According to tradition and available literary sources a matha was established by Sri Vidyaranya at Virupaksha, on the bank of the Tungabhadra.

According to the Pushpagiri Mathamnaya Stotra, which is quoted at length in the booklet (in Telugu), entitled Sankara-matha Tatvaprakasikartha-Sangraha, written by Kokkandram Venkatrathnam Pantulu, and published in 1877 A.D., the founding of this math by Sri Vidyaranya and his installing one of his two disciples Narasimha Bharati, as first Acharya of this new Matha is dated in the cyclic year Subhakrit – 1362 A.D.

– B.Krishnan, Madras (1991)