Kutastha is another name for the akshara (imperishable). The term is found in the Bhagavad Gita (XIV – 16), and later in Panchadasi of Sage Vidyaranya (VI-22.23). Adi Shankaracharya commenting on this stanza of the Bhagavad Gita, observes that Kutastha is one who does not change or perish. Vidyaranya seems to have understood it as the immutable, immovable being. It is like the anvil on which the blacksmith works to change every iron piece, while keeping the anvil itself unchanged. It is held that the self in the midst of changes remains changeless and that all changes take place only in contact with it and this is what is suggested in the form of the metaphor. It may also signify the top of a mountain, which remains unchanged and undisturbed despite changes taking place around it. According to some scholars the word kuta stands for the changeable world while the unchangeable exists within it, as circles within circles, projecting both the perishable and the imperishab