Sringeri Sharada Peetham

The Sharada Peetham at Sringeri is traditionally held to be the first of the four cardinal mathas (Char Dham of the monastic order) established by the philosopher-saint Adi Shankaracharya in the eighth century CE, part of his project to consolidate and institutionalise Advaita Vedanta philosophy across the subcontinent. Legend holds that Shankaracharya chose the site on the banks of the Tunga river after observing a cobra shading a frog from the sun — an image of the natural order transcending predator and prey that he took as a sign of the location’s spiritual power.

As an unbroken monastic lineage stretching back more than twelve centuries, the Sringeri matha’s succession of Jagadgurus (Shankaracharyas) has functioned as one of Hindu India’s most continuous institutions of religious authority and Sanskrit scholarship, issuing rulings on theological and social questions and maintaining scholarly traditions in philosophy, ritual, and the Vedas across generations of rulers from the Vijayanagara Empire to the present day.

Getting there: The matha complex sits on the Tunga riverbank in Sringeri town, a short walk from the Sringeri Post Office.