Administration and Social Life under Vijayanagar c14.29

c14.29

(i) Advaitins: The Advaitins were the followers of the philosophy of Śrī Śaṅkara who preached the theory of non-dualism. In the Vijayanagar empire there were two maṭhas said to have been established by Śrī Śaṅkara; one of them was at Śṛṅgēri and the other at Kāñcī, later transferred to Kumbakōṇam. There were also two minor maṭhas, one at Puṣpagiri and the other at Virūpākṣam, but it is difficult to say when they were founded. The great scholar and literary celebrity, Vidyāraṇya, was an Advaita teacher and his maṭha at Śṛṅgēri was greatly patronised by the Vijayanagar kings. In A. D. 1346 the five Saṅgama brothers made a joint grant to that maṭha.¹³ Vidyāraṇya himself seems to have died at Hampi.¹⁴ The Śaṅkarācārya maṭha at Kāñcī was also, as we shall see in the sequence, greatly patronised by the Vijayanagar sovereigns.