Sri Shankara Vijayendra Saraswathi was born as the eighth child of a Vedic scholar, Sri M Krishnamurthy Sastri, and Smt.Ambalakshmi. Originally he was named Sankara Narayanan. He attended a village school in his native village and studied the Vedas with his father, Sri Krishnamurthy Sastri, a Vedic scholar and teacher. He joined the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham when he was 14 and was named 70th Peetadipati in 1987