Medieval · 788–820
Who influenced Adi Shankara?
Influences and legacy
Systematizer of Advaita Vedanta: the self is Brahman and the world is maya.
Adi Shankara was influenced by Nagarjuna, and went on to influence Ramanuja. That is 2 lines of the 448 documented lines of influence between the 279 thinkers on this map.
Read on Wikipedia Portrait: Raja Ravi Varma, Public domain See the whole map
Who was Adi Shankara?
Adi Shankara was an Indian scholar-monk and teacher of Advaita Vedanta who wrote commentaries on the Brahma Sutras and other texts, and today he is often revered as the most important Indian philosopher. Reliable facts about his life are scarce. Until the 10th century he was overshadowed by Mandana Mishra, and no Hindu, Buddhist or Jain source mentions him before the 11th.
The legendary Shankara took shape in the 14th century, when hagiographies pictured him touring India and defeating rivals in debate, founding four monasteries and reconciling the Hindu sects. More than 300 texts are attributed to him, but most were probably written by admirers or later namesakes. The title Shankaracharya, used by heads of certain monasteries, comes from his name.
Summarized from the lead of the Wikipedia article.
Who influenced Adi Shankara?
1 direct influence on this map, earliest first.
- Nagarjuna c. 150–250
Who did Adi Shankara influence?
1 thinker on this map draws directly on Adi Shankara.
- Ramanuja 1017–1137
Contemporaries of Adi Shankara
Thinkers on this map born within 25 years of Adi Shankara, with no direct line between them.
- Al-Kindi c. 801–873
Adi Shankara by the numbers
- Direct influences
- 1
- Direct followers
- 1
- Thinkers upstream
- 1
- Thinkers downstream
- 1
- Wikipedia languages
- 81 — #13 of 58 among medieval philosophers
- Card rarity
- Epic
Schools and lineages
- Non-Western: Confucius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Mencius, Xunzi, Nagarjuna, Adi Shankara, Ramanuja, Dōgen, Kitarō Nishida, Muhammad Iqbal
Questions about Adi Shankara
- Who influenced Adi Shankara?
- Nagarjuna.
- Who did Adi Shankara influence?
- Ramanuja.
- When did Adi Shankara live?
- 788–820. The map files Adi Shankara under the medieval period.
- How rare is the Adi Shankara card?
- Wikipedia carries an article on Adi Shankara in 81 languages, which makes it an Epic card. Legendary starts at 100 languages, Epic at 50 and Rare at 25.
More medieval philosophers
- Augustine of Hippo AD 354–430
- Thomas Aquinas 1225–1274
- Avicenna 980–1037
- Ibn Khaldun 1332–1406
- Al-Ghazali c. 1058–1111
- Averroes 1126–1198
- Erasmus 1466–1536
- Hypatia c. 355–415