Adi Shankaracharya Revives Hinduism
The philosopher-monk Adi Shankaracharya traveled the length of India, establishing monasteries and articulating Advaita Vedanta — reviving and unifying Hinduism after centuries of Buddhist dominance.
Around 788 CE (traditional dating), Adi Shankaracharya was born in Kaladi, Kerala. By age 32 — when he is said to have died — he had walked the entire subcontinent, defeated rival scholars in debate, composed commentaries on the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita, and established four monasteries (mathas) at the cardinal points of India: Sringeri (south), Puri (east), Dwarka (west), and Jyotirmath (north). His philosophy of Advaita Vedanta ("non-duality") argued that the individual self (Atman) and the ultimate reality (Brahman) are one — and that the perceived world of multiplicity is maya (illusion). Shankaracharya's intellectual achievement revitalized Hinduism at a time when Buddhism was the dominant tradition in much of India, and his institutional framework — the four mathas — provided Hinduism with an organizational structure it had previously lacked.
More in Religion & Philosophy
The Upanishads Composed
The Upanishads, foundational texts of Hindu philosophy, were composed, introducing concepts of Brahman, Atman, and the nature of ultimate reality.
c. 600 BCEBirth of Laozi
Laozi, the traditional founder of Taoism, was born.
~599 BCEBirth of Mahavira
Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, was born, becoming a central figure in Indian spiritual tradition.
~563 BCEBirth of Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, who would become the Buddha, was born in Lumbini, founding one of the world's great religions.