ACCESSION TO SARVAJNANAPITA

                          Adi Shankara visited Sarvajñapīṭha (Sharada Peeth) in Kashmir (now in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir).^[19] The Madhaviya Shankaravijayam states this temple had four doors for scholars from the four cardinal directions. The southern door (representing South India) had never been opened, indicating that no scholar from South India had entered the Sarvajna Pitha. Adi Shankara opened the southern door by defeating in debate all the scholars there in all the various scholastic disciplines such as Mimamsa, Vedanta and other branches of Hindu philosophy; he ascended the throne of Transcendent wisdom of that temple.^[20]

Towards the end of his life, Adi Shankara travelled to the Himalayan area of Kedarnath-Badrinath and attained videha mukti ("freedom from embodiment"). There is a samadhi mandir dedicated to Adi Shankara behind the Kedarnath temple. However, there are variant traditions on the location of his last days. One tradition, expounded by Keraliya Shankaravijaya, places his place of death as Vadakkunnathan temple in Thrissur, Kerala.^[21] The followers of the Kanchi kamakoti pitha claim that he ascended the Sarvajñapīṭha and attained videha mukti in Kanchipuram