[Advaita-l] Conference on that Date of Adi Sankaracharya in October, 2002

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- On Wed, 1/6/10, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> sAshtAnga praNAms Sri vidyA prabhuji
> Hare Krishna
> 
> It is not, as far as tradition is concerned. All written
> and oral 
> traditional accounts are
> unanimous in declaring that Sankara indeed did establish
> maTha-s. 
> 
> >  I've heard/read that kAnchi mutt tradition gives
> a different account 
> with regard to this. The Adi shankara, as a prasthAna traya
> bhAshyakAra 
> has completely been disassociated with establishment of
> maTha-s and the 
> 'arbhaka shankara', whose date is centuries later to Adi
> shankara 
> (according to Kanchi mutt), associated with kAnchi
> peetAdhipati-s list. I 
> request you to kindly let me know in which written text it
> has been 
> 'logically' established that bhAshyakAra is indeed the
> founder of four 
> maTha-s.  If it is orally accepted traditional belief,
> I dont have any 
> issues prabhuji.
> 

Then you may have issues, because there is indeed textual evidence for Sankara having established four Maths. It is mentioned in Chidvilasiya Sankara Vijayam. Besides, Sankara having established a Math at Sringeri is mentioned in the Madhaviya Sankara Digvijayam.

I personally don't care too much about the textual evidence. What is more relevant here is the tradition of the Dashanami Sannyasins that is centuries old. The following observation of Swami Tapasyananda is to be taken extremely seriously:

"...the Orders of Dasanami Sannyasins recognize and accept affiliation with only these four Maths - the Orders known as Puris, Bharatis and Saraswathis with the Sringeri Math; Giris, Aranyas and Vanas with Jyothi Math; Ashramas and Tirthas with Dwaraka math; and Parvatas and Sagaras with Puri Math. No other Math is recognized by them. Now, if there were more Maths of Sankara, why have the Dasanami Sannyasins limited their affiliation to these four Maths only? None of the protagonists of different Sankara Maths have answered this question...In fact, they have not at all taken into account the evidence of Dasanami Sannyasins, who have played a more active role in propagating the institution of Sannyasa and the Advaita philosophy than the Sankara Maths."

Regards,
Kartik