Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham

Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, also called the Sri Kanchi Matham or the Moolamnaya Sarvagnya Peetham,^{[web 1]} is a Hindu religious center of Vedic learning, located in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. It is housed at the Kamakshi Amman Temple of the Shaktism tradition, which also contains a shrine for the Advaita Vedanta teacher Adi Shankara.^[1]

The matha-tradition attributes its founding to Adi Shankara, but this and the reliability of the matha's succession list has been questioned.^[2][3] According to the Sri Kanchi math tradition, the matha was founded at Kanchipuram, and shifted south to the temple city of Kumbakonam in the mid-18th century due to the on-going wars, when there was warfare in the region, and returned to Kanchipuram in the 19th century.^[4]

Historically, the Kanchi Math was established as the Kumbakonam Mutt in 1821 as a branch of the Sringeri Mutt, and became involved with the Kamakshi temple in Kanchipuram in 1839,^[5] "set[ing] up shop in Kanchipuram at the turn of the last [19th] century."^{[web 2]}

The peetham gained a good reputation under the charismatic leadership of Sri Chandrashekharendra Saraswati VIII (born 20 May 1894; 68th Shankaracharya 1907 – 8 January 1994), who was regarded as an avatara purusha, a realised seer.^{[web 3]} The peetham lost authority and standing under the leadership of Sri Jayendra Saraswati (born 1935; appointed suceesor 1954; 69th Shankaracharya 3 january 1994 - 28 February 2018), who favoured an outreach to a broader audience beyond the Brahmins, but had less spiritual charisma, and was involved in a murder-trial.^{[web 3]} He was succeeded in february 2018 by Vijayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya Swamigal.

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