As part of the succession, Kanchi pontiff Vijayendra Saraswati will institute Sanyasa Deeksha to Ganesha Sharma on April 30, Akshaya Tritya.
Hyderabad: The Kanchi Kamakoti Shankaracharya has decided to anoint a young Vedic scholar, having links to the two Telugu states as his successor on April 30 in Kanchipuram, a statement from the mutt said.
The proposed successor, 26-year-old Duddu Satya Venkata Surya Subramanya Ganesha Sharma Dravid, was born in Annavaram in AP and works as a Rig Veda scholar at Sri Gnana Saraswati Temple in Basara in Nirmal district. He was born to Duddu Devi and Danvathari, a priest at Satyanarayana Swamy temple, at Annavaram on April 29, 1999.
As part of the succession, Kanchi pontiff Vijayendra Saraswati will institute Sanyasa Deeksha to Ganesha Sharma on April 30, Akshaya Tritya. This was also the day Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya was born.
Ganesha Sharma, who will take a new name after the Sanyasa Deeksha, will become the 71st Acharya in the unbroken lineage of this ancient Hindu monastic institution. The current 70th Acharya, pontiff Vijayendra Saraswati, was inducted as a teenager in 1983 and became the Peethadhipathi (head of the Kanchi order) in 2018 after the passing of Jayendra Saraswati.
The Kanchi Peetham is the most influential mutt in the country and is renowned for the propagation of Vedic knowledge, and oversees various educational and social welfare institutions.
Ganesha Sharma learnt the Rig Veda with famous Vedic Pandit Ratnakara Bhatt at Dwaraka Tirumala and cleared several exams conducted by Kanchi, Sringeri and other Peethams and he was appointed as ‘Ashthana Rig Veda Pandit’ of the Basara temple two years ago.
Though his family has been associated with Kanchi Peetham for several decades, pontiff Vijayendra Saraswati found some special qualities in Ganesha Sharma, when he visited Basara in 2024, and asked him to come to Kanchi to learn more shastras. Accordingly, the Telangana government deputed him at Kanchi.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, Kandikota Naveen Sharma, an Asthana Samaveda Pandit at the Basara temple, said he is excited know that his colleague would be the Uttaradhikari of the Kanchi Peetham and called it as ‘Daivika Nirnayam’ (divine ordination). Ganesha Sharma had worked with him as a Samaveda Pandit.
