Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham
Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, also called the Sri Kanchi Matham or the Sri Kanchi Monastery, is a Hindu institution, located in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. It is located near a temple dedicated to Goddess Sri Kamakshi (Durga, Kamakoti, Maha Tripurasundari) of the Shaktism tradition, along with a shrine for the Advaita Vedanta teacher Adi Shankara. The matha-tradition attributes it's founding to Adi Shankara, but this and the reliability of the matha's succession list has been questioned. The Kanchi Math was originally established as the Kumbakonam Mutt in 1821 as a branch of the Sringeri Mutt , and later became involved with the Kamakshi temple in Kanchipuram. According to the Sri Kanchi math tradition, the matha shifted south to the temple city of Kumbakonam in mid-18th-century, when there was warfare in the region, and returned to Kanchipuram in the 19th-century. The matha is a living tradition, that continues to pursue spiritual scholarship in contemporary times. The head of the "matha" is referred to as a "Sankaracharya". Since February 2018, the institution has been led by Vijayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya Swamigal. History. The founding of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam is traditionally attributed by it's adherents to Adi  Shankara, but this and the reliability of the matha's succession list has been questioned. Sringeri matha rejects the claims of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, and does not count it among the mathas established by Shankara. According to Clark, the story of the four cardinal mathas founded by Shankara dates from the 16th century, questioning the founding stories off all those mathas. The Kanchi Math was originally established as the Kumbakonam Mutt in 1821 by the Maratha king of Tanjore, Serfoji II Bhonsle, as a branch of the Sringeri Mutt. It became an apostate schismatic institution in 1839 when the Kumbakonam  Mutt applied for permission to the English Collector of Arcot to perform the "kumbhabhishekham" of the Kamakshi temple in Kanchipuram. In 1842, the East India Company headquartered at Fort William, Calcutta appointed the head of the mutt as the sole trustee of the Kamakshi temple, despite the protests of the traditional priests of the Kamakshi temple, which are well documented and preserved. According to the Kanchi matha's tradition, their monastery was founded in Kali 2593 (509 BCE) by Adi Shankara. According to the Sri Kanchi matha documents, the "matha" relocated completely to Kumbakonam in mid-18th century to escape wars  and persecution. According to Jonathan Bader and other scholars, the monastic tradition gives "fear of Muslim atrocities" from Nawab of Arcot, Mysore's Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan as the reason, but the details remain unclear. The matha returned to Kanchi in the 19th-century. The successive heads of the Kanchi and all other major Hindu Advaita tradition monasteries have been called Shankaracharya leading to confusion, discrepancies and scholarly disputes. The chronology stated in Kanchi matha texts recognizes five major Shankaras: Adi, Kripa, Ujjvala, Muka and Abhinava. According to the Kanchi matha tradition, it is "Abhinava Shankara" that western scholarship  recognizes as the Advaita scholar Adi Shankara. Scholars such as William Cenkner, Christopher Fuller and David Smith dispute this traditional belief, though they accept that the Kanchi Shankaracharyas are his direct "spiritual descendants". The 70th Shankaracharya, Vijayendra Saraswati is the current Shankaracharya, before which, the matha was headed by Jayendra Saraswathi, the 69th Shankaracharya. Vijayendra had been appointed originally as a replacement successor of the then seer Chandrasekharendra saraswathi instead of Jayendra Saraswati as the former had fled the math breaking the Chaturmasya sanyasa vow in 1987.He was later inducted into the math breaking the sanyasa canon. Therefore math had  three Acharyas at the same time for a while. The Kanchi monastery, along with its sister monasteries across India, has also been an important preserver and source of historic palm leaf manuscripts. Sankararaman murder case. In 2004, Jagadguru Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Mahaswamigal and his junior Vijayendra Saraswati were arrested in connection with the Sankararaman murder case on Diwali day. The court said that the complainant failed to support the prosecution and he was given bail. The trial went on till 2013 when he was acquitted by the court. During the investigations, Tamil writer Anuradha Ramanan said she was subjected to  sexual harassment by the Mahaswamigal when she met him back in 1992. Out of fear for the consequences, she did not lodge a complaint. She reported that she was subjected to attempted murder when a truck hit her car in which she was traveling and another murder attempt was made on her life when she was admitted to the hospital. Chronological list of Shankaracharyas. According to the Peetham, the chronological list of Guru Paramapara of the matham is follows: