The lineage of teachers
A succession of teachers, each taught by the one before, reaching from Adi Shankaracharya to the present Jagadguru — and on to his successor.
सदाशिवसमारम्भां शङ्कराचार्यमध्यमाम् ।
अस्मदाचार्यपर्यन्तां वन्दे गुरुपरम्पराम् ॥
I salute the lineage of Gurus, beginning with Sadashiva, with Shankaracharya in the middle, and extending to my own teacher. — Traditional verse
The idea
In the Vedantic tradition, the knowledge of the Self is not something one discovers alone from books. It is received from a teacher who has himself received it — just as the Upanishads instruct the seeker to approach a Guru who is learned and established in Brahman.
Parampara means “one after another”: an uninterrupted chain. The Guru–Shishya Parampara is the line of teachers and disciples through which a teaching, a method of interpretation, and a living example are handed on intact. At Sringeri the chain has an institutional form as well: each Acharya initiates his chosen disciple into Sannyasa, names him successor-designate, trains him personally, and is succeeded by him on the Peetham.
The authority of the Jagadguru therefore does not rest on personal charisma or on election. It rests on this succession — on having received the teaching and the seat from one who received them in turn. That is why devotees salute not only their own teacher but the whole Parampara.
Before Shankara
The Peetham’s own account opens with a divine and a rishi lineage before the historical Acharyas: the teaching is said to descend from Sadashiva through the sages to Gaudapada, the teacher of Shankaracharya’s Guru.
Adi Shankaracharya
Adi Shankaracharya revived and systematised Advaita Vedanta through his commentaries and travels. To preserve the teaching, tradition holds that he established four Amnaya Peethams at the four quarters of India, each entrusted to one of his principal disciples and associated with one of the four Vedas.
Sringeri, the Dakshinamnaya or southern Peetham, was the first. Its first Acharya was Sureshwaracharya, author of important sub-commentaries on Shankaracharya’s works. The Peetham’s associated Veda is the Yajur Veda, and its Mahavakya is Aham Brahmasmi.
Shankaracharya’s dates are debated by historians; the Peetham’s own table gives his videha-mukti as 820 CE, while much modern scholarship places him in the eighth century.
The Acharyas of Sringeri
Names and periods follow the table published by the Peetham. Dates for the early Acharyas are those of the tradition.
The twelfth Acharya, and among the most celebrated. The Peetham records that he guided Harihara and Bukka in founding the Vijayanagara empire in 1336 and bore the title Karnataka Simhasana Pratishtapanacharya. He is also credited with instituting the Navaratri Durbar that continues at Sringeri today.
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1879–1912
Initiated into Sannyasa as a boy of eight in 1866. He rediscovered Adi Shankaracharya’s birthplace at Kalady and consecrated its shrines on 21 February 1910, and founded the Sadvidya Sanjeevini Pathashala at Sringeri in 1895.
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1912–1954
Born Narasimha on 16 October 1892, he ascended the Peetham on 7 April 1912. He attained videha-mukti in the Tunga on 26 September 1954; his anniversary is observed on Mahalaya Amavasya.
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1954–1989
Born Srinivasa in Bengaluru on 13 November 1917, he took Sannyasa on 22 May 1931 and took charge of the Peetham in October 1954. The Guru of the present Jagadguru, he attained Mahasamadhi in September 1989.
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Since 19 October 1989
Disciple of Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha from 1966, initiated into Sannyasa and named successor on 11 November 1974, and seated on the Vyakhyana Simhasana on 19 October 1989. The present Jagadguru of the Dakshinamnaya Sri Sharada Peetham. Read his biography.
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Successor-designate since 23 January 2015
Born in Tirupati on 24 July 1993 as Kuppa Venkateshwara Prasada Sharma, he came to the Jagadguru at Sringeri in 2009 and was taught the Shastras by him personally before receiving Sannyasa.
Succession
Each transfer in the Parampara is a deliberate act. The Acharya observes and selects a disciple, often while still young; teaches him the Vedas and Shastras himself; initiates him into Sannyasa; and gives him a new name that places him within the lineage. For years the two live and travel together, as Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamiji did with his Guru for about fifteen years before 1989.
What is preserved in this way is more than doctrine. It is a way of reading the texts, a discipline of worship, a manner of teaching, and a standard of conduct — a whole form of life that can only be learnt by living beside someone who embodies it. The present Jagadguru’s own words make the point:
Without the Grace of the Guru, no one can attain fulfilment of the purpose of life.
Anugraha Bhashanam — sringeri.net
To see the place in which this lineage has lived for more than twelve centuries, continue to Sringeri Sharada Peetham.