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Permanent Pictorial Cancellation (PPC) issued by Kalady Sub Post Office, Ernakulam District, Kerala, PIN 683574. The cancellation design features Adi Sankaracharya (Adi Shankaracharya), the revered 8th-century philosopher, theologian, and founder of Advaita Vedanta, who was born in Kalady on the banks of the Periyar River. Status: Active.
Adi Shankaracharya (c. 788–820 CE) was one of India's greatest philosophers and theologians, born in Kalady, a small village on the banks of the Periyar River in present-day Ernakulam district, Kerala. He consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism), which posits that the individual soul (Atman) and the universal spirit (Brahman) are one. Despite his short life, he established four mathas (monasteries) in the four cardinal directions of India — Sringeri, Dwarka, Puri, and Badrinath — which continue to function as centres of Vedantic learning. Kalady is today a major pilgrimage site dedicated to his memory, with temples, a museum, and the Adi Shankaracharya Janmabhoomi trust managing the site. The Permanent Pictorial Cancellation commemorates this sacred town that gave birth to one of India's most influential spiritual thinkers.
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