Sri Jayendra Saraswathi — the 69th Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham — passed away on Wednesday morning. The 83-year-old seer breathed his last in a hospital near the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt at the temple town of Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.
Born Subramanyam Mahadeva Iyer on July 18, 1935, in
a village near Mannargudi, he was appointed pontiff of the Kanchi Mutt by his predecessor Chandrasekharendra Saraswthi in 1954.
After the demise of Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi in 1994, Jayendra Saraswathi was anointed as the head of the Kamakoti Peetham Mutt.