the most widely cited - which are regarded by most modern historians as legendary in character rather than reliable as chronology.¹⁾ The dates of his life are contested; the traditional date places his birth in 788 CE and death in 820 CE, though some traditional Hindu accounts assign dates several centuries earlier. See Shankaracharya - History for a fuller treatment.

His principal philosophical contribution was the articulation of Advaita (“non-dual”) Vedanta: the position that Brahman (ultimate reality) is the sole existence, that the individual self (ātman) is identical with Brahman, and that the appearance of multiplicity and the phenomenal world (māyā) is a superimposition on that non-dual ground. Shankara wrote commentaries (bhāṣyas) on the Brahma Sutras, the principal Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita, as well as independent treatises including the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi, though the authenticity of some works attributed to him is debated among scholars.²⁾

Four mathas (monasteries) are traditionally attributed to Shankara's founding: Sringeri (south), Dwarka (west), Puri (east), and Jyotirmath/Badrinath (north). Each is headed by a Shankaracharya regarded by its tradition as a successor in an unbroken lineage from the original Shankara. A fifth institution at Kanchi (Kanchipuram) also claims this title, though its founding and the legitimacy of its lineage are disputed among the institutions themselves. The authority, scope, and public role of the Shankaracharyas as religious leaders in contemporary India are subjects of ongoing discussion within Hindu communities.

The Shankaracharyas of the four traditional mathas function as significant religious authorities within several Hindu communities, issuing positions on matters of theology, ritual practice, and at times social or political matters. Statements by current Shankaracharyas have drawn public attention on topics ranging from temple access and calendar reform to cosmological questions. For example, the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath, Swami Avimukteshwaranand, has articulated a Hindu geocentric or non-heliocentric cosmological position based on Vedic and Puranic texts, a viewpoint discussed at Heliocentrism - Hindu Viewpoint.

Advaita Vedanta as a philosophical system continues to be studied, practiced, and debated both within India and internationally.

No formal cross-disciplinary consensus page currently exists for Shankaracharya. Historical and biographical claims about the life of Shankara are treated cautiously by modern Indological scholarship given the hagiographic character of available sources. Philosophical assessments of Advaita Vedanta remain a matter of ongoing discussion within academic philosophy of religion and among practitioners of competing Hindu traditions.

• Advaita Vedanta (Traditional) - Holds Shankara as the restorer of Vedic orthodoxy whose non-dual interpretation correctly captures the meaning of the Upanishads. Advaita Vedanta Viewpoint
• Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita critiques - Ramanuja (Vishishtadvaita) and Madhva (Dvaita) traditions reject the Advaita reading of scripture, holding that the distinction between the self, world, and God is real and not merely apparent. Dvaita Critique Viewpoint
• Neo-Vedanta readings - Modern interpreters, including those influenced by Vivekananda, have applied Advaita categories in universalist and reformist frameworks that some traditional scholars regard as departures from Shankara's own positions. Neo-Vedanta Viewpoint
• Historical-critical view - Academic Indologists treat the traditional biography and lineage claims as largely legendary and subject the attributed texts to authorship analysis. Historical-Critical Viewpoint

• Shankaracharya - History
• Advaita Vedanta
• Vedanta
• Upanishads
• Heliocentrism - Hindu Viewpoint
• Hindu Cosmology
• Brahman