In a lecture Srila Prabhupada gave in Los Angeles, he explains that Sankar had studied all the Vedas by the time he was eight, and that he is an incarnation of Lord Siva: “The impersonalist school, amongst them, there are very, very learned scholars. Sankaracarya himself, he was unique scholar. At the age of eight years only, he studied all the Vedas. And not only he studied, he became a critical student, sankaracarya. He was incarnation of Lord Siva; therefore nobody can be compared with him.” (Los Angeles, 2 February 1968)