Origin

Shree Samsthan Gokarn Partagali Jeevottam Math is one of the maths followed by Gowd Saraswat Brahmin community. It follows the Dvaita order, a system established by Jagadguru Madhvacharya in the 13th century AD. This math is also called Partagali Jeevottam Math owing to the location of its headquarter and the illustrious third Guru Shrimad Jeevottam Teerth Shripad Vader Swamiji. The math is headquartered in Partagali, a small town in South Goa, on the banks of the river Kushavati. The followers of this math belong to Vaishnav sampradaya that proclaims that only Lord Vishnu is supreme.

In the year 1475 A.D. a young brahmachari named Madhav received Sanyasa deeksha from the 10th mathadipati of Shree Palimaru math (one of the 8 mathas started by Sri Madhwacharya in Udupi) Shree Ramachandra teerth in Badarikshrama on Chaitra Shukla Dwitiya He named him as Shree Narayana Teertha.

Receiving an Idol of Sri Rama from Guru, Shree Narayan teerth started his journey to the South.

On the banks of holy river Ganga in Kashi, Swamiji built a math with the help of the then ruling King. This became the first math. After returning back to south a second math was built in Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada Karnataka. With this, the social, cultural and religious integration of Gowda Saraswat Brahmins who migrated from their own land of Goa due to the atrocities of Bahamani Sultanate and later Portuguese invaders started. This land was ruled by Keladi Nayakas. The title 'wadeyar' was conferred by the Keladi rulers on Narayana Tirtha swamiji, according to the work called Guruparamparamritam. The math came to be called as “Vader” Math.

He Later the math shifted its headquarters to Gokarn in 1545 A.D under Shrimad Jeevottam teerth Shripad Vader Swamiji the 3rd in the line of succession. The third Swamiji Sri Jeevottam teerth was a great tapasvin and looked after the math from 1518 to 1588 A.D. His 70 years of guiding the society in the social and religious field was historically important and the math came to be called as Gokarn Partagali Jeevottam math.

Shree Samsthan Gokarn Partagali Jeevottam Math is considered as the emblem of Saraswat identity and the rallying point for their unification. Devoted for over 500+ years to preserve and organize a people forced to be disorganized and committed to serve and energize a community ordained to undergo many an ordeal by fate and compelled to be dispersed by history, the success story of the Math also contains the history of the Saraswat community. In this long march ahead, the Math has had the rare fortune of having an unhindered lineage of 24 Swamijis. The tiny sapling planted on the banks of lshyanyaplava Ganga by H.H. Shree Narayan Teerth Swamiji and nurtured by this long unbroken tradition has today in the form of the holy Math burgeoned like a mighty, banyan tree which has spread its roots across the great expanse of the Bharat Varsha and at present has 33 shakha mathas from Badari to Rameshwaram.