Life
Traditional accounts of Adi Shankara's life can be found in the Śankara Vijaya, which are poetic works that contain a mix of biographical and legendary material, written in the epic style. The most important among these biographies are the Mādhavīya Śaṅkara Vijayaṃ (of Mādhava, c. 14th century), the Cidvilāsīya Śaṅkara Vijayaṃ (of Cidvilāsa, c. between 15th century and 17th century), and the Keraļīya Śaṅkara Vijayaṃ (of the Kerala region, extant from c. 17th century).
Adi Sankara was born to Vishwakarma and Nambudiri parents. Shankara's gotram (lineage) and sutram (recension - familial vedic trend) are known as being of Atreya lineage and of Aswalayana recension. These details are available in ancient hagiographies as well as contemporary write ups on the same.
Sankaracharya was a contemporary of the great Tamil saint Kulashekhara Alwar who was also a Chera king.
Read more about this topic: Adi Shankara
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“There is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without sense.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
“Parents vary in their sense of what would be suitable repayment for creating, sustaining, and tolerating you all those years, and what circumstances would be drastic enough for presenting the voucher. Obviously there is no repayment that would be sufficient . . . but the effort to call in the debt of life is too outrageous to be treated as anything other than a joke.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“On such a night, when Air has loosed
Its guardian grasp on blood and brain,
Old terrors then of god or ghost
Creep from their caves to life again;”
—Robert Bridges (1844–1930)