How Shankara became a mythic hero

dharma

Adi Shankara lived in India in the 8th century before the Muslim conquest of India. His hagiographies were written between the 14th and 18th centuries, after the Muslim conquest of India, within Brahmin monasteries of the Vijayanagara and Nayaka kingdoms. These were rediscovered in the 20th century and made part of the nationalist mythology, with Shankara being projected as the man who spiritually united India, who kicked out Buddhism, and who had the foresight of a Muslim invasion, hence initiating the military gymnasium or akhara culture. The Shankara legend is less about history and more about imagination – how India turned a philosopher into a divine hero, a world conqueror, and a unifier of its sacred geography.

The hagiographies – Shankaravijayas or “Victories of Shankara” – were written centuries after his time. They were composed by scholars and poets who wanted to celebrate him as an incarnation of Shiva and the restorer of Vedic truth. The earliest among them, Anantanandagiri’s Shankaravijaya (c. 14th century), portrays Shankara as a divine teacher who begins his journey from Kaladi in Kerala, founds the Sringeri matha in Karnataka, installs the goddess Saraswati, and finally merges with Shiva in the Himalayas. His route links south and north India, making his journey both spiritual and territorial.

A century later, Vyāsācala’s Shankaravijaya (c. 14th-15th century) and Cidvilāsa’s Shankaravijaya-vilāsa (c. 15th century) turn this story into a grand digvijaya – a conquest of the four quarters. Cidvilāsa expands the pilgrimage to include Rameshwaram, Puri, Kashi, Prayag, and Dwaraka, turning Shankara’s life into a pan-Indian tirtha-yatra. Through these journeys, India itself becomes a sacred body, unified by the wanderings of a single sage.

By the 17th century, the legend took on new poetic and philosophical forms. Rajachudamani Dikshita’s Shankarabhyudaya (early 1600s), composed in the Tamil court of Thanjavur, presents Shankara’s rise (abhyudaya) in the style of a royal epic. It mirrors the imagery of kingship, showing how an ascetic can be imagined as a spiritual emperor. Around the same time, Govindanatha’s Shankaracharya-charita (c. 17th century) retells the southern stories with Kerala flavour, while Tirumala Dikshita’s Shankarabhyudaya (c. 17th century) focuses on intellectual victory – especially Shankara’s debates with Mandana Misra and Visvarupa.

The geography here fades; what matters is the conquest of minds through reason and revelation.

Lakshmana Shastri’s Guru-vamsa-kavya (c. 17th–18th century) connects Shankara’s story to the Sringeri matha and its lineage of teachers. It even sends the philosopher to Nepal, where he meets the goddess Siddhesvari and drinks from a miraculous river of buttermilk – a striking example of how local myth and tantric imagination enter the Advaita tradition.

Finally, Madhava’s Shankaradigvijaya (c. 1650-1800) – attributed to the scholar-statesman Vidyaranya of Vijayanagara – became the most popular and enduring version. It absorbed earlier materials, turning them into one coherent story that covered the entire subcontinent: from Kaladi in the south to Sringeri in the west, to Puri in the east, to Kashi and Kedarnath in the north. This became the definitive “national” version of Shankara’s life, symbolising the unity of India under Advaita Vedanta.

Scholars like Jonathan Bader now argue that these works reveal not history but mythic design. Each author reimagined Shankara according to his own region and purpose. Early texts emphasised miracles and divine birth; later ones celebrated philosophical debate and royal imagery. Some rooted him in South India; others made him the spiritual conqueror of all four directions. Together, they transformed a philosopher into a symbol of India – a land bound by sacred geography and divine wisdom. Few refer to the controversial tale of Shankara’s birth in the 17th-century Keralolpatti, which speaks of how Shankara’s widowed mother is accused of wrongdoing until it is argued she carries a divine child, who is Mahadeva incarnate.

Central to this transformation is the idea of the digvijaya. Shankara’s wandering becomes a sacred conquest where intellect replaces the sword and enlightenment replaces empire. Yet, as Bader notes, his victories are never merely intellectual. In the famous debate with Mandana Misra, victory is granted by the goddess Saraswati, whose garland fades around the defeated scholar’s neck. This scene captures an important truth of Indian thought: reason alone cannot reveal the divine; it must be blessed by grace.

The hagiographies also reveal the gendered depth of the tradition. Though the Advaita order is monastic and male, the goddess remains central. Shankara installs Saraswati as Sharada at Sringeri and worships Kamakshi at Kanchi, embodying the harmony of knowledge and devotion, intellect and compassion. Even the austere philosopher bows to the feminine source of wisdom.

Shankaravijayas are cultural mirrors. Through them, medieval India turned metaphysics into mythology, geography into theology, and a wandering monk into a divine pilgrim-king.

The writer works with gods and demons who churn nectar from the ocean of Indian, Chinese, Islamic, Christian, even secular mythologies.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.