Maṇḍana Miśra

Mandana Mishra, also known as Suresvaracharya was a follower of the Purva Mimamsa school of philosophy and later became a disciple of Adi Sankara

About Mandana Mishra

Mandana Mishra is thought lived in the ancient Indian town of Varanasi during the time of Adi Sankara (there is considerable debate about the exact dates of Adi Sankara). Being a follower of the Purva Mimamsa school, he was a ritualist and performed all of the ritualistic duties as prescribed in the Vedas.

Meeting with Adi Sankara

The story goes that Adi Sankara sought out Mandana Mishra to debate about the relative merits of their respective schools of thought. While trying to find the house of Mandana, Sankara is said to have asked for directions and is told that Mandana lives in the house with parrots on the outside discussing various involved matters of the Vedas. Sankara finds Mandana and the first meeting between them is not pleasant. According to Vedic ritualistic rules it is forbidden to see an ascetic on certain days and Mandana is angred on seeing a ascetic on a important ritualistic day. Mandana initially hurls insults at Sankara, who camly replies and finally after a verbal duel Mandana agrees to debate with Sankara.

Debate on the Vedas

It was customary during their those days for various learned people to debate the relative merits and demerits of the different system of Hindu philosophy. The rules for the debate were set as follows. Mandana's wife Ubhaya Bharathi as the arbiter for the debate. The vanquished would become a disciple of the victor and accept his school of thought. The debate itself goes on for many days and ranges different subjects within the Vedas, and the arguments from both sides are compelling and forceful. Sankara even gets time out to research certain aspects of sex-love sciences since he is not well versed in it. Finally after a long and heated debate Mandana accepts defeat.

Mandana becomes Sankara's disciple

As agreed earlier Mandana becomes a disciple of Sankara and assumes the name Suresvaracharya. He was one of the four main disciples of Sankara and was the first head of one of fthe 4 maths that Sankara later establised.