Summary
With this pre-Sankara author of Mandukya Karika, Advaida philosophy is documented as an existing tradition.
Gaudapada, the grand-guru of Adi Sankaracharya, is the author of Mandukya Karika, a commentary on Mandukya Upanishad, which is the oldest known systematic exposition of Advaita Vedanta. He was also the first proponent of Ajativada, a doctrine of no-origination which states that Atman/Brahman is real, and all else is illusion.
Sankara’s guru was Govindapada; in acknowledging Gaudapada as his paramaguru, he calls him a sampradaya-vit, as a knower of the tradition of Vedanta.
Since Gaudapada was a mendicant, his original name was forgotten and he merely came to be known by the name of his community. The name, Gaudapada, indicates his native place to be what is now the northern part of Bengal. A number of places from Kashmir to North Bengal have been proposed as his native place
