Maha Periyavaa · The Sage of Kanchi · 20 May 1894 — 8 January 1994
Sixty-eighth Acharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, HE held that seat for eighty-seven years — one of the longest tenures of any religious office in recorded history. HE walked the length and breadth of Bharat twice over, gave up salt and comfort alike, rebuilt a dying Vedic tradition one rupee at a time, and was received by presidents and cowherds with the very same courtesy. Tamils called HIM Nadamadum Deivam — the walking God.
What follows is HIS life told in full, drawn from the Peetham's own chronicles, HIS disciples' testimony, and the independent witness of visitors who came as scholars, sceptics and journalists. Choose a chapter below to begin.
A schoolboy who won a prize for reciting the Bible, a message from a dying Acharya, a boy of twelve who did not go home — and the decade of discipline that followed.
Twenty-one years on foot across Bharat beginning in 1919; at eighty-four, HE did it again. Why HE walked, and what it cost HIM to do it.
No salt for eighty-seven years, three hours of sleep, a hut no labourer would occupy — and the one-rupee tax that kept a civilisation's Vedas from dying out.
Eighty years of reviving temples across India; an Advaita Acharya who funded Saiva, Vaishnava and Madhva institutions alike — and HIS regard for every faith beyond HIS own.
Rice schemes built on dignity, a blessing for the freedom movement given at real risk, and the scholars and scientists who left HIS presence astonished.
HIS Ten Codes for Living, how HE bore opposition, the hundredth year and Maha Samadhi, and the presence HE remains in millions of households today.