Samyamindra Thirtha

Samyamindra Thirtha Biography

Samyamindra Thirtha is the current main disciple and successor of the Kashi Math; the 21st successive person of the guru parampara. After the Samadhi of the great spiritual leader and his guru Sudhindra Thirtha on 17 January 2016 at Haridwar, he is the mathadipathi (spiritual head) of the Kashi Mathand - supreme authority of the 500-year old Kashi Math Samsthan, and spiritual leader of the Gowd Saraswat Brahmin community. He succeeds his guru Sudhindra Thirtha who remained as the leader for nearly 7 decades as a charismatic, iconic and erudite spiritual leader of his devotees.

His birth name is Umesh Mallan, born on 12 September 1982 at North Paravur of Ernakulam district, Kerala. He was initiated to sanyasa while he was doing his second year graduation in Kerala. His father dreamt to send Umesh to Indian army. But as per horoscope it was predicted that he is to head the Kashi Math. After a lot of searches, Sudhindra Thirtha found his successor in Umesh, who was initiated into sanyasa and named as Samyamindra Thirtha on 20 June 2002 as the new successor. During September 2015, proclamation was done for the new successor.

Kashi Math was going through a lot of drifts and controversies after Raghavendra Thirtha was initiated to sanyasa on 7 July 1989, and named as the successor by Sudhindra Thirtha. However due to the lack of subordination and misbehavior with Math’s funds, Raghavendra Thirtha had to remove Sudhindra Thirtha from the position. Raghavendra Thirtha challenged the senior in court claiming complete authority over the math though couldn’t win the case. Later Supreme Court too upheld the verdict. Thus following the tradition, he initiated a vatu into sanyasa and named him as Samyamindra Thirtha as his successor.

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Updated: January 20, 2016