Shri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham was established by Sri Adi Sankara in the year 482 B.C. (see About and History) and has the distinction of an unbroken line of 70 Acharyas (spiritual leaders).
Kailas to Kanchi
From available biographical information, it is learnt that Shankaracharya placed one of the five sphatika lingas got at Kailas, the Mukti Linga in the temple at Kedarnath, and that he consecrated the Vara Linga at Neelakanta Kshetra in Nepal. With the other three, he returned to the south. He placed the Bhoga Linga for being worshipped at the Sarada Peetha in Karnataka and he sent the Moksha Linga to Chidambaram for being worshipped In the temple of Sri Nataraja in that sacred place, He kept the Yoga Linga for his own personal worship and for his successors at Kanchi.
References to the places where the five-sphatika lingas were established for worship are found in Anantanandagiri’s biography and in Markandeya Samhita. The Sivarahasya points to Sankara’s hastening to the earth with the lingas and worshipping them in his own asrama at Kanchi. The people of Kanchi, under the leadership of King Rajasena, offered a grand welcome to Sankara at the outskirts of Kanchi City, It is said that the Acharya stayed at the Mukti Mandapa in the small Visvesvara temple, on the bank of the Sarvateertham tank for some time.
Bhagavatpada Sankara got Kanchi city remodeled and also caused the reconstruction of the three principle temples of Kanchi viz., the temples of Sri Ekamranatha, Devi Kamakshi and Sri Varadaraja with the assistance of Rajasena, ruler of Kanchi. Sankara consecrated the Srichakra before Devi Kamakshi and thereby secured Her bounteous grace on devotees having Her darshan.
Sri Shankaracharya’s Sarvajnapeetharohana at Kanchi
A significant event in the history of Shankaracharya is his occupying the Sarvajna Peetha -the Throne of Omniscience at Kanchi. Cidvilasa’s Sankaravijaya -Vilasa, Govindanantha’s Shankaracharya Charitam and Rajachudamani Dikshita’s Sankarabhudaya, narrate the Acharya’s ascending the seat of Omniscience at Kanchi, in South India.
Sixteen verses of the 25th chapter of Cidvilasa’s biography describe the event. An asareeri voice (air noise or divine voice) informed Sankara, when he was about to ascend the Peetha, that it would be proper for him to ascend after winning in debate, the scholars assembled there. Sankara thought for a while. A group of scholars who had come there from some villages of the Tamraparni valley put some questions to Shankaracharya on his philosophy of Monism, Maya (the theory of illusion), Devabeda, Murtibeda, etc. Sankara explained to them the eternal and all-pervading nature of Brahman, the inability of man to understand the Supreme One seeming as different entities, because of ignorance, the non-existence of a second other than the Brahman and the means for attaining emancipation. The scholars were fully convinced. They bowed before the Great Acharya. Thereafter Sankara ascended the Sarvajnapeetha amidst the sounding of musical instruments and the tumultuous shouts of joy of the vast number of devoted spectators. Showers of flowers fell from above and a fragrant breeze blew all around.
A great ascetic one of the early Acharyas of the Kanchi Shankaracharya Math -by name Jnanottama -has written a commentary entitled “Chandrika”, on Sureswaracharya’s “Naiskarmyasiddhi”. Along with the commentary “Chandrika”, Naishkarmyasiddhi has been edited by Professor Hiriyanna of the Maharaja’s College, Mysore and published as No.33 of the Bombay Sanskrit and Prakrit Series in 1925 A.D. In the preface to this edition Professor Hiriyanna observes “The second sloka (at the end of the commentary) alludes to the author of the Chandrika as the glory of the Sarvajnasrama by which term we have to understand the Sarvajna Peetha or the Pontifical seat at the Advaita Matha In Kanchipuram. These remarks of the learned professor corroborate Sankara’s occupying the Sarvajna Peetha at Kanchi, as described in the biographies noted above.
Kanchi -Shankaracharya’s Last Resort
Sankara Bhagavatpadacharya returned to Kanchi, the Southern Mokshapuri, towards the end of his earthly career and shook off his moral coils in that sacred city. A number of works state these facts.
Verse 46 of the sixteenth chapter of the ninth section of the voluminous Sanskrit work “Sivarahasya” (in the printed Canareese edition No.32, Jayachamarajendra Series of the Mysore Palace, refers to Shankaracharya’s worship of the Yoga, Bhoga, Vara, Mukti and Moksha lingas, to his success over scholars of other faiths and to his attaining siddhi (eternal bliss) at his own ashrama in Kanchi.
Markandeya Samhita, an ancient puranic treatise, consists of 100 khandas, each having sub-sections called parispandas, Sub-section 7 and 8 of the 72nd khanda of this work narrate briefly the history of Sankara. This is evident from the colophon at the end of the 7th parispanda of the 72nd khanda as noticed in the Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts, volume VI of the Oriental Research Institute, University of Mysore, 1981, page 191 (Appendix 1- 332, Serial No.18179, Ms. No. P. 33878/1 -title “Sankaracharitam”. A verse, in the seventh parispanda of the 72nd khanda 01 this work, relates that the Mahatma, Sankara, attained the cit-svarupa, He attained eternal bliss at Kanchi, after having consecrated Kamakshi.
Anantanandagiri’s biography of Sankara (all versions printed and manuscripts, including the Madras University edition) says “The World Preceptor (Sankara) desiring to leave for his own abode, sitting once in the Moskhapuri of Kanchi, absorbed his gross body into the subtle one and getting reduced into the size of a thumb, attained eternal bliss and remains at the all-pervading “Cit” to this day”. The Brhad Sankara Vijaya, and Sri Sadasiva Brahmendra’s Gurunatramala indicate that Acharya Sankara attained eternal bliss at Kanchi -the Southern Mokshapuri. The concluding verse of Rajacudamani Deeksita’s “Sankarabhyudaya” refers to Sankara worshipping Kamesvari (Kamakshi) every day and attaining supreme bliss. Patanjali Vijayam by Ramabhadra Diksita (Kavyamala Series No.51 , Nirnaya Sagar Press, Bombay), has a verse at the end, stating that Sankara, after having produced the Bhasyas and conquered the directions (digvijaya) stayed permanently at Kanchi.
A Report on Search for Sanskrit Manuscripts in South India, by Dr. Hutzch, a German scholar, (published by the Government Press, Madras in 1905 -No.2146, Part III) contains a list of pontifical preceptors of the Bharati ascetic order of the Tungabhadra region. Some verses are found in this list about Adi Shankaracharya. The verses relate that after traveling widely Sankara reached Kanchi of his own accord, consecrated Kamakshi and attained final beatitude at Kanchi itself. The Guruparampara Namamala of the Sankarite institution at the confluence of the rivers, Tunga and Bhadra (Kudali) also speaks of the Great Acharya’s reaching Kanchi of his own desire, after long and wide travels, of the consecration of Devi Kamakshi and of his Siddhi there.
Coming to modern times, there is quite a large number of works, in different languages, written by erudite scholars mentioning Kanchi as the last resort of Sankara. The Bengali Visvakosa (Hindi Edition), an encyclopedia, gives the information under the word Kanchi as the place where Sankara attained Siddhi. Pandit Mahamahopadhyaya Gopinath Kaviraj has stated that the temple of Kamakshi at Kanchi is famous and in that temple there is the stone icon of Sankara and that is the lace where he attained Siddhi. Pandit N. Bhashyacharya (of Madras) in his “Age of Shankaracharya” (Adyar Library, Madras, 1890 A.D., page 22) says “Lastly towards the end of his life he came to the south but had to leave his body and this world at Kancheepuram at the early age of thirty-two:’ Saligram Srikanta Sastry of Sringeri has taken a copy of the 16th chapter of the ninth amsa of “Sivarahasya” from the Manuscript Library in Mysore and has rendered it in Kannada. The English translation of a sentence in the Kannada work is as follows: “Having come to Kanchi, in his own ashrama, he (Sankara) absorbed his gross physical frame into the subtle one, became pure, blissful citsvarupa and attained final Siddhi:’
Apart from all the citations made above, it needs to be mentioned that, In the Srimukha-Birudavan (the string of honorific epithets) of the Shankaracharya Math at Kanchi (existing without change from very ancient times), the following epithet is found: ” Srimacchankar Bhagavatpadacharyanam adhisthane Simhasanabhishiktanam ”
The word “adhisthane ” points to Sankara’s Siddhi at Kanchi.
It may be noted that the name of Sri Shankaracharya is found only in the official seal of Kanchi Kamakoti Matha. The word “Kanchidivya kshetre”and the phrase ..Srimacchankara-Bhagavatpadacalyanam adhisthane ., in the birudavali indicate Sankara’s siddhi at Kanchi.
(Source : www.kamakoti.org)