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Here is a brief article on Vedas and Adi Shankaracharya:

Vedas
Western Indologists as well as Indian historians have been trying to place
the beginning of Vedas. Some place the vedas to be 12,000 years old while
others place the time to be around 1500 BC. According to Indian seers and
sages the Vedas are known to be "Apourusheya", which means "Not
created/composed by humans". Sages describe vedas as "aNaadi", which
means they always existed in cosmos. Only, what ever has been perceived
by Rishis has been written down. To give an example in scientific terms,
Einstein never created the process or law which describes the theory of
relativity. Einstein only developed the theory after observing certain
phenomena, which always existed. The Vedas are called "sruti", which is
heard. The vedas have been transferred from teacher to disciple for
generations.
Historians and Archeologists tend to date the four vedas as Rig veda
followed by Yajur, Saama and Atharvana. However according to Indian sages
all four vedas have always existed in cosmos. Veda Vyasa(AKA krishna
dwaipayana) compiled and classified the hymns.
Adi Sankara
Adi Shankaracharya was born in Kaladi, present day Kerala. Some scholars
place the time of his birth to be 70 years after the PariNirvana of Buddha.
However the pointers indicate that Shankaracharya was born in 788 AD.
Shankaracharya studied under the guidance of Govinda Bhagavatpada, who
was a disciple of Goudapada. Shankara argued and won over many great
scholars of his time belonging to different faiths. During that time Vedic
texts were only available in brief aphorisms. The basic texts of vedic
knowledge was preserved in Brahmasutras of Vyasa. Govindapada
instructed that Shankara write a Bhashya on BrahmaSutras. Shankara wrote
a brilliant commentary on Brahmasutras which is considered as superhuman
and accepted by all the learned acharyas. He also wrote commentary of
Bhagavad-Gita and Upanishads. Shankaracharya has written beautiful
compositions in praise of God and shakti. ShankaraCharya is considered to
be the greatest exponent of advaitha and is revered by even modern sages
such as Swami Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda, Sri Chandrashekarendra
 saraswathi of Kanchi and sri Abhinava Vidyatheertha of Sringeri math.
Shankara travelled the entire country, established four monasteries in the
four corners of India. ShankaraCharya debated and transformed Shaktas,
vaishnavaites, shaivaites, atheists, Buddhists, Jains with his vast knowledge
of vedas and sharp intellect. Advaita philosophy became pre-eminent during
Shankaracharya's time.
www.desitip.com has interesting collection of conscise information on Vedanta,
chronology of
Indian history, places of pilgrimage, Natural cure, Ayurveda etc.