Shankaracharyas are heads of the 4 (or 5, or 7 - depending upon what you believe) Adi Shankar Maths which were established by Adi Shankar on farthest corners of India, just before he left his sthool body. To understand the role of these Maths, and their Shankaracharyas, one needs to understand Adi Shankar's role and vision first.
If history of Hindus is to be analyzed, Adi Sankara's name will stand out as that visionary who gave this 'structure' to Hindus which sustained their faith for the centuries which were coming after his time. It was his time, when the onslaught of Islam was just about knocking at the doors of India, and Hindu soceity was severely divided and chaos prevailed all over in the religious and philosophical world. (As well as in political world)
Chaos pervaded all through India in the matter of popular religion and practiced philosophy. People were experiencing sect after sect, such as Charvakas, Lokayathikas, Kapalikas, Shaktas, Sankhyas, Madhyamikas, various Jaina and Bauddhas sects. The number of religions rose as high as seventy-two. That was well so far, but there were intense infights amongst each sect. Chaos and confusion reigned supreme. There was utter superstition and bigotry. Vedas, Upanishadas etc had gone to the background.
That is when Shankar was born. If you ask me, one reason why Islam could not succeed in Islamizing India just like it did in Iran, that one reason will be the birth of Adi Shankar in 788 AD.
Sankar's main contribution to Hindu soceity was unification. Unification with diversity preserved. It gave a complete new life to the religious life of masses. To Hindu nation, it gave that unifying strength that was needed.
So, it was Shankar's vision to establish 10 different definite orders of Sannyasins under the name 'Dasanamis' who add, at the end of their names, any one of the following ten suffixes: Sarasvati, Bharati, Puri (Sringeri Mutt); Tirtha, Asrama (Dwaraka Mutt); Giri, Parvata and Sagar (Joshi Mutt); Vana and Aranya (Govardhana Mutt). The Paramahamsa represents the highest of these grades.
And it was his vision to have a decentralized structure yet unified religion which is accessible to soceity, by establishing Maths on different corners of India. Howmay were these - there are academic disputes over it. Most commonly accepted version is 4: Shringeri in Karnataka, Joshi in Uttaranchal, Dwarka in Gujarat, and Puri in Orissa. Each one of them represented (and specialized in) one of the four Vedas. Sankara placed his four eminent disciples (Sureswara Acharya, Padmapada, Hastamalaka and Trotakacharya) in charge of the Sringeri Mutt, Jagannath Mutt, Dwaraka Mutt and Joshi Mutt respectively. Some additional matths too are attributed to him, like Kanchi, Kashi, Bodhgaya etc...
Later in the Hindu history, these Matths provided the much needed philosophical unity to the society - <b>Many times even political inspiration</b>. For example, Vijayanagar Kingdom's birth is much attributed to the inspiration from Vidyaranya, who was the 14th century Shankaracharya of Shringeri Math. Birth of Vishwa Hindu Parishad is much from the inspiration of the Shankaracharyas and other spiritual leaders.
Today too, Shankaracharyas' powers (and duties) are in unifying the Hindu society, and really is derived from their 'acceptability' by almost all temples, Maths, spiritual leaders, as a common mediator or coordinator. (Notice the title - Jagad Guru). There is no 'authority' though either social, or scriptural. They have successfully kept themselves away from all the politics, and that I think is what has saved this institution so far.
If history of Hindus is to be analyzed, Adi Sankara's name will stand out as that visionary who gave this 'structure' to Hindus which sustained their faith for the centuries which were coming after his time. It was his time, when the onslaught of Islam was just about knocking at the doors of India, and Hindu soceity was severely divided and chaos prevailed all over in the religious and philosophical world. (As well as in political world)
Chaos pervaded all through India in the matter of popular religion and practiced philosophy. People were experiencing sect after sect, such as Charvakas, Lokayathikas, Kapalikas, Shaktas, Sankhyas, Madhyamikas, various Jaina and Bauddhas sects. The number of religions rose as high as seventy-two. That was well so far, but there were intense infights amongst each sect. Chaos and confusion reigned supreme. There was utter superstition and bigotry. Vedas, Upanishadas etc had gone to the background.
That is when Shankar was born. If you ask me, one reason why Islam could not succeed in Islamizing India just like it did in Iran, that one reason will be the birth of Adi Shankar in 788 AD.
Sankar's main contribution to Hindu soceity was unification. Unification with diversity preserved. It gave a complete new life to the religious life of masses. To Hindu nation, it gave that unifying strength that was needed.
So, it was Shankar's vision to establish 10 different definite orders of Sannyasins under the name 'Dasanamis' who add, at the end of their names, any one of the following ten suffixes: Sarasvati, Bharati, Puri (Sringeri Mutt); Tirtha, Asrama (Dwaraka Mutt); Giri, Parvata and Sagar (Joshi Mutt); Vana and Aranya (Govardhana Mutt). The Paramahamsa represents the highest of these grades.
And it was his vision to have a decentralized structure yet unified religion which is accessible to soceity, by establishing Maths on different corners of India. Howmay were these - there are academic disputes over it. Most commonly accepted version is 4: Shringeri in Karnataka, Joshi in Uttaranchal, Dwarka in Gujarat, and Puri in Orissa. Each one of them represented (and specialized in) one of the four Vedas. Sankara placed his four eminent disciples (Sureswara Acharya, Padmapada, Hastamalaka and Trotakacharya) in charge of the Sringeri Mutt, Jagannath Mutt, Dwaraka Mutt and Joshi Mutt respectively. Some additional matths too are attributed to him, like Kanchi, Kashi, Bodhgaya etc...
Later in the Hindu history, these Matths provided the much needed philosophical unity to the society - <b>Many times even political inspiration</b>. For example, Vijayanagar Kingdom's birth is much attributed to the inspiration from Vidyaranya, who was the 14th century Shankaracharya of Shringeri Math. Birth of Vishwa Hindu Parishad is much from the inspiration of the Shankaracharyas and other spiritual leaders.
Today too, Shankaracharyas' powers (and duties) are in unifying the Hindu society, and really is derived from their 'acceptability' by almost all temples, Maths, spiritual leaders, as a common mediator or coordinator. (Notice the title - Jagad Guru). There is no 'authority' though either social, or scriptural. They have successfully kept themselves away from all the politics, and that I think is what has saved this institution so far.