Gaudapada, Adi Shankara and Advaita Vedanta

Gaudapada (c. 6th century CE), was the teacher or a more distant predecessor of Govindapada,Michael Comans (2000, pp. 2,163) the teacher of Adi Shankara. Shankara is widely considered as the founder of Advaita Vedanta. Gaudapada's treatise, the Kārikā—also known as the Māṇḍukya Kārikā or the Āgama Śāstra—is the earliest surviving complete text on Advaita Vedanta.

Gaudapada's Kārikā relied on the Mandukya, Brihadaranyaka and Chhandogya Upanishads. In the Kārikā, Advaita (non-dualism) is established on rational grounds (upapatti) independent of scriptural revelation; its arguments are devoid of all religious, mystical or scholastic elements. Scholars are divided on a possible influence of Buddhism on Gaudapada's philosophy. The fact that Shankara, in addition to the Brahma Sutras, the principal Upanishads and the Bhagvad Gita, wrote an independent commentary on the Kārikā proves its importance in Vedāntic literature.

Adi Shankara (788–820), elaborated on Gaudapada's work and more ancient scholarship to write detailed commentaries on the Prasthanatrayi and the Kārikā. The Mandukya Upanishad and the Kārikā have been described by Shankara as containing "the epitome of the substance of the import of Vedanta". It was Shankara who integrated Gaudapada work with the ancient Brahma Sutras, "and give it a locus classicus" alongside the realistic strain of the Brahma Sutras. His interpretation, including works ascribed to him, has become the normative interpretation of Advaita Vedanta.

A noted contemporary of Shankara was Mandan Mishra, who regarded Mimamsa and Vedanta as forming a single system and advocated their combination known as Karma-jnana-samuchchaya-vada. The treatise on the differences between the Vedanta school and the Mimamsa school was a contribution of Adi Shankara. Advaita Vedanta rejects rituals in favor of renunciation, for example.