Adi Shankara

Adi Shankara was an eighth-century Indian philosopher who consolidated the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. He taught that the individual self (Atman) is ultimately identical with the universal consciousness (Brahman), and that the world of multiplicity is maya — illusion.

Shankara wrote commentaries on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras, and founded four monasteries across India that remain centres of Advaita learning. His synthesis of Hindu thought with a rigorous philosophical method made him the most influential figure in classical Indian philosophy.