Sringeri Sharada Peetham is one of the four Advaita Vedanta monastery (matha) established by Adi Shankara around 800 AD in Sringeri (Karnataka), the others being Dwaraka (Gujarat), Govardhana (Odisha) and Jyotirmath (Uttarakhand).
The Sringeri matha is on the banks of the Tunga River in Chikkamagalur district located in the Western Ghats, India.
The Sringeri Sharada Peetham site includes two major temples, one dedicated to Shiva (Vidyashankara Linga, tenth Shankara memorial) and the other to Saraswati (Sharada Amba).
The Vidyashankara temple was built during the Vijayanagara Empire era (1338 CE) on a square plan set inside circles in the Tuluvas and Hoysala apsidal style.
It includes shrines and relief carving in reverence of major Hindu gods and goddesses such as Brahma, Vishnu (all Dasavatara, with Buddha), Shiva, Saraswati, Parvati, Lakshmi, Ganesha, Shanmukha (Kartikeya, Murugan), Durga, Kali and others.
The stone reliefs also include a large variety of Hindu legends from the epics and the Puranas.The Sringeri Peetham is one of the major Hindu monastic institutions that has historically coordinated Smarta tradition and monastic activities through satellite institutions in South India, preserved Sanskrit literature and pursued Advaita studies.
It is one of the centers of the Dasnami monastic order.
The Sringeri Peetham has been a library and a source of historic Sanskrit manuscripts.
Along with other Hindu monasteries such as the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, the contemporary Sringeri matha has been active in preserving the Vedas, sponsoring students and recitals, Sanskrit scholarship, and celebrating annual Adishankaracharya jayanti (gurupurnima).