ajAti vAda

From L to R: SrI svarUpAnanda sarasvatI
(Jyotirmath), SrI abhinava vidyA tIrtha
(Sringeri), SrI niranjana deva tIrtha (Puri), SrI
abhinava saccidAnanda tIrtha (Dvaraka) -
Meeting at Sringeri in 1979.
The successor to the title in a maTha is usually nominated by the presiding
SankarAcArya of that maTha. It is quite normal to see SankarAcAryas who have
become sannyAsIs directly from the student life, without ever having been gRhasthas.
This is especially the norm in the Sringeri lineage. Thus, a SankarAcArya can be a very
young man, sometimes barely out of his teens, when he takes charge at his maTha. On
the other hand, the Puri lineage has seen many heads who have become sannyAsins quite
late in their lives, after passing through the gRhastha stage. In cases where a
SankarAcArya passes away without nominating a successor, or if there is a dispute about
the succession, the head of one of the other maThas is consulted to resolve the issue.
Within this century itself, there have been instances where the SankarAcAryas of
Sringeri, Dvaraka, and Puri have been called upon to resolve succession issues in one of
the other maThas. The Sringeri lineage names thirty-six successors to the SankarAcArya
title, while Dvaraka has about seventy. The Puri list of SankarAcAryas has more than
140 names to date. The larger number of names in these two lists is probably because
many of the presiding SankarAcAryas have been former gRhasthas, who took charge at
a comparatively older age and consequently held charge for shorter periods. The line of
the Jyotirmath has many gaps in it, an unfortunate circumstance of history.
The position of the SankarAcAryas in modern Hinduism has often (quite wrongly) been
compared to that of the Pope in Roman Catholicism. The four SankarAcAryas do not
issue catechisms for all Hindus, nor do they claim sole right to decide on doctrinal
issues. SrImukham.s issued by the maThas are very different in nature from papal bulls
or encyclicals, and unlike the Vatican City, the four maThas do not enjoy sovereign
status. Rather, they are governed by the federal and state laws on religious and charitable
trusts and endowments in independent India, and are often answerable to governmental
bodies.
However, this should not be construed to mean that the SankarAcAryas are insignificant
or that their importance is overrated. They are held in high respect by almost all sections
of Hindus, but they also tend to get blamed by the modern media, somewhat unfairly, for
everything that goes wrong in Hindu society! For all that, however, the SankarAcAryas
generally lead quiet, secluded lives, as befits monks, and tend to avoid media attention.
There are, of course, exceptions to this norm, and recent developments in India,
especially the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue, have forced all of them to take
more active roles in public life.
Recent history of the four AmnAya maThas: