No doubt, the earliest Matha of the community is the present Kaivalya or Kavale Matha. It has been already noted that Vivaranandaswamy, disciple of Govinda Bhagavatpada founded the Matha in about 740 A.D. at Kushasthali near Keloshi in Goa. He is believed to have come from Kashmir. He followed the Smartha Shaankara Sampradaya. Govinda Bhagavatpada who was the disciple of Gaudapada Acharya, had also initiated Adi Shankara to sanyasa. The early history of the Matha is lost as the original Matha at Kushasthali (Kuthal) was destroyed in Saka 1486 (1564 A.D.) by the Portuguese according to Karande Shastri (Vide Shri Samsthana Kaivalaya Mathacha Itihas, 1910). The 57th guru Vidyananda Saraswathi and his two successors stayed at Golvan in Ratnagiri Dt. (Malvan tq.) and the 60th guru at Chindar (in Malvan tq).

According to Saraswata Bhushana (by Ganesha Ramachandra Sharma, 1950) Ramananda Saraswati's Samadhi is at Chindar, and his two successors Sadananda Saraswati and Bhavananda Saraswati stayed and attained samadhi at Varanasi. The disciples earlier approached Bhavananda Saraswati and pleaded with him to come back to Goa. Bhavananda Swamy (the 62nd Guru) sent his disciple Sachchidanandaswamy to revive the matha in Goa. The matha was revived at Kavale in about 1630. He was the 63rd Guru. The Swamis worship Bhavani Shankar, and a shrine of this deity is seen near the Matha at Kavale. A Sammati Patra signed by the Pandits of Varanasi was issued in the cyclic year Pramoda by the Guru Bhavananda Saraswati at Varanasi, authorizing Sachchidananda Swamy to take charge of the samsthan in Goa. The Swamy stayed at Sonavade in Ratnagiri dt. till the time the Matha at Kavale was ready. It was raised near the Shantadurga temple. The samadhi of this swami is at Sonavade.

One of his shishyas Atmananda Saraswati founded the Matha at Walkeshwar, Bombay and his samadhi is at this place. Another shishya initiated by Sachchidananda Saraswati attained samadhi at Kavale itself. The next Swami was Ramananda who had taken four shishyas, and the first three must have attained samadhi prematurely. The samadhi of Ramananda is at Kavale and of his Shishyas were, the first Jyotirananda (Agapur ?), the second Leelananda (Nasik), the third Sadananda (Sonavade) and the fourth Purnananda (Sankhali, Goa), and the places mentioned in the brackets are places where their samadhis are seen. Ramananda Saraswati initiated by Purnananda perhaps founded the Khanapur Matha in Belgaum dt and attained samadhi there.

The subsequent Swamis appear to have found it uneasy to stay at Kavale. The next Swamy, Shivananda Saraswati initiated two shishyas and then attained samadhi at Walkeshwar. Of his two shishyas,. the Samadhi of Sachchidananda Saraswati is at Walkeshwar and that of Atmananda is at Khanapur, Purnanand (Kavale), Sadananda (Sonavade), Ramananda (Khanapur), Shivananda (Sadashivgad-near Karwar), Atmananda (Kavale) and Purnananda (Khanapur) were the next Swamis in succession and Ramananda (Khanapur) though selected to succeed 'by his guru' did not live to become the head of the Matha. (The places mentioned in brackets are places where the samadhis of respective Swamis are found).

The list given by the "Shri Gaudapadacharya Samsthan Kaivalyapura Mahamathacha Samagra Itihas" in Marathi by Gaitonde and Dhume mention only 13 Swamis including the present Swami, Sri Sachchidananda Saraswati. But the list presented by Ganesha Ramachandra Sharma contains a list of 19 Swamis with the places where their samadhis are found. I have found that to be more authentic and relied on that. Sri Sachchidananda Saraswati was initiated by Purnananda Saraswati as his second shishya in 1950 as the first shishya Ramananda passed away prematurely. "Ordained as a lad of thirteen, he was denied the customary apprenticeship as a shishya. the Guru having attained Mahasamadhi soon after", says S. V. Pikale about the present Swamiji. The Matha has its branches at Kashi (Varanasi), Brahmavartha near Allahabad, Nasik, Walkeshwar (Bombay), Khanapur, Sankhali (Goa), Sonavade, Chinder, Golvan, Sadashivgad, Halage (near Karwar), Gokarn, Panaji and Belgaum. The Smartha Gauda Saraswats called as "Advis" (people with aad nama) in South Kanara are the followers of the Matha - though their number is small in South Canara, considerable in North Canara, is very large in Goa and Maharashtra.  

EPILOGUE  

A tree is considered useful by the beautiful or sweet smelling flowers or the tasty fruits it yields. Similarly a community's greatness is to be decided by the great men and women it has contributed. There is no need for me to list the names of social workers, patriots, scholars (like historians, economists, scientists) artistes and other such persons that the community has created through the centuries. By building educational institutions, temples, industries etc., the community has immensely benefited the country about our achievement.  

Our community, it is felt, has become worshipper of wealth, and measures everybody by the salary he draws or property he has amassed. We have totally neglected Sanskrit learning, and also humanities. There are scientists, engineers and doctors, and then merchants. The greatest Sanskrit scholars in India now are not from among our community, nor is there an effort to teach our children, even rudiments of Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the store-house of our knowledge, whether religion, chemistry and humanities like sociology or history are taken into account.

Our young men and women must feel attracted towards fine arts like music and dance. We must have men who can interpret our past properly and hold a brief for our own religion, philosophy and other aspects of our culture, so that we can review it, criticise our past practices wherever there is a need, give up not-so-finer aspects of our tradition and live in this modern world as a modern society, cherishing the universal.

Our ancients have presented an integral view of life, with four-fold duties - dharma, artha, kama and moksha. Dharma is not visiting temples and offering pada-pooja to our revered Swamijis alone. Many a times such acts are mostly expiatory in nature, and not genuine - guided by the notion "Anya kshetre kritam papam punyakshetra, vinashyati". If our attachment to dharma had been really strong, we would not have thought of ill-gotten artha like dowry. This I am quoting only as one instance.

Our community, though great, is not so very great like the communities of Chitpavan or Srivaishnava (Iyengar) brahmins, when we think of great men these communities have produced. These communities have not said good-bye to Sanskrit learning as we have done. We must remember that our community has great intellectuals because hundreds and hundreds of our ancestors had pursued this learning for generations and for centuries. We must do something to keep our young men in touch with this learning. How it has to be done, I leave it to the elders here. It is only a small number of purohits and bhats who pursue this learning, and be real worshippers of Saraswati, not to earn only their livelihood, but earn knowledge for its own sake.

Such an enlightened community will create thinkers and creative men, who can guide the community better and take it to greater heights. I have been asked to speak on this occasion when Sri Swamiji Vidyadhira Wodeyar was completing 25 years of life as a sanyasi. This Matha has done a lot to keep the Saraswat community together despite -the community getting itself scattered from its original homeland centuries ago. The Swami of the Matha have not only led a life of piety, scholarship and tapasya, but also a life providing inspiration to those thrown out of home, depressed and crest-fallen. The present Swamiji, though young, and was also ailing, has many achievements to his credit.

The Panchashatabdhi or the fifth centenary of the founding of the Matha was celebrated with great pomp during 1977. He has been responsible for renovating the Mathas of the Samsthan at Bhatkal, Varanasi (Kashi), Revan, Basrur, Ankola and Venkatapur and raising new Mathas at Manki and Yellapur. The Matha at Parthagli has been expanded and so is the Matha at Bangalore. He has urged the renovation of many temples and rejuvenating the daily services in them. The starting of Sanskrit Pathashala at Parthagali and a large library are really notable achievements. His starting of Vidyadhira Puraskars annually to honor one outstanding person of the community is also a unique venture, which inspires the community members.