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 Dakṣiṇāmnāya Śrī Śāradā Pīṭham (IPA: [d̪ɐkʂiɳaːmn̪aːjɐ ɕriː ɕaːrɐd̪ɐ piːʈʰɐm]) or Śri Śṛṅgagiri Maṭha (IPA: [ɕriː ɕr̩ŋɡɐɡiri mɐʈʰɐ]); Sanskrit: मठ, maṭha) is one amongst the four cardinal pīthams following the Daśanāmi Sampradaya - the peetham or matha is said to have been established by acharya Śrī Ādi Śaṅkara to preserve and propagate Sanātana Dharma and Advaita Vedānta, the doctrine of non-dualism.

[9][10][11] The Śringerī Mutt has been active in preserving Vedas, sponsoring students and recitals, Sanskrit scholarship, and celebrating traditional annual festivals such as Śaṅkara Jayanti and Guru Purnima (Vyāsa Pūrnima).

These were Sringeri Sri Sharada Peetham (Karnataka) in the South, Dvārakā Śāradā Pītham (Gujarat) in the West, Purī Govardhan Pīṭhaṃ (Odisha) in the East and Badri Jyotishpīṭhaṃ (Uttarakhand) in the North.

[16][17] A hagiographic legend states that Sri Adi Shankara, during His travels across India, witnessed a snake unveiling its hood like an umbrella to shield a pregnant frog from the hot sun on the banks of the river Tunga in Sringeri.

Deducing that non-violence amongst natural predators was innate to a holy spot, Sri Adi Shankara decided to establish His first Peetham in Sringeri.

[23] According to Hermann Kulke, the early history of Sringeri is unknown and the earliest epigraphical evidence in the region is from the 12th century and belongs to the Jainism tradition.

[37][38] The grant is evidenced by a stone inscription by the king who reverentially refers to the 10th pontiff of Sringeri matha as a guru (counsellor, teacher).

[33] This grant became a six-century tradition that ended in the 1960s and 1970s when the Indian central government introduced and enforced a land-reform law that redistributed the land.

The matha managed the land and therefore operated as a sociopolitical network and land-grant institution for over 600 years beyond its religious role and spiritual scholarship.

[37] According to Leela Prasad, this upcara has been guided by the Hindu Dharmasutras and Dharmasastras texts preserved and interpreted by the matha, one composed by a range of authors and generally dated to be from the second half of the 1st-millennium BCE through about 400 CE.

[40] According to Shastri, following the traditional accounts, the Vijayanagara kings visited the Sringeri monastery many times over some 200 years and left inscriptions praising the monks, revering their knowledge of the Vedas and their scholarship.

[33] The descendant rulers of the Vijayanagara empire regularly visited the monastery and made a series of endowments to the Sringeri matha as evidenced by various inscriptions.

The coastal regions of Karnataka that included the Sringeri matha ultimately came under the control of the Nayakas of Keladi from the Lingayatism tradition, who has previously served as governors for the Vijayanagara emperors.

Additionally, the 17th-century records show that the matha received special gifts from the Lingayat rulers on festive occasions such as acharavicharas and Diwali.

According to Leela Prasad, after the Maratha ruler Raghunatha Rao invited the Sringeri matha's Jagadguru to visit him and the pontiff accepted the invitation, when Hyder Ali – whose hostility to the Marathas had been legendary – heard about the trip, Hyder Ali sent the Jagadguru gifts and an escort consisting of a palanquin, five horses, an elephant and cash for the travel expenses.

Tipu Sultan, a Muslim, also sent a letter requesting the Jagadguru to perform penance and Hindu worship for "good showers and crops".

[50] Scholars have interpreted this event both as an evidence of Tipu Sultan's religious tolerance and the predatory habits of some contingents in the Maratha army,[50][51][53] or alternatively as a strategic political move by Tipu Sultan to request the monastery to perform "superstitious rites" to "conciliate with his Hindu subjects and to discomfort his Maratha enemies", quotes Leela Prasad.

According to Shastri, after the Maratha Peshwa ruler learned about the Pindari sacking, he took corrective action and sent his contingents to locate the loot, the statues, gold and copper, to return it along with compensation.

Along with the Vijayanagara emperors and the Mysore Muslim rulers such as Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, the colonial British authorities and their Nayak and Wodeyar dynasty appointees considered the monastery to be a strategically important hub for regional politics.

[29] Its operations were a target of surveillance, its collection of Hindu texts on Dharma and its counsel given its regional significance were sought by the British authorities.

[58] The temple has an apsidal shape with its interior chambers and sanctum set on the square principle while the spire and outer walls use an almost circular plan.

Inside the temple is a large mandapa with intricately carved pillars, several antechambers with artwork, a sanctum with linga and a circumambulation passageway around it.

The monastery tradition states that Adi Shankara installed a sandalwood image of Saraswati as Sharadamba in a simple shrine, one that was replaced with its current copy in gold during the Vijayanagara era.

[63] The Sharadamba temple and nearby structures additionally house a library, a Vedic school, a shrine for Adi Shankara, and other facilities of the monastery.

Some of the major branches include those in Varanasi, Haridwar, Nasik, Gaya, Mysore, Hyderabad, Madurai, Chennai, Kanchipuram, Tirupati, Coimbatore, Ramesvaram, Kalady, Ramnad and Bengaluru.