Shankaracharya, (Śankarāchārya in standard transliteration) is a commonly used title of heads of maţhas (monasteries) in the Advaita tradition. The title derives from Śankara of Kaladi, an influential theologian of Hinduism, who first established four maţhas in the four regions of India. He was given the name Śankara at birth, and ācharya is a title, meaning 'learned teacher'.

As the first historically recognized teacher in the lineage, Śankara is also called Ādi Śankara. (The Sanskrit word Ādi means original/first.) The four institutions traditionally said to have been established by Ādi Śankara are;

• the Uttarāmnāya matha, or northern matha at Joshimath
• the Pūrvāmnāya matha or eastern matha, the Govardhana matha, at Puri
• the Dakshināmnāya matha, or the Sringeri Sharada Peetham, the southern matha, at Shringeri
• the Paśchimāmnāya matha, or the Dwaraka Pitha, the western matha, at Dwarka .

The heads of these four institutions are considered the principal Shankaracharya-s in India today.

In addition, the heads of the Kanchi matha, the Sumeru matha in Varanasi, the Karavir matha in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, the Sankarananda matha in Puri, Orissa and other institutions are also referred to as Shankaracharya-s. There are more than 100 such Shankaracharya-s in India today.

Note: Nowadays, in the Indian print and television news media, heads of other monastic institutions not belonging to the Advaita tradition, are also often mistakenly given the Shankaracharya title.

Shankaracharya