SANKARA ACHARYA (c. 789-820)  ,

Hindu theologian, was born about the year 789, probably at the village of Kaladi in Malabar . He belonged to the Nambudri class of Brahmins . He wandered far and wide, and engaged in much philosophical and theological debate . He taught the existence of the Supreme God and founded the sect of the Smarta Brahmins . His great achievement was the perfecting of the Mimansa or Vedanta philosophy . So great were his learning and piety that he was regarded as an incarnation of Siva, and his works (commentaries on the Vedanta Sutras, the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads) exercised a permanent influence on Hindu thought . He died at Kedarnata in the Himalayas when only 32 years of age . See Sri Sankaracharya, by C . N . Krishnasurami Aiyar and Pandit Sitanath Tattvabhushan (Madras, 1902) .