CHENNAI: Sri Duddu Satya Venkata Surya Subrahmanya Ganesha Sharma Dravid (24) will be anointed the 71st pontiff of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam in Kanchipuram on Akshaya Tritiya Day (April 30).
Peetathibathi of Kanchi Math, Sri Shankara Vijayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya Swamigal will give Sanyasa Deeksha to Dravid, a Rig Vedic scholar, an announcement by the Math said.
The sacred event coincides with the 2534th Jayanthi Mahotsavam (May 2) of Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya, who established the Kanchi Math in 482 BCE.
Sources said Dravid has been studying Shastras in Kancheepuram under the direct supervision of Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi Swamigal for the past year. The preliminary Vedic rituals for the anointment have already begun in his native place in Andhra Pradesh, as well as Kancheepuram. On April 30, final rituals will start from 6 am.
Dravid was born in Tuni, Andhra Pradesh in 2001 to Brahmashri Duddu Srinivasa Surya Subrahmanya Dhanvantari and Alivelu Mangadevi.
One of the Vedic students in Kachi Math told TNIE that Dravid has mastered three of the four Vedas — Rig, Yajur and Sama — and has been honoured with the title Salakshana Ganapati. Dravid served as Rig Veda teacher at Sri Gnana Saraswathi Devasthanam in Telangana.
Kanchi Math Manager Sundaresa Iyer called on District Collector Kalaiselvi Mohan and invited her to the anointment ceremony.
According to the Kachi Math, Sri Adi Sankara settled down at Kanchi, established the Math and founded a lineage of successors. The 68th pontiff of the Math, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamigal, had served for around nine decades between 1907 and 1994.
He made Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal his junior by initiating him into Sanyasa in 1954. After his demise in 1994, Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal became the senior pontiff.
Sri Sankara Vijayendra Saraswathi Swamigal was initiated into Sanyasa in 1983. After Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal's demise in 2018, Sri Vijayendra Saraswathi became the pontiff.