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

[Bhaskar YR]

---- Bhaskar, can you please translate from Sri Holenarsipur Swamigal's 
kannada work on what exactly is he saying though you said he did not 
conclude...

praNAms Sri Venkat prabhuji
Hare Krishna

I did have a look at Sri SSS's Kannada book 'Sri ShankarabhagatpAda 
vruttAnta sAra sarvasva' y'day.  What should I translate prabhuji!! it is 
really a ocean of references, I dont know where to start & where to end!! 
He quotes abundantly on each & every episode of shankara's biography. With 
regard to popular belief that shankara is an incarnation of bhagavAn 
shankara, he quotes mUla shlOka-s from shiva rahasya, mArkendeya saMhitA 
and from purANa-s like, linga purANa, kUrma purANa, vAyu purANa, saura 
purANa, bhavishyOttara purANa...He also quotes purNa-s such as padma 
purANa  & from madhvAchArya's MBTN, maNimanjari etc. where shankara's 
incarnation described in a derogatory way.  And with regard to 'birth 
date' of shankara, he quotes from various shankara vijaya-s such as 
mAdhaveeya, vyAsAchaleeya, chitsukhAchArya's bruhatcchankara vijaya, 
shankara mandAra saurabha, vAkpati bhattodbhata's shankarendra vilAsa, 
keraleeya shankara vijaya, kUshmAnda shankara purANa( where it is said 
shankara's birth has taken from pumpkin & date in the quoted slOka tallies 
to BCE 477 :-)), keraLotpatti, jina vijaya, 16th century work darshana 
prakAsha from the tradition of mahAnubhAva.  Apart from this he also 
quotes the name of Madras Hightcourt lawyer T.S. Narayana Shastri, the 
author of  The Age of Shankara, in which he argued shankara's date is BCE 
509 based on bruharcchankara vijaya & others are  N.K. Venkatesha Pantulu, 
K.S. Ramaswamishastri who are of the same opinion that shankara's birth 
date is BCE 509.  Sri SSS quotes book name, references, page Nos. etc. of 
various authors who argued shankara's date from 4th century to 9th 
century.  Overall, as said above, it is a 'complete reference bank' on 
shankara's biography and it is very difficult for me to translate those 
references in English.

Swamiji at the end based on sUtra bhAshya & the places mentioned in that 
work like srughna, mathurA, pAtaliputra (VSB 2-1-8 and 4-2-5) and king's 
name pUrNa varma, buddhists dharma keerti, dinnaga etc. name of guNamati 
(sUtra bhAshya 2-2-22)  and vAchaspati mishra's commentary on sUtra 
bhAshya i.e. bhAmati vyAkhyAna, the oldest available complete commentary 
on shankara's sUtra bhAshya, wherein bhAskarAchArya's objection on sUtra 
bhAshya is addressed etc. etc. infers ( he clearly says here : 'it is 
better to imagine') that shankara might have written the sUtra bhAshya at 
the end of 7th century or early part of 8th century...It is to be noted 
that, he did not say anything about shankara's birth date, he only 
imagined 7th & 8th century date for the sUtra bhAshya based on the 
available information in shankara's works that too after mentioning 
clearly all possible counter objections to these view points also. 

The last sentence in Kannada version of Sri SSS, in this chapter  goes 
like this : 

//quote//
Addarinda bhAskarAchAryariginta hinde idda AchAryaru kri.sha. (A.D.) 7ne 
shatakada antyadalli athava 8ne shatakada aadiyalli tamma sUtra 
bhAshyavannu barederabekendu 'kalpisuvudu' sAdhAravAgiruttade endaayitu. 
//unquote//

It is clear from the above sentence, Sri SSS himeself was not certain 
about shankara's date & time of his works.

Prof. SKR also cites the same references in justification of his dates. 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar