Kaippilly Sivaguru Nambudiri and Arya Antharjanam. According to lore, it was after his parents, who had been childless for many years, prayed at the Vadakkunnathan temple, that Sankara was born.[5] [6]
His father died while Shankara was very young. Shankara’s upanayanaṃ, the initiation into student-life, was performed at the age of five. As a child, Shankara showed remarkable scholarship, mastering the four Vedas by the age of eight.