According to a persistent but erroneous tradition within Advaita Vedānta, before he became a disciple of Śankara, Sureśvara was known as Maṇḍana Miśra, a Mīmāmsāka.
Whether this Maṇḍana Miśra was the same as the author of Brahmasiddhi is questioned by modern scholars on the basis of textual analysis.
Sureśvara was the Advaita tradition's Vārttikakāra (commentator), meticulously and critically examining Śankara's work.
[3] Maṇḍana Miśra's brand of Advaita differs in certain critical details from that of Śhankara, whereas Sureśvara's thought is very faithful to that of Śankara.
[3] According to Sharma, Hiriyanna and Kuppuswami Sastra have pointed out that Sureśvara and Maṇḍana Miśra had different views on various doctrinal points:[4] R. Balasubramanian disagrees with the arguments of Kuppuswami Sastri and others, and argued that there is no conclusive evidence available to prove that Maṇḍana, the author of the Brahmasiddhi, is different from Sureśvara, the author of the Naiṣkarmyasiddhi and the Vārtikas.