Mambalam (Tamil: மாம்பலம்) is a residential and commercial area in the heart of Chennai (Madras), India. It is best known for its shops, bazaars and Hindu temples. It is bounded by Kodambakkam to the north and Saidapet to the south. T. Nagar and Nandanam stretch all along its eastern frontiers while KK Nagar lies to its west. The Ayodhya Mandapam is an important landmark.

Mambalam derives its name from "Mampazam" meaning of Mango in Tamil. Mambalam used to covered with Mango trees, till very recently.

Prior to its inclusion in the then city of Madras, Mambalam was a village in the Saidapet taluk of Chingleput district. The oldest surviving reference to Mambalam is believed to be in a 1726 stone plaque commemorating the construction of the Marmalong Bridge (now known as Maraimalai Adigal bridge) across the Adyar river by the merchant Coja Petrus Uscan. The bridge is believed to have been named after the village of Marmalong or Marmalan identified with Mambalam. The village was, then, a zamindari administered by zamindars belonging to a Telugu-speaking Reddi family, tikkavarapu krishnaveni ammal.

Adi Shankara (Sanskrit: आदिशङ्करः Ādi Śaṅkara, pronounced [aːd̪i ɕəŋkəɾə]) (788 CE - 820 CE), also known as Śaṅkara Bhagavatpādācārya and Ādi Śaṅkarācārya was an Indian sage from Kalady in present day Kerala who consolidated the doctrine of advaita vedānta. His teachings are based on the unity of the ātman and brahman— non-dual brahman, in which brahman is viewed as nirguna brahman, brahman without attributes.

Shankara travelled across the Indian subcontinent to propagate his philosophy through discourses and debates with other thinkers. He is reputed to have founded four mathas ("monasteries"), which helped in the historical development, revival and spread of Advaita Vedanta of which he is known as the greatest revivalist. Adi Shankara is believed to be the organizer of the Dashanami monastic order and the founder of the Shanmata tradition of worship.

His works in Sanskrit concern themselves with establishing the doctrine of advaita (nondualism). He also established the importance of monastic life as sanctioned in the Upanishads and Brahma Sutra, in a time when the Mimamsa school established strict ritualism and ridiculed monasticism. Shankara represented his works as elaborating on ideas found in the Upanishads, and he wrote copious commentaries on the Vedic canon (Brahma Sutra, principal upanishads and Bhagavad Gita) in support of his thesis. The main opponent in his work is the Mimamsa school of thought, though he also offers arguments against the views of some other schools like Samkhya and certain schools of Buddhism.