Purvamnaya Sri Govardhana Peetham or Govardhan Math is one amongst the five cardinal peethams established by the philosopher-saint Bhagwan Adi Shankaracharya to preserve and propagate Sanatana Dharma and Advaita Vedanta, the doctrine of non-dualism. Located in Puri in Odisha, India, it is the Eastern Āmnāya Pītham amongst the five Peethams, with the others being the Sringeri Śārada Pīṭhaṃ (Karnataka) in the South, Dvārakā Śāradā Pītham (Gujarat) in the West, Badari Jyotirmaṭha Pīṭhaṃ (Uttarakhand) in the North and the Sarvagnya Pītham being Kanchi Kamakoti Pīṭham (Tamil Nadu). It is associated with the Jagannath temple. Their Vedantic mantra or Mahavakya is Prajñānam brahma (Consciousness is supreme being) and as per the tradition initiated by Adi Shankara it holds authority over Rig Veda. The head of the matha is called Shankarayacharya, the title derives from Adi Shankara. The deities here are Jagannath (Lord Vishnu) and the devi is Vimala (Bhairavi). There are Shri Vigrahas of Govardhananatha Krishna and Ardhanareshvara Shiva installed by Adi Shankara. The whole of the Eastern part of the Indian subcontinent is considered as the territory of Sri Govardhan Peeth. This includes the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh till Rajamundry, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Telangana, Tripura, Mizoram, and Uttar Pradesh till Prayag. The countries Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan as well as the Southeast Asian and Tibetan regions, are also considered spiritual territory of the math. Puri, Prayagraj, Gaya and Varanasi are some of the holy places under this Math. Background Govardhana matha is one of four cardinal institutions established by Adi Shankara (c. 8th century CE), regarded by later tradition as the reviver of Vedic Sanatana Dharma. Shankara's four principal disciples, Padma-Pada, Hasta-Malaka, Vartika-Kara or Sureshvara and Totakacharya were assigned to these four learning centers in the north, south, east and west of India. The subsequent leaders of each of these four monasteries are known as Śaṅkarāchāryas in honor of the math's founder, Adi Shankara. As such they are the leaders of the Daśanāmī Saṃnyāsins who are considered to have custody of Advaita Vedānta These four principle seats of learning are located in Purī (Odisha), Śṛṅgeri (Karnataka) and Dvārakā (Gujarat) with the northern (Uttarāmnāya) monastery being located in the city of Jyotirmaṭh (also known as Joṣīmaṭh). History Padmapadacharya became the first leader of the matha. The matha has historical connections with the Jagannath temple, which is also located in Puri. It