The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2128 page)

see
HUANG-LUNG HUI-NAN
.

 
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(trad.,
788–820, but perhaps earlier).
The pre-eminent philosopher and proponent of
Advaita
Ved
nta, and one of the most influential thinkers in the entire history of Indian religion.
Although the traditional biographies disagree in many details, the main outlines of the saintly life portrayed in them are clear. He was born of a
brahman
family in S. India, probably at K
la
i in the modern state of Kerala. His father died while
a
kara was a child, and while still a boy,
a
kara left his mother in the care of some relatives, and set out on the life of a wandering mendicant. At a cave on the banks of the Narmad
River he met the sage
Govindap
da
, the disciple of
Gau
ap
da
, and remained there long enough to become his pupil, to study
Ved
nta
philosophy with him, and receive from him formal initiation into the life of a renunciant (
sa
ny
sa