The matha host not only students but many Guru. A Guru, in Hindu tradition, is someone who is a "teacher, guide or master" of certain knowledge. He or she is someone more than a teacher, traditionally a reverential figure to the student, with the guru serving as a "counselor, who helps mold values, shares experiential knowledge as much as literal knowledge, an exemplar in life, an inspirational source and who helps in the spiritual evolution of a student." The term also refers to someone who primarily is one's spiritual guide, who helps one to discover the same potentialities that the guru has already realized. The guru concept is traceable to ancient Vedic times, found in traditional schools as well as a matha. The oldest references to the concept of guru are found in the earliest Vedic texts of Hinduism. The guru, and gurukul – a school run by guru, were an established tradition in India by the 1st millennium BCE, and these helped compose and transmit the various Vedas, the Upanishads, texts of various schools of Hindu philosophy, and post-Vedic Shastras ranging from spiritual knowledge to various arts. The mathas hosted these teachers and their students as they pursued their studies. By about mid 1st millennium CE, archaeological and epigraphical evidence suggest numerous larger institutions of gurus existed in India, some near Hindu temples, where guru-shishya tradition helped preserve, create and transmit various fields of knowledge. The first epigraphical evidence of a Shaiva matha, for example, dates to around 800 CE, which was attached to a temple. It hosted scholars and students for theosophical studies. Another inscription from about 1100 CE, states Hartmut Scharfe, attests that a matha was the center of medieval medical studies (Charaka Samhita) and of Vedic grammar in Tamil Nadu. Mathas in Hindu traditions Vaishnavism Sadh Vaishnava (Madhva) Mathas Madhvacharya, the founder of Dvaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, studied in an Advaita Vedanta monastery, but found Advaita unconvincing, and launched theistic Dvaita school of Vedanta interpretation, establishing Mathas (monasteries) by the early 13th century. There are twenty four Madhva mathas set up all over India, including those in Udupi. The twelve Mathas that are descended through Madhvacharya's direct disciples, Adhokshaja Teertha, Hrishikesha Teertha, Narasimha Teertha, Upendra Teertha, Rama Teertha, Vamana Teertha, Janardhana Teertha and Madhva's brother Vishnu Tirtha in Tulu region are the Pejawara Matha, Palimaru Matha, Adamaru Matha, Puttige Matha, Sodhe Matha, Kaniyooru Matha,