This inscription discovered in the Lakshminarayana temple near Shankara tirtha in mulbagal, Karnataka makes it clear the Vaidika Pashupata Acharya “Kriya Shakti”, the rajaguru of Vijayanagara empire, was also revered as “Sri Vidyashankara Devaru”.

The line “Vidyashankara vigrahaya Gurave Vidyadhika Vyaktaye” denotes that the Acharya took the divine form after his Siddhi and thus venerated as “Vidyashankara”.

Eminent historian Shri. Dr.Venkatasubbiah says the words ” Vidyadhika – Vyaktaye” denotes Vidyaranya. However, Narasimhachar opines that it denotes Vidyatirtha himself, which is not correct.This is also inconsistent with the tradition since the Acharya belonged to the Kanchi matha who had attained Samadhi in Himalayas, long back.

Therefore, T.N.Mallappa in his book KRIYASAKTI VIDYARANYA supports the first interpretation, holding the Pashupata Shaiva Rajaguru Kriyashakti deva was consecrated as “Shri Vidyaranya” assuming that his divine form “Shri Vidyashankara” after his demise.

He also notes that according to Tunga Sringeri matha’s Guruvamsha Kavya, King Bukka built the temple to commemorate the name of Vidyaranya as he cured him of a disease.