Local Advaita Vedānta Monastic Tradition in Kerala: Locating, mapping, networking

The article concerns the hitherto unstudied regional variant of the Advaita Vedānta monasticism of the Nampūtiri tradition in Kerala. The main objective of the paper is to present the spatial distribution of the Advaita Vedānta maṭhas (skr. maṭha – “monastery”) in the state of Kerala (South India). Through the cartographic visualisation, I intend to prove that the monastic tradition in question has, in the past, created a network of intricate ritualistic, economic, social and political interrelations spreading across whole Kerala region. The spatial analysis will allow to evaluate the qualities of the maṭhas’ geographical distribution.