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VI
DATING SANKARA
Here finaly is a report
which settles the issue of the date of Sankaracharya in
http://www.hvk.org/articles/0103/314.html
"Adi
Sankara birthdate row ends
Author: PTI
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: January
21, 2003
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030121/asp/nation/story_1593957.asp
Putting an end to
controversy, sankaracharyas across the country today unanimously
accepted April
3, 509 BC as Adi Sankara?s exact date of birth.
Sankaracharyas of
Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, Dwarka Jyotirmath, Badrinath Govardhanpeeth
and Puri unanimously accepted the date and said there was no need for
debate on the subject."
Thus the Sankaracharyas
decided that Adi Sankara was born in 509 BC against all the historical
- Indian and foreign - scholarship
In January
2003 the four Sankarachayas of Kanchi Kamakoti peetam, Dwaraka
Hyotirmath, Badrinath Govardhanpeeth and Puri unanimously accepted
April 3, 509 BC as Adi Sankara;s exact date of birth, bringing an end
to the alleged debate on the subject.
Major Scholarly
consenses regarding the times of Adi Sankara is today is 788 AD. The
consenses of the birthplace is given as Kaladi in Kerala. He died in
820 AD. The official date accepted currently is 788-820 CE, and the
Government of India celebrated the 1200th anniversary of Sankara's
birth in 1988.
The ultimate
documentary evidences for this date is based on available historical
documents. K.B.Pathak mentions about three manuscript leaves in
Devanagari script (‘The Indian Antiquary’ journal in June 1882) which
gives these dates clearly . The Indian Antiquary magazine
volume XXVI in 1897, one P Sundaram Pillai also writes about the
shlokas in the three manuscript leaves. The year of Shankara’s birth
is Vibhava Varsha, Kali year 3889 and his death, the full moon in
Vaishakha Kali year 3921. This corresponds to the period of 788 – 820
AD.
Internal Evidences
The normal method of
determining the dates are based on the internal evidences of the works
of Sankara.. Shankaracharya in his ‘Brahma Sutra Bhasya’
mentions the city of
Pataliputra. It is
believed that the city of Pataliputra was destroyed in 750 AD. In the
same Bhasya, Shankara mentions about King Purnavarma. Hiuen Tsang,
Chinese pilgrim, mentions about Purnavarma as a Buddhist king during
590 AD. The most important internal evidence comes three
specific quotes of Sankara.
Sankara quotes verbatim
the Buddhist logician DharmakIrti. (DharmakIrti asserted that
inference and direct perception are the only valid kinds of
knowledge.) The time of DharmakIrti can be determined with reference
to the Chinese pilgrim Hsiian-Tsang (who is also known as Chen Yi who
lived in 602-664 AD), who visited
India at the time of
Harshavardhana, the king of Thanesar (606 - 647 CE). DharmakIrti
mentions the poet grammarian bhartRhari, but not of Sankara. It
follows that Sankara is post-dharmakIrti, and possibly post-Hsuan-Tsang
also.
Evidently if Sankara
refers to even one of these it will fix the time to be later than 7th
century AD.
It is a common practice
among the students of ancient documents to resort to astronomical
references in the various writings to ascertain their dates.
Apparently this method most often leads to total confusion especially
if there more than one document by the same author. To get their
pre-conceived dates of their own whims and fancy they have to rely on
preferential portions of such references. Dates ranging from the 5th
cent BCE to 8th cent CE have been calculated for Sankara on the basis
of such astronomical details.
Archealogical
Evidence
This is supported by
archealogical evidences.
There is a
Cambodia Inscription: which reveals that Sivasoman who was a
teacher of King
Indravarman of Cambodia (878-887AD) learnt the sastras from
'Bhagavtchankara'.
Further we know
that there were no Hindu temples nor Namboothiri Brahmins in Kerala
before 7th C AD.
Oral tradition
complicates the issue as some forged references are even presented
claiming them as “living advaita tradition”; a normal trick taking
advantage of the oral tramission uncertainities.
Traditional
accounts of Adi Shankara's life can be found in the Shankara Vijayams,
which are poetic works that contain a mix of biographical and
legendary material, written in the epic style. The most important
among these biographies are
·
the
Mādhavīya
Śaṅkara
Vijayaṃ
(of Mādhava, c. 14th century),
·
the
Cidvilāsīya
Śaṅkara
Vijayaṃ
(of Cidvilāsa, c. between 15th century and 17th century), and
·
the
Keraļīya Śaṅkara
Vijayaṃ
(of the
Kerala region, extant from c.
17th century).[
Adi Shankara
wrote Bhashyas
- Commentaries -on the ten major Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and
the Bhagavad Gita. In his works, he quotes from Shveshvatara,
Kaushitakai, Mahanarayana and Jabala Upanishads, among others.
Bhashyas on Kaushitaki, Nrisimhatapani and Shveshvatara Upanishads
are extant but the authenticity is doubtful. Adi Shankara's is the
earliest extant commentary on the Brahma Sutras. However, he mentions
older commentaries like those of Dravida, Bhartrprapancha and others.
Adi Shankara also wrote commentaries on other scriptural works, such
as the Vishnu sahasranāma and Bhagavad Gita.
Among the
independent philosophical treatises, only Upadeśasāhasrī is
accepted as authentic by modern academic scholars.
Evidently
Sankara must have lived later than the writing of Upanishada, Puranas
and the Ithihasas. None of these date back to the pre-Christian era.
Besides, the language used in all the writings is Sanskrit and not
“Vedic Sanskrit” (a contrived term for bringing Rig Veda as a Sanskrit
document) Sanskrit does not pre-date second century AD and so also
the Upanishads, Puranas and Ithihasas. The earliest Sanskrit document
occur in 150 AD.
“Shankara
was born to Aryamba and Shivaguru, a Nambudri Brahmana who belonged to
the Vedic branch of Krishna Yajur Veda. Shankara’s birthplace was
Kalady in Kerala, on the banks of the Poorna river. Kalady is situated
a few miles from Tiru Shiva Perur (present-day Trichur), which
contains the Shiva mound Vrischachala where Shivaguru and Aryamba
prayed and were blessed with the divine child.”
(Two
separate accounts of Sankara's life may be found in different editions
of mAdhavIya Sankaravijaya. For example, the 19th century
editions from Calcutta, and all their source manuscripts, describe
Sankara's birth at Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, while the 1971 Madras
edition says that Sankara was born at Kaladi in Kerala. )
Evidently Aryans were
in Kerala as Nambudiri Brahmana families. Saivism and Vaishnavism and
Devi worship were common among the people of Kerala.. These could not
be before the 7th Century AD.
There is a further
complication in the 509 BC date since the date of Buddha is given as:
“Buddha was born in B.C. 560
and died at the age of eighty in B.C. 480.” (http://www.dlshq.org/saints/buddha.htm
by Sri Swami Sivananda) This will make Adi Sankara a contemprory of
Buddha himself a strange situation to miss in the controversy between
Buddhism and Advaita. Unless we can push back the date of Buddha this
is an impossibility.
“This event of the birth of
Sri Shankara in 788 A.D that marked the beginning of the revival of
the Vedic system is described thus in the Madhaviya Shankara Vijayam -
‘Just as the Divine Mother, Parvati begot Sri Subrahmanya, the
virtuous Aryamba begot Sri Shankara on the auspicious Vaisaka sukla
panchami (fifth day of the waxing moon during April-May) in the year
788 A.D, when the star attributed to Lord Shiva, Arudra was in
ascendance with the Sun, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in exaltation.’
(http://www.sringeri.net/history/sri-adi-shankaracharya/biography/abridged-madhaviya-shankara-digvijayam/part-1)
The basis of the BC
date is based on the traditions of the maths supposed to be
established by Sankara. The situation is best explained in the
following excerpt/
http://controversialhistory.blogspot.com/2008/01/date-of-shankara.html
“Controversies
in History
“Date of Sankara
“Records of Mutts
”Whether Sankara established any Mutts at all has been questioned.
Paul Hacker attributes the tradition of four amnaya-maths at Sringeri,
Puri, Dvaraka and Joshimath to Vidyaranyasvamin. The native oral
tradition, takes the history of these four Mutts, each associated with
one of the four geographical directions and one of the four vedas, to
Sankaracarya himself. The dasanami sannyasi-sampradaya, with its
various akhadas in northern
India, accepts
affiliation only with these four mutts. There historical evidence
for the existence of the oldest dasanami akhadas is as early as the
9th cent. CE. It is immaterial whether Sankara established them
himself or whether these four mutts developed naturally at the places
where the four famous disciples of Sankara lived and taught. Of these
four mutts, the Joshimath title had long been vacant, till it was
revived in 1940 CE. So, it does not have many ancient records. The
Dvaraka and Puri mutts have, in the past, claimed a date of 5th
century BCE for Sankara. This is partly based upon a dating of a grant
by a king named Sudhanva who is supposed to have been a contemporary
of Sankara. Nothing else is known about this king, and the grant
itself has not been dated with any accuracy. And Dvaraka and puri
mutts have patchy histories, with periods when there were no presiding
Sankaracaryas.
“Sringeri Mutt
”Sringeri mutt in Karnataka has been the only mutt of the original
four which has had an unbroken succession of mathadhipatis, as
southern India has not experienced as many political upheavals as the
north. The Sringeri mutts record states that Sankara was born in the
14th year of the reign of Vikramaditya. The record does not give any
clue about the identity of this king. Some 19th century researchers
identified this king with the famous Vikramaditya of the Gupta
dynasty, thereby postulating a date of 44 BCE for Sankara. Gap of 700
years was then assigned to Suresvara. The later successors in the
Sringeri list can all be dated reasonably accurately from the 8th
century downwards. If one identifies the Vikramaditya as a member of
the Western Chalukya dynasty, which ruled from Badami in Karnataka.
The Chalukya dynasty reached its greatest fame in the time of
Pulakesin II, who defeated Harshavardhana. There were two kings named
Vikramaditya in this Chalukya dynasty - Vikramaditya I ruled in the
late 7th century CE, while Vikramaditya II ruled in the early 8th
century. It is more reasonable to identify the Vikramaditya of the
Sringeri record with one of these two Chalukyan kings, who ruled from
Karnataka, rather than the northern gupta king, whose empire did not
include southern India. This interpretation of the Sringeri record is
also consistent with the internal evidence from Sankara's works.
Kanchi
Kamakoti Matha: Adi Sankara is said to have established this Matha
on Vaisakha
Poornima of
Sidhardhi year in 482 B.C.
Kanchi
Matha provides a list of 69 Acharyas from Adi- Sankara to Jayendra
saraswathi Swami .
Dwaraka Matha: Dwaraka
Guruparampara
consists of 73 Acharyas
Puri Govardhana Matha: The list
contains a list of
142 Acharyas
Mathas connected to Sringeri Matha has a lineage of 66
Acharyas
According to
tradition of Sringeri Matha, Adi Sankara was born in the 14th
year of Vikrama
Saka. There are four possible Vikramadityas.
1. Sri Harsha
Vikramaditya - 6th century BCE
2. Vikramaditya of
Malwa - 1st century BCE
3. Gupta
Vikramaditya - 4th Century A.D
4. Badami
Vikramaditya - 7th Century A.D (654-81)
That will leave us
no definite choice.
No Tamil or Sanskrit
literature before 19th century Speaks of Kanchi Mutt , which shows
there was no mutt during that period.
See also http://controversialhistory.blogspot.com/2009/06/myths-of-kanchi-kamakoti-peetam.html
for details of other mythical claims of Kanchi Math.
We can thus see how the
attempt of the Madathipathi’s to pre date Sankara to Pre-Christian
period is based on confusing the details to overcome the historical
realities. The placement of Sankara in the 8th C AD
closes all gaps.
We should remember that
Nambudiri tradition starts in Kerala by the 7th C AD or
later according to the present Nambudiri families. The literary
language of Sanskrit itself will settle the point. Kerala was indeed
a center of Christianity from the first century AD since the coming
of Apostle Thomas. It is not difficult to see the Christian influence
on the thought of Sankara. Monism was not new to Kerala. The Hebrew
concepts of Ein, Ein Sof and Ein Sof Aur of the Kabalistic
traditions of Jews of Cochin most probably will explain the seeds of
Advaita Mimamsa. Kaladi is hardly 20 Kms from the Jewish Quarters of
Cochin.
As all Hindu experts
points out there is a strong Gnostic component in Advaitists which is
found in more detail in Jewish Kaballah. With the certain interaction
between the Jewish and Christian religions which flourished in the
aream the new comer community of Nambudiri’s of the seventh century
absorbed most of the esoteric components into their own learning.
Early in the history of
Christianity the Gnostics penetrated the Church. "Gnostic" is Greek
for "knower" and it is "Gnosis" or "Knowledge" that they were seeking.
“Gnostic” translates as Jnani in Sanskrit. We have historical records
of the coming of the Gnostic Prince Manichaen in Kerala as early as
third century AD. There must have been a strong Gnostic sect in India
especially in the migrant Persians community. Sankara himself refers
to Advaitins prior to himself which can be explained only by this
understanding. It is this Mani, the messenger of light who is
deified as Subra Manyan the second son of Siva. Gnostics are referred
to in the Jewish literature as magicians and were associated with
peacock.
Like most Hindu deities, He
is known by many other names, including
Murugan,
Senthil,
Saravaṇa,
Kārthikeya
(meaning 'son of Krittika' ), Arumugam or Sanmuga (meaning 'one with
six faces'),
Kumāra (meaning 'child or son'),
Guhan (meaning
'cave-dweller'),
Skanda (meaning 'that
which is spilled or oozed, namely seed' in Sanskrit), Subrahmaṇya,
Vēlaṇ
and Swaminatha. and called as Kadamban in Melakadambur
means who wearing Kadambu flowers in his shoulders. He is also
associated as the God of Kundalini.
We can see why the
Hindutava and other extremists wants to prepone the birth of Adi
Sankara way back into history when Kerala never knew Aryans and there
was no language called Sanskrit, writing was unknown and impossible
for ordinary people.
  
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