questions (fwd)

[Ravi]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 1 Sep 1996 15:46:55 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Gerald Penn <gpenn at sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de>
To: msr at tamu.edu
Subject: questions

<message addressed to me clipped>
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  I have a couple of questions concerning the Shankaracarya order.  Perhaps
the readers of this list can answer them for me.
  First, I have heard that the current senior Shankaracarya of Jyoshimath
happens to be the Shankaracarya of the Dwarka Math.  How did this happen?  I
was under the impression that in all of the Shankaracarya Mathas, there were
three heads, older, middle, and younger, so that if anything unfortunate should
happen to one of them, there were always two more to pick up and carry on.
  My second question concerns the math at Kanchipuram.  The Shankaracarya from
this Math who recently passed away was very well respected by many people.  But
how is it that Kanchipuram came to have a matha in the first place?  I thought
Sri Shankara established only four, at the two sites mentioned above, Puri and
Sringeri.  Is this a spin-off from one of those?

Thanks very much,
Gerald Penn
gpenn at sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de