Fwd: Authorship of Bhaja Govindam - A Question

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

> --- Ram Chandran <chandran at tidalwave.net> wrote:
> >
> > As you are aware, Bhaja Govindam contains 30 stanzas attributed to Adi
> > Shankara.

31 according to the Vani Vilas edition which is probably the most
athoritative.  I guess this includes the dhruva or refrain as the missing
verse.

> > However, verses 14 to 27 were composed by his 14 disciples.
> > Among
> > these fourteen, we have detailed account of his four great disciples:
> > Padmapada, Hastaamalaka, Suresvaracharya and Tatakacharya. Swami
> > Dheeranandaji, the head of the Chinmaya Mission Washington Regional
> > Center
> > wants to get more complete information about the remaining ten
> > disciples.
> >
> > I want to request you to forward this to Advaita-L and request on behalf
> > of
> > Swamiji to find as much information as you can gather regarding the
> > disciples.

The copy I have with accompanying tika by an unknown author is not very
good but as far as I can tell:

1-13 (including the dhruva) Shankaracharya himself
14                          Padmapadacharya
15                          Totakacharya
16                          Hastamalakacharya
17                          Subodha
18                          Vartikakara (i.e. Sureshwaracharya)
19                          Nityananda
20                          Anandagiri
21                          Drdhabhakti
22                          Nityanatha
23                          Yogananda
24                          Surendra
25                          Medhatithi
26                          Bharativamsha
27                          Sumati
28-31                       Shankaracharya again

Not much is known about the other 10.  Anandagiri is the name of the
tikakara on most of Shankaracharyas works as well as the author of a
Shankara Digvijaya.  Medahatithi is also the name of a commentator on
Manusmrti.  One tradition is that these 10 were disciples of the major 4
and founded the Dashanami orders.  Others say Shankaracharya directly
founded them himself.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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