Padmapadacharya

Shaivism/Tantra/Nath New movements Kashmir Shaivism Gaudapada Adi Shankara Advaita-Yoga Nath Kashmir Shaivism Neo-Vedanta Inchegeri Sampradaya Contemporary Shaivism/Tantra/Nath Neo-Advaita Hinduism Buddhism Modern Advaita Vedanta Neo-Vedanta Padmapadacharya was an Indian philosopher, a follower of Adi Shankara.

Padmapāda's dates are unknown, but some modern scholarship places his life around the middle of the 8th century; similarly information about him comes mainly from hagiographies.

Keralites believe that he was a Nambuthiri belonging to Vemannillom, though according to textual sources he was from the Chola region in South India.

In this work Padmapāda develops a complete theory of knowledge on the basis of Shankara's notion of adhyāsa ("superimposition" — "the apparent presentation to consciousness of something as something else" [Grimes, p. 602]).

Also important is Padmapāda's "critique of difference"; he argued that the relationship between the jīva (the empirical self) and the ātman (the underlying, spiritual self) was that of reflection to prototype.