Controversial Kanchi Shankaracharya dead
Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, Sri Jayendra Sarawasthi, died in Kanchipuram after a brief illness at 82. He will be remembered as the pontiff who took the mutt to the masses and sought to unite the caste divided Hindu community. He also blazed a trail for new-age gurus like Jaggi Vasudev, Sri Sri Ravishankar to follow.
BIRTH: 18 July 1935 in Tiruvarur. His actual name is Subramanyam Mahadeva Iyer. 1954: Was initiated into the mutt as a junior Shankaracharya at the age of 19. 1987: He abandoned the mutt. He was eventually traced in Talacauvery and readmitted by the senior pontiff. 1994: Assumed charge as the 69th pontiff of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham. CRITICISM: Implicated in the murder of the manager of the Kanchi Varadaraja Perumal temple, Sankararaman, who was a devotee-turned-critic in 2004. Acquitted in 2013 by the Pondicherry trial court.
Acquitted in a case involving brutal assault on an auditor Radhakrishnan, as he was writing against him under a pen name.
BABRI MASJID: He played negotiater to try and bring a settlement in the Babri Masjid-Ram temple dispute, but did not succeed. However, the fact that the Muslim representatives accepted him as a mediator showed his credibility.
SOCIAL SERVICE: He expanded the institutes horizons through educational and medical institutions and was revered by the Brahmin
community.