Succession (Lineage)

[Giri]

This is regarding Gerald Penn's enquiry on the lineage of Shankara maths.
I am sure other readers will point out the errors in the following..

The succession to Jyothirmath is still controversial. The seat remained
vacant for around 150 years till 1940. Swami Brahmananda Sarasvati was
appointed and was the head from 1940 to 1953. This person is the guru of
Mahesh yogi of the transcendental meditation (however, mahesh yogi was
never a sannyasi as far as i know. Whether this was because mahesh was not
born a brahmin is also something I don't know). Anyway, Brahmananda was
quite famous since his guru Swami Krishnananda Sarasvati was a direct
disciple of the Shankara of Sringeri. When Brahmananda attained
mahasamadhi, he nominated Shantananda Sarasvati as his successor. I think
the will appointing Shantananda was disputed in court by some disciples.
        The Shankara of Dvaraka stepped in and chose Swaropananda and
nominated him as the head of jyothirmath forcing Shantananda to step down.
Vishnudevananda has contended against this nomination and the struggle
for power goes on. In 1984 (or sometime around mid 80's), the Shankara
of Dvaraka attained samadhi and nominated Swaroopananda as his successor.
Therefore, Swaroopananda is the head of both Dvaraka and Jyothirmath.
        I don't think this is the right forum to go into the tussle
between Swaroopananda and Vishnudevananda, his alliance with VHP and
BJP and the struggle to date. But that the story how Swaroopananda is the
head of two maths. AFAIK, the heads of Sringeri and Puri support
Swaroopananda.
        Regarding the establishment of Kanchi math, and their successors,
the power struggle between the Sringeri and Kanchi etc, I don't want
to go into it. Vidya, I think, once posted a detailed article on
alt.hindu or soc.religion.eastern regarding the lineage of Kanchi math.
Regarding respect given to the heads of kanchi math, I feel that Advaitins
(not vaishnavities :-) in general respect all swamis and sanyasis,
irrespective of the lineage.

praNaam.