Shankaracharya in the context of Hastamalakacharya

Adi Shankara (8th c. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya (Sanskrit: आदि शङ्कर, आदि शङ्कराचार्य, romanized: Ādi Śaṅkara, Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, lit. 'First Shankaracharya', pronounced [aːd̪i ɕɐŋkɐraːt͡ɕaːrjɐ]), was an Indian Vedic scholar, philosopher and teacher (acharya) of Advaita Vedanta. While he is often revered as the most important Indian philosopher, reliable information on Shankara's actual life is scant, and the historical influence of his works on Hindu intellectual thought has been questioned. The historical Shankara was probably relatively unknown and Vaishna-oriented. His true impact lies in his "iconic representation of Hindu religion and culture," despite the fact that most Hindus do not adhere to Advaita Vedanta.

Until the 10th century Shankara was overshadowed by his older contemporary Maṇḍana Miśra, and there is no mention of him in concurrent Hindu, Buddhist or Jain sources until the 11th century. The legendary Shankara was created in the 14th century, centuries after his death, when Sringeri matha started to receive patronage from the emperors of the Vijayanagara Empire and shifted their allegiance from Advaitic Agamic Shaivism to Brahmanical Advaita orthodoxy. Hagiographies dating from the 14th-17th centuries deified him as a ruler-renunciate, travelling on a digvijaya (conquest of the four quarters) across the Indian subcontinent to propagate his philosophy, defeating his opponents in theological debates. These hagiographies portray him as founding four mathas (monasteries), and Adi Shankara also came to be regarded as the organiser of the Dashanami monastic order, and the unifier of the Shanmata tradition of worship. The title of Shankaracharya, used by heads of certain monasteries in India, is derived from his name. Tradition also portrays him as the one who reconciled the various sects (Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism) with the introduction of the Pañcāyatana form of worship, the simultaneous worship of five deities – Ganesha, Surya, Vishnu, Shiva and Devi, arguing that all deities were but different forms of the one Brahman, the invisible Supreme Being.

Kāṇva Shākha (Sanskrit:काण्व शाखा) is the oldest shakha ("branch" or "recension") of Shukla Yajurveda. The Kānva tradition is followed mostly in Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Karnataka, parts of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. The Kānva Shākha was quite prevalent around the period of Shankaracharya's birth. The parampara āchārya (main founding guru) for Shukla Yajurveda was sage Yajnavalkya.

The main Samhita for Kānva Shākha is the Kanva Samhita and the corresponding brahmana is Kanva Shatapatha Brahmana. The main upanishads of the Kānva Shākha are Ishavasya Upanishad and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The Shrauta Sutra for Kānva Shākha is Katyayana Shrauta Sutra and the Grhya Sutra is Paraskara Grhya Sutram.

Digvijaya, (Sanskrit: दिग्विजय; Dig:"Direction" and Vijaya:"Victory"), in ancient India was originally a Sanskrit term that meant conquest of the "four quarters", in a military or a moral context. In medieval times, it came to refer to the religious conquest by reputed founders of the major Hindu renunciate traditions, namely Madhva, Sankara, Chaitanya, and Vallabha.