Thinkers Timeline

Adi Shankara (traditionally 788-820, though some scholars propose earlier dates) was an Indian philosopher and theologian whose consolidation of the Advaita Vedanta school shaped Hindu thought more decisively than any other single figure in the tradition. He was born in Kaladi in what is now Kerala, in southern India, into a Nambudiri Brahmin family. Traditional biographies describe his father as dying when he was young and his mother as devout and learned. He is said to have become a renunciate at eight — a striking step taken, according to tradition, with his mother's reluctant consent. He studied under Govinda Bhagavatpada, himself a student of Gaudapada, whose commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad provided Shankara with much of his philosophical starting point. Shankara spent his short life travelling across the Indian subcontinent, debating rival philosophers, establishing monasteries, and writing prolifically. He founded four major monastic centres (mathas) at the cardinal points of India — at Sringeri in the south, Puri in the east, Dwarka in the west, and Jyotirmath in the north — each to be led by a lineage-holder called a Shankaracharya. This institutional network remains active today. His writing output was extraordinary for someone who lived only thirty-two years by traditional reckoning. His commentaries on the three foundational texts of Vedanta — the Upanishads (particularly the ten principal Upanishads), the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras — are the authoritative statements of Advaita Vedanta. He also wrote shorter philosophical works including the Upadesasahasri (A Thousand Teachings), and devotional hymns including the Bhaja Govindam, that remain widely recited. Traditional accounts place his death at Kedarnath in the Himalayas. The dating of his life has been contested — some scholars propose sixth- or seventh-century dates based on textual evidence — but the ninth century remains the conventional position.

Mirabai was a sixteenth-century Indian poet and saint. She is one of the most loved figures in the bhakti movement, a Hindu devotional tradition that swept across India for many centuries. She was born around 1498 in Kudki, a village in present-day Rajasthan in north-west India. Her family, the Rathore Rajputs, were a royal warrior clan. Her mother died when she was young. According to tradition, Mirabai was given a small image of the god Krishna by a holy man during her childhood. She held on to it, and her devotion to Krishna grew. She came to see him as her divine husband. In 1516, when she was about 18, she was married to Bhoj Raj, the crown prince of the neighbouring Mewar kingdom. He was wounded in battle and died in 1521. Mirabai refused to commit sati, the practice of a widow burning herself on her husband's funeral pyre, which was expected of Rajput princesses. This refusal began a long conflict with her in-laws. Legends say her in-laws made several attempts to kill her: poison disguised as nectar, a snake in a basket of flowers, a bed of nails. Each time, she survived. Whether these stories are literal history or symbols of her spiritual protection, they show that she lived under real threat. She eventually left palace life. She wandered to Vrindavan, Krishna's mythical home, and to Dwarka in Gujarat. She sang her songs in temples and public places. She is believed to have died around 1547. Hundreds of devotional songs are attributed to her, though most were probably composed later in her tradition.