SRI SHANKARACHARYA AND KANCHIPURAM

Sri Sankara Bhagavatpadacarya stands unique as a subtle metaphysician, a distinctive dialectician, a prolific writer, a commendable commentator, a praiseworthy poet and a world preceptor. The Acarya’s name is a household word in India. His name and His fame as a philosopher has spread far beyond the seas. Sankaracarya’s Bhasyas (Commentaries) on the Brahmasutras, on the Bhagavat Geeta and the Upanishads, and His other important works constitute the rich legacy that has been inherited by the people of this land, by those professing the Vedic Dharma. The institutions founded by the Great Acarya, in different places of the land, stand as living monuments to his memory.

Some sacred spot or other in many parts of our country has been related with some event in Sankara’s life story. Kanchipuram, the Southern Moksapuri of Bharat is intimately connected with Sri Sankaracarya in many ways. A number of works, Voluminous and short, of different ages and climes, in different forms and in diverse languages narrating the life-history of Sankara, contain information about Sankaracarya’s connections with the sacred city of Kanchi. An attempt has been made in this work to present the above said connections as gleaned from such works and also to include, in the work, pictures of some of the sculptures of Sankaracharya found in the temples of Kanchi and around.